Probably further off topic than usual, but you may find interesting anyway. I'm a fan of Alton Brown on Good Eats on the Food Network, he is probably the best I've seen at explaining both why and how to cook, something I can appreciate as someone who likes to experiment in kitchen occasionally and as a trainer that tries to make difficult concepts seem simple. Makes me wish I had his production budget!

Like most cooking (or more generically, how-to) shows not everything he makes is something I want to try, but sometimes it's an immediate gotta try it kind of episode. Most recently for me it was the end of a show about ginger and the ginger root, which was interesting if not exciting, but at the end he made home made ginger ale. Nothing quite like a good Canada Dry over ice, so the prospect of making my own was exciting. The reason all the how-to shows do so well is that anytime we step past in the can/box/whatever solutions, our sense of ownership increases - something that goes back to the time when we all foraged for food every day!

Here's a link to the recipe - http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/ginger-ale-recipe/index.html - and from my first try at it the only place I struggled was grating the ginger itself, it tends to really clump and stick to the grater, next time I'm going to try a food processor for that part. It takes about 10 minutes to make, but you have to let it sit for 48 hours after that to give the yeast time to do its thing. After that you can hear the 'hiss' when you crack the cap and when you pour it, you get the same foam you get out of can of store bought stuff. The first batch was ok, maybe just a little strong, but had a fresher taste than store bought as you might expect. The hardest part about home made food is we're used to store bought, so it's always interesting to see if you can retrain your palate or not.

Maybe something to try this weekend?