My current home doesn't have a verandah or even a porch but I dream of owning a little farmette again, with a verandah overlooking chickens, goats and gardens. Absolute heaven!

Cooking with Herbs

I've never had a good assortment of herbs in my kitchen. I like growing them, but since I didn't really know what went with what, I didn't use them much. I liked using fresh mints for tea... chocolate mint, apple mint, etc. I love using parsley, eating it straight as I cut it. Garlic. Onion. Rosemary. Chives. And using purchased Italian Seasoning and cinnamon. I consider those staples. But now that I'm cooking more, and experimenting with recipes, especially soups, I thought I'd try a few spices and herbs I haven't used (much) before.

Here's what I got from the bulk herbs aisle at Vitamin Cottage (some I've used, some I haven't):
-cut thyme
-ground cumin seed
-herbs de provence
-lemon peel granules
-whole anise stars
-whole rosemary leaf
-ground rosemary leaf
-cinnamon sticks (short)
-whole nutmeg
-california sweet basil
-cut tarragon leaf
-cut orange peel
-crushed sage leaf
-ground cardamom seeds

I hope my cooking gets more interesting! I'll want your opinions, once I start posting recipes using some of the above.

Have a great day, all!! Vikki

3 comments:

Stephan said...

Herbs and spices make a huge difference in the flavor of foods. We wouldn't know what to do without them. The best places we've found is www.penzeys.com they even have a retail store in Aurora and it is less expensive then the supermarket.
They also have a lot of whole spices like chunk cinnamon which lasts forever.
This is important for your survival kit by having a way to change the way your food tastes you can stave off flavor fatigue.
I look forward to your recipes.

Vee said...

Thanks, Stephan. I'm making chili today. Used to, I'd just add onion, garlic and chili powder. I'm thinking about cumin today. We'll see! I'll post the recipe tomorrow. Warning: I'm from KY so it'll have noodles in it! :) Vikki

Stephan said...

We get the whole cumin and grind as needed, we just did a potroast with cumin and black pepper, both freshly ground. Amazing flavor.