Q: I live in Uganda, where we have plenty of bananas. I am interested in making wine, and wonder if I can make fruit wine with ripe bananas. Any ideas for how I could do this?

Sent by Godfrey

Has this ever happened to you? You're walking through the grocery store pre-road trip and delicious-looking things keep jumping into your cart. Maybe it's the chocolate bar that would later melt in the car seat, or those crackers that made a horrible crumbly mess, or possibly the garlic bagels that made your car interior smell like an old Italian kitchen (great in Italy, not so much anywhere else). Do you have a road trip food mishap? Share your disaster and hear my own below! 

Crisp and a touch lemony, fizzy with bubbles and chilled to ice-cold: this is the kind of beer that hits the spot after a day spent romping in the garden or lounging on the porch. When the summer's seasonal beers start showing up in stores, that's when I know that summer has really started. Here are five to look out for as we head into the long days of sun and heat — what's your favorite?

Now that we're into vacation season, it's time to start thinking about how to take food on the road. So we're wondering: what products do you rely on to help you pack and keep food for a trip? 

Item: Kyocera Ceramic Chefs Knife
Price: $69.95
Overall Impression: Lightweight and easy to care for. Excels at chopping hard vegetables and herbs.

The idea of a knife that stays razor-sharp for months — even years! — has a lot of appeal to me as a home cook whose knives seem to be in constant need of honing and resharpening. But a chefs knife has to wear a lot of hats in the kitchen, and I've always wondered how a lightweight, brittle ceramic blade would hold up when put to the test.

I love taking the flavors and ingredients from foods I've eaten while traveling and pulling them into my weekly meals. This veggie burger takes inspiration from around the world — green curry paste, fresh cilantro, creamy black beans, and crunchy walnuts — and puts them into traditional patty form. This burger with its spicy kick is perfect for your next picnic or backyard barbecue.

All this week we've been talking about travel snacks here on The Kitchn. An ideal travel snack is portable, versatile, configurable, and heat-resistant. (Unfortunately that last factor rules out chocolate as a viable option.) You know what meets all those criteria in spades, though? The chickpea! Roast 'em, dry 'em, shake 'em all up. You've just found your new travel buddy.

Airline food has never been anyone's favorite dining experience, but lately it's gotten downright ridiculous to have to eat bad food and pay for it, too. The upside is that so many people are now bringing homemade food on flights. This makes me happy not just because it's usually more healthy, but because it brings a sense of originality and creativity to what is otherwise a pretty cold and impersonal experience. I find myself peeking over rows of seats to see what people are eating.

Ever since I was a little girl, I've had a pretty fierce sweet tooth. I love a good cookie, and ice cream in the summer always becomes more of a routine than it should. But now that I'm older, I bake more with whole grain flours and experiment a great deal with natural sugars. So while it's still dessert, I don't feel quite as guilty. 

Q: I've been trying to figure out how to recreate gyro meat at home. Most recipes seem to bake it like a meatloaf, but it doesn't have the right texture. So my question is: How can you make gyro meat at home?

Sent by Veronica