Kosher

This year I have decided to keep kosher. I have been intimidated by the weight of this task, but I think I'm finally ready for it. My first kosher trip to the grocery store was highly frustrating, but I was able to come away with a susbstantial load of OU certified groceries: fruit cups, rice crackers, goat cheese (!), reduced fat Skippy peanut butter, Silk soy milk and some canned items.

I was kind of surprised at how many products have the OU heckscher. I noticed that a lot of the generic brand or store brand items don't bother with the heckscher (their brand equivalents have it!) Not all of the fruit cups had a heckscher, even within the same brand. I was kind of wondering about this, then I made the connection that the ones with gelatin and the parfait ones didn't have the OU cert. Note to self: watch out for gelatin!

I was left wondering several things:
 * what groceries don't need a heckscher?
 * fresh fruit? veggies?
 * canned fruit? veggies?
 * packaged fruit? veggies?
 * bread?
 * milk?
 * eggs? (I think they don't need a heckscher, they just can't be bloody)
 * beer? (I looked into this and apparently there are a lot of brands under OU supervision. Yay!)
 * is it possible to keep kosher with a non-kosher roommate?
 * can I use the oven? (after some research: Double wrapping in foil allows food to be heated in any oven)