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If you can get your hands on cream of tartar at some point, you could try buying enough for a few years at a time bc it won't go bad if kept in an airtight container away from heat. Can you find dry milk powder easily? If you can't find sweetened condensed milk, consider making your own? I haven't tried this recipe: http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/sweetenedcondensedmilk.htm

Chicago condo-owner here. I wish I had a yard to plant veggies. I wish I wasn't throwing away all my food scraps. Even though you can't compost, would you be interested in a worm bin/vermiculture? I don't think I'll do it, but here is a link to a website with info: http://one-change.com/blog/2006/04/indoor-compost-bin/ I have a disposal, but I only use it once or twice a week. I'm a little afraid the thing and I don't know what will jam it up. If I've got food chunks or peels, I might toss them into the half of the sink without the disposal but with a mesh cup over the drain. When I clean the sink after handwashing the stuff that didn't fit into the dishwasher, I'll toss the chunks caught by the mesh into the garbage can. Only little bits of food get eaten by the garbage disposal.

Yay for this topic I use Earth Balance sometimes in my baking bc I get some minor bad reactions to dairy. Lately, I've been baking more with real butter and milk and just limiting the amount of cookies/cake slices I eat. Reasons I do not like using butter substitutes: - A feeling that I'd like to use the closer to nature product. - Wanting to have the original taste and texture that the product was "meant to" have. - Trans-fats (until transfat free products came along). I feel grateful that trans-fat free dairy substitutes are so easy and cheap to buy. I think I can take care of some of the last vestiges of feeling ...deprived thru this discussion of products made Better by margarine. Trans-fats...One my bosses likes Country Crock on her cinnamon toast. I wonder if I can pop out the margarine mass from the plastic tub and replace it with a similarly shaped piece of Earth Balance.

I'm pretty sure it was non-alcoholic. I googled for "carrot wine" and started to get excited by the idea of making it, but I know I'm not going to go thru with it. I never thought carrot wine was possible I thought I had done a good google search for fermented carrot juice, but I just tried again and got a recipe for an Indian version and a online source. The recipe does concern me - at what point could "fermented" juice turn into "spoiled and rotten" juice? If I try the recipe, I will let you know! http://www.indiacurry.com/beverage/b005kanji.htm http://www.tasteofturkey.com/mystore.php?P...=&ProductId=509 edited to add the links

A friend of mine has been searching for fermented carrot juice since he had it in Turkey this summer. Does anyone have a recipe or know where to buy it in Chicago or the NW suburbs? I can't remember his description that well, but it's very carrot-y...and fermented.

Please don't hate me! If you ever see me tucking sugar packets into my purse, please note that I'm only taking two (or four if they've also got raw sugar in packets) and I'm not adding any to my coffee/tea, which I prefer unsweetened. I don't steal Splenda or Sweet n Lo. I've got a nice collection of emptied sugar packets from restaurants in the US, from my few trips out the country (restaurants, airlines, hotels, trains), and some from friends who save them for me after eating out with me and witnessing my little habit. I don't know what I'm going to do with all of them. Hmm, maybe I should get a few frames and display them in the still-undecorated kitchen! If anyone else has ideas for what to do with them, I'd appreciate a PM. Also, I'm not seeking donations or trades of sugar packets bc I prefer procuring them myself from places I have actually been to, but if you or someone you know collects them, I'd be happy to send you a few that might be hard to find - like from Pakistan.

Sometimes I find it weird to see those tiny pairs of shrimp eyes looking at me from my mom's home-made kimchee. Once as when I was a kid, I was feeling nauseated, but had trouble actually vomiting. My mom gave me a small spoonful of the shrimp liquid. So super salty! She told me it would make me vomit and feel better - it worked.

Bad: being a clumsy person. Good: being used to being clumsy. In the kitchen of my shoeless home, I have dropped knives on the floor more than once, but my nimble feet and legs have automatically jumped me backwards each time. Ooh! My foot just twitched at the memories! So this new beau and I decided to make chocolate chip cookies a few days after he told me how he used to bake cookies all the time in grad school. He had moved halfway across the country just recently, so I could kind of understand that he had zero mixing bowls. We used pots and pans, instead. As far as measuring cups went, he had just one 1-cup (or 2-cup?) liquid measuring cup and no dry measures. The butter cold from the fridge wasn't a problem - we'd just microwave it til smooshy and then mix it with the eggs! The sugar? Why, mixed in with the rest of the dry ingredients, of course! Looking back, I feel I was too judgemental at expressing my incredulousness. I should have gone with the flow. The end results were still okay.

For the 5(ish) hour drive (usually at night) from Chicago to my parents' place in southeast Michigan, I usually bring at least one Red Bull. I like the taste, but I don't want to drink it regularly. It turns out Red Bull has less caffeine that a cup of coffee! I had Mountain Dew's energy drink once from the a vending machine at a rest stop on the way to Mich. Oh, too sweet! Couldn't finish it.

"random and weird greens" - Sometimes when I'm in a woodsy place or a place with a lot of weeds, I try to figure out if the plants I'm looking at are edible or not by comparing and contrasting them to various things I've eaten bc of my mother. But unless I know about the pesticide and fertilizer use in an area, I wouldn't take plants I know to be edible. Most random greens get made into a banchan on their own, though, not a salad. Yes, please do post the names! I'm curious. Amherst College.

Sheena, my parents grew minari in the backyard for a couple years. Check Google for images of minari and you'll probably find your "Korean watercress." It's also good for adding to kimchee or for a mul kimchee in its own right (with maybe some mu and gochu garu). Sugar from Stop and Shop! No Stop and Shops in Chicago, but I grew very familiar with the logo while going to school in western Mass.

No pics from me, but I wanted to say how glad I am that you guys put up your pics and reviews of the place. I had some friends over a few weekends ago and this was my second to last meal with them. They had wanted to try bbq in Chicago and I searched posts on egullet for help. I don't really know bbq, but my friends said Smoque was amazing. We ordered separately and all four of us ended up ordering the pulled pork or pulled pork sandwiches. Loved the pork, cole slaw, baked beans, fries, and atmosphere.

Thank you for the welcome! I can't wait to try the other varieties I also got. I know I will continue to use a lot of canned beans in my cooking bc I cook for one and don't plan my menus well, but RG beans have really raised the bar now! I will be honest and tell you I don't think I'll make be making Foodman's falafel anytime soon. But I will remember your rec of his recipe if I decide to make falafel at home.

Beans have made me so happy today! It started with the best falafel sandwich I have ever had (granted, I haven't had too many in my life) for an early lunch. The gently smooshed falafel in the pita half was crispy brown on the outside and fragrant and green inside. I loved the smooth hummus and the flecks of fresh parsley, too. And tomatoes, cucumber. Then my Rancho Gordo beans came. This order was my treat for quitting smoking. I am so glad I let myself succumb to the temptation to order after reading the posts in this thread. I cooked up a half pound of Good Mother Stallard. Er, ate half the pot already. I love the creamy texture of the canned beans I usually buy, but I think I had forgotten to eat beans for their Taste as well.