A simple cup of coffee is a powerful thing! It can mend fences and save friendships. They say that the pen is mightier than the sword, but it could be that a simple cup of coffee is more powerful than both of them put together.

It had been a tough week in the neighborhood. It was cold, and the kids had been underfoot indoors at one house or the other all week. My neighbor and I had been close friends for several years, but our relationship had gotten seriously strained over this past week. She had called me twice to complain about how my Bobby was tormenting her Shawn. She had sent him home, too, more than twice.

Now, the boys played at my house as often as they played (More...)

Related Gourmet Coffee Grinder Articles:

• The Cost of Coffee
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Has anybody seen those old “Leave it to Beaver” reruns on late night TV? There is June (the mother) in full makeup and high heels without a hair out of place serving breakfast to her family at the breakfast table. Ward, the father, wearing a suit and tie, all showered and shaved, and the two boys are gathered around the breakfast table for their morning meal. June pours coffee from a coffee carafe into Ward’s waiting coffee cup as they discuss their upcoming day. It just cracks me up! I’m sitting there thinking, “Yeah, right! When pigs fly!”

I figure most households operate pretty much like mine does. The words “busy, hectic and insane,” come to mind. Mornings are done on the fly. Breakfast is a bowl of cold cereal (More...)

In Italy, there are just about as many kinds of coffee as there are kinds of pasta. Maybe there should be a required course about Italian coffee before a passport is accepted. There are many coffees as well as many coffee traditions in Italy, and unless you want to be labeled a maleducato (a rude or ill-mannered person), you need to know that it is ESPRESSO and not EXPRESSO (an expresso is a fast train).

If you want to have a little fun, you can ask a group of Italians how to make a perfect cup of stovetop espresso. Then you can just sit back and watch the fur fly, so to speak. You can bet the discussion will be a little more than just heated. Every one in the (More...)