Here's a holiday just for dairy lovers. National Cheese Ball Day gives you an excuse to throw an impromptu party and get handsy with your favorite locally sourced rennet. more ›

Pasta Puttana has created a 3-course gourmet meal that requires only a tiny bit of cooking but will blow your valentine away. more ›

Home is where the heart is so they say, and being that many of us grew up here in the big city, or have transplanted and now consider it home, we stay on our own turf when the holiday season rolls around. Luckily for us there are a merry myriad of magnificent musical events taking place over the holiday weekend. Take a gander at some of our favorites and spread the holiday cheer accordingly: more ›

If you waited until the last minute to make your reservations, don't despair. We've got you covered. more ›

Get ready for crazy holiday parties (and the ensuing bad behavior) with this app, designed to measure your sobriety and warn you not to drunk-text your boss. more ›

Here are some new recipes to inspire your baking, courtesy of Lottie + Doof. more ›

Frontier is making smoked turkey, pheasant and goose, and Mercat a la Planxa is serving roast suckling pig to-go. more ›

Recreated for you here on Chicagoist, here is a recipe for gingersnaps that is over 60 years old. more ›

Six chefs will compete to create the best Buche de Noel, and guests will vote on the winner. Plus food, drink and live music! more ›

Add the Lavazza Espression Cafe in the Hancock Observatory to your must-visit list. Plus, Chicagoist readers get a discount! more ›

The restaurant is throwing open its doors and offering a free Thanksgiving meal to those in need. more ›

Proper Thanksgiving movies may be few and far between, but that doesn't mean that Hollywood doesn't provide us with some notions on how to get through its signature event: the large family meal. more ›

As we told you last week, Chicago was recently named the America’s Most Caffeinated City... just in time for today, National Coffee Day. more ›

This seems more like a someecards holiday than a Hallmark holiday; June 1 marks the first annual Punch A Hipster Day. more ›

Despite the green river, drunken hordes and large parade, some of you may remember that St. Patrick's Day hasn't happened yet. In fact, since the holiday falls on a weekday, there are two weekends of fun, and two weekends of great food and drink specials all over the city. We're gonna focus on the places that go above and beyond with food - cheap green beer isn't news in Chicago, and we bet that you've read plenty about drink specials already. Some of these events happen on the actual day (March 17), some during this week and some next weekend. Whenever they occur, eat something new and exciting on the day of green this year. more ›

For many, many a year the classic Frank Capra film, It's a Wonderful Life, played ad nauseum across every television network until we could barely stand to even turn on the tube in the month of December. Just when we thought we couldn't take another trip down the road to Bedford Falls, it seemed as if the powers that be at major network television answered our prayers and began to show It's a Wonderful Life only once a year on Christmas Eve. Once the classic had been stripped from our retinas we began to truly appreciate the film again for the simple, yet telling morality tale that it is. more ›

As the holiday fast approaches we've been so busy between shopping, baking, not to mention recovering from the Chicagoist holiday Festivus, that our heads haven't stopped spinning since Thanksgiving. Now is the time we decided to take a small break and actually enjoy the season with one of our favorite local acts here at Chicagoist, Scott Lucas and the Married Men. more ›

Holiday movies form a sacrosanct canon. Stand between people and their It's a Wonderful Life, White Christmas or Miracle on 34th Street and you should expect to be treated as if you had just offered serve Rudolph as a plate of reindeer jerky. We love the old chestnuts, but sometimes you need to mix it up. Which is why, even if we personally can't get too fired up about their 27th annual sing-along Christmas show, we are thankful to them for putting together a nifty alternative Christmas program next week featuring a truly neglected Christmas classic: Gremlins. more ›

All the crazies might have finished their holiday shopping on Black Friday, but we’re just getting warmed up. Funny that our 2009 Gift Guide mentioned economic “recovery” and scraping the bottom of our piggy banks; it’s much of the same story this year. But let’s still get in the holiday spirit and blow what’s left of our paychecks on our friends and family. Here are some ideas that can help you do that. more ›

Thanksgiving does not pull its weight when it comes to movies. Compared with Christmas, Halloween and even Valentine's Day, there just aren't many filmmakers tackling the subject of Turkey Day, or even using it as a backdrop. It's enough to make us think a holiday consisting of people sitting around, stuffing their faces and slipping into a tryptophan-induced food coma atop whatever piece of furniture is closest to a television is not inherently cinematic. In fact, there may be only five Thanksgiving movies worth watching. more ›

Andersonville has long been synonymous with glögg in this city and here at Chicagoist we know a thing or two about making our own. Personally, I always preferred the glögg recipe the late Hans Gotling perfected that was served at Hopleaf over that of Simon's Tavern. But Gotling's passing freed Hopleaf's Michael Roper of the obligation for serving it. Now Simon's is the destination. more ›

As part of Mayor Daley's on-going battle of the budget, most of Chicago will be closed tomorrow for Christmas Eve, including City Hall and public libraries. Fire and Police services will still be working in full force, and garbage will be collected. more ›

Our gift guide has tons of locally-sourced suggestions for your holiday giving, but if you prefer browsing, then don't worry, we've got you casual shoppers covered too. Featuring over 30 local artists, the Indie Arts Market hits one of our favorite music venues, Schubas, on Saturday, December 19, turning the space into a bustling sales floor for local artists and crafters. You can expect to find offerings from silkscreen posters to jewelry to paper goods, and everything in between. For the coffeeholic in your life, we recommend stopping by threadandneedle's booth for affordable, handmade, reusable coffee sleeves. more ›

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Time to buy presents! Which means it's time for Chicagoist's annual gift guide. Even in 2009, with our economy still in, er, "recovery," we're still sweeping up pennies and breaking open the piggy banks to get our friends and families some great gifts, many of them with - of course - a Chicago theme. more ›

Are you tired of these reminders yet? Too bad! We know we've got some snow between now and then, but that's no reason to be deterred from coming out after the snow has fallen. Ric Hess, Phil Kuhl and the fine folks at Sheffield's (3258 N. Sheffield, 773-281-4989) have graciously allowed us the use of their Beer School bar for the occasion. We're also using this as an opportunity to give back during the holidays, also making it a food drive benefiting the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which is seeing a greater demand for its services in this recession. So if you come, please bring a can or bag or two of food along with you to donate. Some of what the Food Depository needs the most of include: beans, chili, peanut butter, soup, canned veggies, cereal, pasta, rice, tuna, and canned fruits. more ›

In spite of the weather, the grills are warming up, the beers are getting cold, and these bottlerockets aren't going to light themselves. We're off to enjoy the rest of the holiday and we hope you are, too. Have a safe and happy holiday celebrating our nation's independence and we'll see you right back here tomorrow morning. more ›

We're signing off for the day, to fight the clouds and occasional raindrop to grill some burgers, chicken, etc and to relax for a little bit before the work week kicks in. Have a safe and wonderful rest of your holiday and we'll see you back here bright and early tomorrow! more ›

Photo by insunlight