cdh

I don't think salts at all... My water is hard enough and what's in there tastes good to me. A spritz of wintergreen into a glass makes a sugarless birch beer. A spritz of any citrus does just what you'd expect. A spritz of star anis makes a booze-free nod to pastis, etc....

Welcome! You've found the right spot! Tell me about your redneck soda stream. I've got my own 10 gallon setup plumbed into my kitchen... there are improvements that might be worth doing... Give me ideas. On the custom seltzers idea, what I've been doing is making atomizer bottles filled with a 100:1 everclear to essential oil mixtures, and using them to dose a glass of plain seltzer out the tap.

On sale? How can I resist? I'm joining the chamber vac club.

I'm with Rotuts on the DIY from green side of this... Roasting your own is the way to go if you have the ventilated space and patience to do it. The quality (and price) of green beans has skyrocketed in recent years, but even spending (shock, gasp) $80 for 10 pounds of excellent fruity ethiopian coffee beans, or even some of the newer more interesting stuff out of Colombia is a total bargain compared to subjecting myself to whatever the local coffee joints feel like selling this month for $18 per 12 oz bag of stuff they roasted to their tastes.

And @Tropicalsenior, tell us about the coffee scene in Costa Rica. I'd heard that most coffee exporting countries tend to consume Nescafe, as drinking the good stuff is like lighting money on fire...

Not a fan myself... but people I know who were regulars cited the caffeine kick as superior to other coffee joints. Maybe they char robusta beans to hide the burning tire flavor and retain the caf-kick... and some people appreciate them for it.

True... plenty of options for giving it away...

How often do steam ovens turn up at Goodwill? They're not exactly a commonplace gadget...

Since my CSO has never regained its ability to do the steam thing, I've been satisfied with its ability to just be a toaster oven. But the steam function was nice while it worked... so when I spotted this thing: Vevor steam thingy, I think I'm going to grab one and see what it is good for...

Have Lidl or Aldi made it down to ATX yet? Lidl regularly has halloumi on offer when they're doing Greek products, and Aldi occasionally has it too...

Good luck. CM is your best bet, I'd say. I bet the right person there would know all about Mexican and Central american stuff that grills like Halloumi.

Go to Central Market and ask them what grilling cheeses they have.

Hi all- Bumping this topic as it is that time of year. I just pulled a couple dozen baby black walnuts off one of my trees and got them quartered and covered with a mix of vodka and everclear. I might try going the vin de noix route this year rather than just nocino... we'll see.

NYT Magazine gifted article on the textural aspect of food.

Make friends with a doctor and set up a pair of epinepherine IV drips next to a table full of everything that they love and can't eat?

Hmmm... milk and butter is how my family did lima beans... never would have thought to do it to green beans.

Sad news. RIP Maggie. She was definitely a fixture around here in the early days, and her contributions made eG what it has become.

Brings this to mind: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/toronto-burgers-office-supplies/

It works in non-steamy modes. It's back to screaming about "add water" whenever steam is called for. So it is a fine toaster oven.

Bird flu means dead chickens which means fewer eggs... supply and demand does the price lifting...

You could go for the full on sarcasm route and call the job "Chocolate Shop Lackey", and indicate promotion potential to "Chocolate Shop Flunky".

After letting vinegar/citric sit in the water reservoir for a few days, the "add water" screaming has stopped... and it is acting even more funny. There must be a water leak somewhere past where the calcified blockage was, as the control screen is going nuts, flashing through all of the things that light up. Need to give it a few days to dry out... and hope its non-wet modes go back to working.

Neat idea. Maybe a good replacement for (or supplement to) the more chit-chatty forums... I think of Twitteresque stuff as ephemeral, while eG food stuff should be categorized and sortable like the forums software lets us do... I'm cholst@mastodon.social, FWIW. Federate and find me.

Dusted my CSO off the other day after unplugging it and giving it a long rest after it started feeling ungrounded. Seems that pulling the water tank before mothballing was not enough to keep it from thoroughly plugging itself up with calcium. The "Add Water" notification screams whenever it tries to do anything steamy. I tried filling it with vinegar and citric acid overnight, but no luck getting rid of the problem. I opened the valve on the back and emptied the reservoir inside and got lots of sandy calcified grit coming out... Looks like it is going to require a Shelby treatment with a bottle brush... or more... Anybody got odds on it recovering after that?

If the idea of turning it into a jello salad is more appealing, you could try sticking your jelled jello into the microwave and melting it, then mix in whatever you like and rejell it.