memfree

memfree, 1 year ago

Use herbs and spices. Use different spices. I get tired of recipes that use the same 4 flavors over and over, so I look for recipes that use something else. Under-used spices I love: cardamon, rue, sumac. Under-used spices that I can only fit in certain recipes: caraway, mace, fennel seeds.

Get spice mixes for pre-balanced flavors, like Herbs de Provence, Garam masala or Harrissa paste (you can make this yourself, but you should try a few versions to figure out what you’re shooting for).

Maybe these are al old hat to you, but here are some standard examples:

• add tarragon to tuna/chicken salad
• add cardamon and nutmeg to cooked oatmeal and omit cinnamon
• sprinkle sumac on your scrambled/deviled eggs
• put some rue in your stew or pot pies

memfree, 1 year ago

Oh, I bought it as a live plant. We’ve had it in the ground for several years now. Even when the rosemary bush died in the cold, the rue lived on. Our thai hot pepper plant is in a pot and has to come in before it frosts. Of course we always have to buy new basil and cilantro seedlings each year. You can’t stop mint from coming back – same goes for perilla. Anyway, sample links to seeds: earthcareseeds and/or seedneeds.

memfree, 1 year ago

I have a metal spatula from … maybe the 80s? that is now falling apart, but every replacement I’ve tried is too stiff compared to my battered old friend. I like how it bends under pancakes to allow a good, high flip. I love how I can scrape all the crusty bits off my cast iron pan and get them all frying into whatever the dish is. It wasn’t a special purchase at the time, but the modern ones are all too thick or stiff. Do not like.

On wooden spatulas, I have a dead-flat bamboo one I use to stir soups and roux-based sauces. It was dead cheap from my local asian market and I ended up buying 10 of them to give as christmas stocking stuffers. Not sure it if this example is as flat as mine, but it is similar.