If you can find feta, I will be able to survive. Give me a Greek salad, and I can survive almost anything else on the menu. Oops! I almost forgot. Where do you get lemons? No lemmons. No dressing.

Cheeses are one of the things I buy at Costco. They have a great Tillman sharp cheddar. Fortunately we can find parmesan here most of the time.

We have the same problem with green onions here. But they are grown around here so the tops aren't usually too bad.

I grow my own mint. Haven't seen chives here but a friend who had a big clump growing in her garden gave me a start so hopefully I'll have chives in the future. I've tried to grow sage here and I haven't been successful. I brought a jar of sage down from the states. Dill is seasonal here.

I haven't seen media crema but we have crema de batir and it will whip like whipping cream but takes a little longer. I also buy crema which is a very heavy thick cream and crema acificado which is sour cream. They come in the same kind of containers so I have to be careful to get the one I want.

Vegetable broth and chicken broth are very hard to find. I have a problem staying ahead on the chicken broth so I bring down 6 or 7 boxes each time we come back to MX.

Most of the time Bonanza has Basmatic rice, couscous, and polenta. Notice I said Most of the Time. So when I see it I buy even if I don't need it right then. They also have yeast Most of the Time.

Vanilla yoghurt...nope I haven't seen it either.

And yes, Making the menu on the fly works for me. I always go to the store with several ideas and make my decision on what looks freshest.....or sometimes just what they have. Cooking is an adventure in MX.

Steve, I think the point of my post is that I have to make adjustments to my recipes...how about trying limes instead of lemons? Or oranges or grapefruits? Maybe the new hit salad.

Billie, Sounds like you have some of the same challenges there. We don't have a Costco but Sam's club is similar. Too bad the quantities are so huge, though. Tonight I am having friends for dinner and tried a recipe for a kind of hummus appetizer and it really doesn't have much zip without chives - we added a bit of onion but we wish it had those little bits of green...a bit of parsley should help but it's always something!

I made my own chocolate ice cream using whole milk, media crema and a swiss dark chocolate bar. It tastes pretty good to me but we'll see what everyone thinks tonight!

Nancy you are doing a great job of finding workable substitutes. Cooking is an adventure! For some reason, I still can't get sour dough bread to come out right. I've tried repeatedly, and now I am giving up for awhile. I'll try again later.

You might be interested t know that there is a cheese maker in Concordia. Their fresh panela works a lot like fresh mozarella when you are cooking. It's a little far away for regular day to day stuff, but if you find yourself in Concordia, Mesillas, or Copala, you might make a stop.

Also, the whole grain bakery on Zaragosa makes yogurt. I know you can get plain. You might ask them about vanilla.

We have all the herbs you listed available in the super except dill which is called eneldo. I cannot get mint to stay alive here. Sage is also difficult. Chives is called cebollino and I have seen it dried and fresh. I think I saw Basmati once but it was so very expensive. Couscous is easy because we have a large Lebanese community but you can also buy pasta para sopa that is like a slightly larger couscous and a fraction of the price.
I buy plain yogurt and flavour it myself (actually for awhile we were making yogurt), finding plain yogurt was hard! Even some of the so called plain had sugar in it.
We buy yeast at the Repostería because it isn't always available in the Super. We can't get bread flour here though.
From what you have written food is much cheaper where you live though so I guess it's a trade off.
regards,
Theresa