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We were at the Dunes on Monday and happened to see the "Stop 50" sign along M12. We stopped. Beautiful place! Our little town of Shipshewana, IN has a new pizzeria. Pizzeria Venturi just opened July 1, 2009. I've got to say I had no idea what a real good pizza was until I had a wood fired pizza! We already had dinner plans so we didn't stay, but we will definately put you on our "road trip" list for the next time we head up to the Dunes. If you ever make it to Shipshewana...please stop in and visit Justin Venturi, proprietor at Pizzeria Venturi. It's great to have a few good pizzerias in Northern Indiana!

Morning coffee is a must. We own 2 coffee makers, one is in the kitchen and the other and better one is in our bedroom. Don't even have to go downstairs for it. Love 8:00, and used to buy it often, but we get Starbucks for free as our son works there. Now if the paper guy could only throw that paper up and to the left.........

First-time commenter: I buy my coffee from a local shop that sells only Brazilian groceries. I pay one third the going rate of supermarket prices, and that is after the steep markup.

I'm a coffee snob compared to, say, my parents/the average bear, but not in the world of coffee snobs. I am lucky enough to live in a small-ish town that has a great local roaster, but I totally have them grind it for me becase it's still pretty good/fresh, and let's face it: I'm lazy. Left with no local roaster (not something I've had to experience since drinking coffee), my bf usually buys *gasp* the Starbucks stuff. They're known for consistency, right? (even if they burn the sh*t out of the drip in their own coffee shops :P)

We got the legendary Technivorm for Xmas; amazing what it'll do for nearly any coffee. The stream of coffees coming into the house are typically Green Mountain mail-order, a pick from Trader Joe's, or something from Stew Leonard's (they roast on site). But the best surprise we had recently is the brick of pre-ground IKEA coffee we picked up recently--really good (maybe it liked the Dutch-made Technivorm).

So much talk about the beans, but little about the maker, I got a Technivorm a couple of months ago and my wife, who really wanted to hate it, told me whatever I spent it was worth it and, at the time, I was using, Harris Teeter beans.

It's an odd situation, given that neither Obama has time to cook, even if they wanted to. I think they should definitely push cooking and eating at home -- for economic reasons if nothing else -- but be careful of making it a gender or class issue.
Besides, it should be obvious by now they're not the "average" family, financially and professionally speaking, so pretending otherwise by shoving MObama in a kitchen seems condescending, and borderline offensive.

Wow, what an original concept: eating the food you make yourself at home! The American people have never done THAT before. I think Mme Michelle should issue a communique mandating that all U.S. citizens stop eating out; moreover, we can only shop for groceries in a sardine can-sized vehicle that gets at least 35 mpg...Or, perhaps we should simply hire a private chef, as the Obama family did back in Chicago.

Most of my women friends with full-time jobs and kids would happily give up cooking if they could. Yes, it is a chore when you don't have much time, and you have to do it every day, day in and day out. My mother has cooked more than 30,000 meals for her family in her lifetime, she would gratefully pass on the job to someone else it that were an option. Personally I would rather see more role models out there of fathers pitching in with the cooking for the family. It kills me to see young boys growing up thinking that cooking is just something girls do.

this is complete and utter bullshit as has been made clear by all the comments above mine. wrong on so many levels.

The question really is, "What would the impact be on the country, if the first lady actively promoted cooking at home?"

First, this doesn't suggest that women should cook or anything stupid like that. People who think like that need to relax. No one is saying that anywhere.

Second, we need to think whether her cooking would help promote others to cook at home. And really, how is she going to do that? Maybe she can make some guest appearances on shows like Martha or Oprah where there some cooking demos.

Promoting eating healthily at home is a great cause, especially for a country as plump as ours. There might just be more than one way to skin the cat, and from her resume, I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt on figuring out how she wants to do that. But hey, maybe NYTimes writers know best. I don't know.

AGHHH!!!

AGHHH!!!!!

What was that, the clock turning back to 1959 that I heard?

Did anyone suggest that Barak Obama should learn to make his own hamburgers, well-done or otherwise, when he went on an outing? Yes, Michelle Obama is 'only' First Lady but her schedule is crammed with visiting schools, generating debate about social policy and, and...

TODAY WOMEN CHOOSE TO COOK!

That is what makes cooking wonderful today--it is not an obligation of the woman, and the woman alone to 'feed her family.' It is a choice! And it is the family's collective responsibility to decide how it feeds itself, whether it is the First Family's or an ordinary family. If the woman assumes responsibility for doing so, great but it is her CHOICE.

I'm revolted and agree 100% with the comment simon posted.

I absolutely concur with comments by comments above that spell out the problematic side of suggesting that a woman who doesn't/doesn't like to cook should learn for the good of her family/country/etc. However, I have noticed for years that my friends who enjoy cooking or are at least capable of feeding themselves by means other than thawing and ordering in grew up in families where they saw a parent cook and participated to some degree in food preparation. How about, instead of suggesting that Michelle get in the kitchen, the White House and White House chef put together a summer cooking camp for DC kids, including the Obama girls? They could use veggies from the WH garden, take a field trip to a chicken farm (which would probably turn them vegetarian for at least a few months), learn basic techniques in what I'm sure is a pretty awesome kitchen, and learn some important lessons about food policy at the same time.