Outgoing at the Grocery Store...

I was at Whole Foods Market today in Evanston, searching for the ingredients to make a key-lime pie. First thing: key limes. Surprisingly, they had some! I grabbed a small bag of about 20 golf-ball size limes.

"Key limes are small..." I thought to myself. "How am I going to juice them?" I remember making key lime pie once with regular limes and it was great. I had done this because I didn't want to risk it on the key limes -- who knows how the juicing would have gone?

Now, however, I had learned several tricks for juicing any citrus fruit. Roll it on the counter before you cut it. This softens the fruit, releasing the juice, so it basically juices the fruit before you cut it open. Another trick was placing the fruit in the microwave -- weird, I know, but successful, nonetheless.

I was sure one of these things was going to work. I was walking around with graham crackers (for the crust), searching for a can of sweetened condensed milk. Would Whole Foods have this quintessentially-artificial-sounding ingredient? Before I found out, and while I was reaching for some kettle corn out for sampling, this extremely nice, older lady asks me question as she maneuvers around me to enter an aisle.

"How are you going to juice those?" she asked.

"Hmmm," I thought. I love talking about food, so I told her about rolling and pressing them. I have to say, very few people I encounter know about this, so I was surprised when she shook her head as if it were common sense.

"Very ripe ones, microwaved, work the best, I've found..." she said, with a hint of resignation towards the end her phrase.

So I asked, "For key lime pie, have you ever used regular limes...?"

She immediately said, with a warm and friendly voice, "Oh, yes -- we love it, too, and regular limes are much easier to juice..."

I smiled and thanked her for the tip, and figured, since I had been wandering around seeking help for at least 5 minutes, I'd ask her my question.

"Do you know, by chance, if they have sweetened-condensed milk here?"

Her reply, as if she were reading my mind, "Oh, I don't think so... They make a great lower fat version, so there's a lot less calories [how did she know this interested me?], but it sounds artificial enough to me that Whole Foods wouldn't carry it..."

My exact thoughts earlier -- all because this woman decided to question me about my key limes, I decided to put the key limes back, get 3 regular sized limes, and search a little bit more for the sweetened condensed milk. I eventually found it, but no low-fat version. I decided to go to another grocery store, Jewel-Osco, and they had it there.

What a great chance experience, though! Next time you see a shopper for whom imminent culinary peril awaits, like myself with my key limes, lend them a hand.

So, I did some research on the difference between key limes and regular limes. It seems key limes are more acidic. When I make the pie (which you will all see here), I'm going to start with too much juice and reduce it to the correct amount by heating it until enough water evaporates, yielding a more acidic juice. We'll see how it goes!