Sam Iam

Shannon_Elise, We want to know .... HOW WAS IT?!?

I have an older 10 cup Krups, model 208 or 209, I believe. It has a thermal pot, one of the best features imaginable IMHO. I dropped the pot a few months ago, the bottom outside pot has a crack. It doesn't leak. I recently put an "I Want It" on eBay. A week later, I received a note from someone. I'm getting a factory rebuilt, black, with stainless thermo, for $29 plus $12 shipping!! Of course, I get to add the old one to my basement collection of stuff I may need someday. The best thing you can do for everyday coffee is to get a great burr grinder, standardise on an above average abraca bean, and grind it daily. EVERYONE will want to know your secret!

When we married 20 odd years ago, we settled on the Cuisinart stainless line. My wife still loves the heft and feel of this line, and I like the large, open handles that won't twist when you have a full saute pan of duck breasts coming out of an oven. They do have the disk fused to the bottom. The price is still right, and you can complete your set by purchasing the oddball pieces on eBay on the cheap. We have a large, high, overhead pan rack and my short wife is not happy about retreiving some of my new, heavy Viking pots.

My wife and I had dinner at Zebra two weeks ago, on friday night. Make your reservations early to get your time choice. Check out their web site. It's right across from the Cheesecake Factory at the Mall, park and enter in the back. Wonderful! She told the waiter that the $9 per cup Foie Gras/mushroom/truffle cream soup had her making "When Harry met Sally" sound effects. (I'll have what she's having) The salads are unique, and she was happy with Lamb two ways, and I had the Rainbow trout in Panko crumbs. A very extensive wine list, but the by the glass list in small, but adequate. My parents have moved into Sharon Towers retirement home two blocks away, and we'll be returning whenever we go back to Charlotte to visit.

On December 6, we celebrated our 20th anniversary at the Common Grill in Chelsea, Mi. I had called to ask if they would serve a bottle of 1990 Dom Perignon that I had been saving. They were happy to, and waived their usual $10 corkage. It was wonderful, golden and creamy, and nothing at all like more current Champagne we've enjoyed. I had never heard of the change in the cork shape. It was totally parallel on the sides, and I've been puzzling about that (I saved the cork) ever since. I'd stored it in my basement for most of the years that I'd owned it.

In past holiday seasons, Amazon was running super prices with a bonus of an extra smaller pot with the purchase of a larger pot. I ended up with seven or eight pieces, all in different colors. It was crazy.... one color would have a bonus pot, and another color didn't offer the bonus. Mix and match was fine with me! Concerning prices: I've always felt that if I had a brother-in-law in France carrying pots out of the factory in a wheelbarrow every day, he couldn't ship them to me for what you can get them for on sale here!

Talk about lazy!

THe neatest whipped cream whipper is available for the DLC-7 for a few bucks on eBay. I did score a Zojirushi Bread Machine at Savers for $6.99 last week, and have started using it regularly. Talk about easy!

Low and slow should work just fine, Tammy.

I remember one confused morning when I poured a pot full of water into the vintage '80s Kitchenaid Hobart grinder that has a large open plastic bowl that holds over a pound of beans. The water took about 10 seconds to mix with the beans and the grounds in the grinder area, and pour out through the grinder opening onto the counter top and our new wood floor. It took me longer than that to figure out why water was coming out of the grinder.

Take a moment to read all of the user comments on Amazon. It's a real winner, especially if she can leave the bowl in the freezer, so it's ready to go. (I have two, both from thrift/yard sales.) Wait, maybe I have two, plus a spare bowl? (PLEASE don't tell my wife!) I'd say something here about compulsive shopping, but that would be thread drift. Let's just say that the unopened one is for eBay. Which it eventually is.

Oh, my, yes! Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream!! And some lemon sorbet! She will love the Cuisinart freezer.

YES, that's it! They have several other photos of it off to the side. Mine is very slightly different, and plays Edelweiss. Thanks for the info. Yes, the pepper comes out of the mouth! I can't believe that the guy laughing at it at the thrift put it back. Whoo Hoo!

Kerry Beal, The story of this "find " is in message #189 up thread. The grinder part dispenses a perfect grind! I have no history on this, and just hope that it isn't possessed!

And, last week, a Salt Pig at a Cancer charity resale shop. Probably unused, for a $1 or so.

Finally, I got around to some pictures of the pepper grinder/ Swiss music box. I'll see how they upload. [

Wow! Free is the best! I found a Kitchenaid mixer without beaters for $10 at Goodwill. I'll be parting the bowl and mixer motor unit out on eBay tomorrow, along with a Granton knife and 14" meat slicing knife from a Tony Packos employee moving sale (remember M*A*S*H in Toledo?) I'm using the $$$ to save for a vent hood that vents outside, and more Viking cookware, and and and......... Oh, and I haven't forgotten about taking and posting a picture of the Swiss music box peppergrinder with the nudies on the side mentioned upthread. Soon.

Tammy, are we supposed to be sending you wads of cash yet? Is there anything upthread (without spending today reading the past thread history about the wine tasting??) about what's up with providing the wine? Sam

At the local Lion Thrift, A man was holding a wierd looking Asian statue. He started laughing at it. I heard him tell someone that it was a pepper grinder. I moved closer and closer, looking at the rags pile of used jeans. Perfect timing! As he set it down after his wife yelled at him, it was MINE! It started playing "EDELWEISS" from an internal music box as I scooped it up and admired the satyr & flute on the top, and the crank and gargoyle whose mouth dispenses ground pepper on the side. Not to mention the porcelain circularorma around the side, with many topless maidens. The bottom 1 1/2" is the brass Swiss music box.The overall height is apprx. 11". Cost??? 50 cents!! Enjoyment?!? Priceless. Off to photograph it, research REUGE Swiss music boxes, and learn how to post photographs here.

We voted for 6 PM in an email. Perfect timing, IMHO.

""On a related note, I happen to have an unopened bottle of Absinthe (the real northern wormwood variety) sitting around that I was thinking of bringing. "" Joyce and I have decided to stay the two nights at The Courtyard rather than drive the 45 mile trip back to Lambertville.

""Where will you be driving from? Many Enterprise locations have a weekend special of $9.99 or $14.99 per day for three days; you just have to confine yourself to whatever they consider the local area. (I've done this for a Michigan-to-Illinois drive.) I've also nabbed excellent prices through Hotwire.com. "" They now give you several states at no mileage charge. From Ohio a few weeks ago, TN, WI, IL, VA, MI, and other states were included.

Alex, the link was working about 4 AM. Perhaps it will be back up later.

Hang a couple of strips of fly paper up at night, and shine a small spotlight on them. They should head for the paper after dark. You can take them down in the morning, to avoid getting fly paper in your hair as you are rushing to make coffee. If that happens, please post a picture!