• Brown 3
• Orange 7
• Blue 7
• Yellow 8
• Red 13
• Green 19
• Total 57

I used to be the bulk manager for a food co-op and ever since I’ve bought all my spices in bulk. I’ve been collecting empty jars at yard sales so now I keep a pretty diverse set of fresh spices on hand for not much money. Every so often I go through and re-label bottles and throw out old stale remnants, today I just I made a list of wht I’ve got on hand.

allspice

I got this last Thanksgiving when we were out of cinnamon, and the supermarket I went to buy some more at was also out of cinnamon. I’ve always thought that there’s nothing allspice can do that cloves and cinnamon can’t.

anise

Anise is pretty close to fennel. I’ve had this a long time.

basil

Fresh is better, but this is for those long winters when there’s no fresh around.

black caraway

I got this when I used to live around a bunch of Armenian stores. Don’t really know how to use it, though.

black cardamom (elache)

I stick one of these pods into the water when I make basmati rice. They have a great smoky and sweet flavor, but it looks like a big nasty cockroach fell into the rice when it’s done cooking.

black pepper

One of the few objects that I have from my mother’s house growing up is a 70s mushroom-shaped salt shaker/pepper grinder. To fill it with peppercorns, you have to empty out the salt from the top and turn it upside-down and slowly coax them in one at a time through a small hole in the bottom. Fresh ground pepper is far superior to stale pre-ground pepper, but I still begrudgingly attend to the maintenance of this heirloom pepper mill with the same bad attitude I had as a child.

cardamom pods

I love cardamom. Somebody should make a bathroom cleanser that smells like cardamom so I could buy it.

cayenne

The go to spice for adding heat.

celery seed

The big soup stand-by.

chipotle

One of my favorites. I get the bags of dried peppers at the bodega for a dollar and grind it up myself.

cinnamon

I’m not a big cinnamon fan, but I still go through a big jar of it every year because I add it to black beans. I love black beans.

citrus

Made this myself. Dried out a grapefriut peel and a couple of orange peels and then ground them up. It’s the key ingredient for making a convincing General Tso’s sauce.

clove

One of my favorite smells, but difficult to cook with without overpowering the food. I buy these whole and grind them as needed.

coriander

About everything I make gets this.

cumin

When I first started making food in large batches to freeze I used to make a lot of chili. I was big into chili and then discovered cumin. Whoa. More chili followed.

curry

Maybe I should find a more potent variety or mix my own, but I usually add an inordinate amount of curry to a dish before I’m satisfied.

dandelion root - toasted

I usually use this as a bailout if I get to the end of making something and it it tastes too thin or too spicy. Dandelion adds richness without beeing too imposing.

dill

Looks and tastes great on cucumbers.

elder berries - dried

These are pretty unobtrusive flavorwise. Good for when you need random tiny black specks in your food.

eyebright

In a softheaded wiccan moment I bought this to counteract the effects of staring so long at a computer monitor all day.

fennel

Jeanie started adding fennel seed to curries, which was a great idea. Usually this just sits around unused.

garam masala

I keep thinking this would be good in muffins. That, or if I ever made two curries at once, this would be the second one.

ginger

I always have fresh on hand, so I only use this for baking.

ginkgo

I got this in bulk on the upper east side. I spent a dollar fifty on it and still don’t know what to do with it.

lemon pepper

I made my own. We had a bunch of organic lemons and I dried out the peels in a metal strainer for 2 weeks by a window that gets good sun. Then ground them up with some black peppercorns. I smells way better than anything I ever bought from the store.

marjoram

This became one of my favorites a few years ago. The smell invokes fresh laundry for me. Savory fresh laundry.

mint

I’ve never used this. I keep thinking I might make a raita or something. Not yet.

mustard seed

See elder berries.

nettles

See eyebright.

nutmeg whole

Fresh grated nutmeg has a bright, citrus quality absent from stale nutmeg powder. You gotta add a pinch to anything cream based and lately, I’ve been adding it to tomato based things, too.

oregano

The Mediterranean workhorse.

paprika

Pretty mild. Makes things redder. If I was ever going to sell cayenne on the streets, I would cut it with paprika to increase my profits.

red pepper

Not the usual dried seeds and shell, this is some oily deep red mojo I got from the Armenian place in Watertown, MA.

rose hips

Tart like cranberries and packed with vitamin C. Good in pies.

rosemary

This used to be one of my favorites, but now it just tastes like pine trees. I could come back around one day.

saffron (crude)

I wish I could remember where I got this because I’m running out. I got a big bag of it for super cheap. Saffron is just the stamen of the crocus plant, but these had the whole pistil too. They had a really subtle flavor, and it totally kicked ass to have tiny red flowers floating in my soup.

sasparilla

Kind of a wintergreeny - root beer flavor. Good in pies.

thyme

I keep thyme in a bottle.

unmarked savory herb

I usually buy in bulk so once I forget what the name of something is, that’s it. I cook by smell anyway. Tarragon?

white pepper

White pepper is spicy and transcendent like butt funk or beeswax.

Sorely missing: bay leaf. Are there any spices you have something to say about? Everthing I cook tends to taste the same so I’m looking for some new ideas. Thanks for commenting!

Harvest time is a good time to take advantage of the cheap basil at the farmer’s market (or from your own garden if you have one) and make a giant batch of pesto. My old roommate Phil got me hooked on doing this one fall and I have kept the tradition alive ever since. Portioned up into small chunks, pesto keeps well in your freezer all winter as a quick and easy meal starter.

Now’s also a good time to consider getting one of those steel 1.5 liter cans of some quality extra virgin olive oil. Ask the old ladies at the Armenian grocery store which one has the best flavor. It might seem wacky to spend 25 dollars on some olive oil, but those cans can last you a year+ and it’s that beautiful green stuff that smells like sweet olives and tastes so good you dip your bread in it and then all of a sudden you realize you’ve eaten the entire loaf in one sitting.

• 1 lg bunch basil, rinsed and dried
• 2 pounds raw, unsalted pistachios, almonds, walnuts, or sunflower seeds
• 2 cups grated parmesan cheese
• 3-4 heads garlic, peeled (whole heads, not single cloves!)
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt

You can use a blender, but a food processor will give you much more control over how finely the ingredients get chopped. Whip up the cheese, garlic and nuts with just enough olive oil to keep the whole mixture rolling around as a cohesive mass, adding it all into a large mixing bowl until it’s all processed. Chop up the basil alone with some olive oil to make the leaves heavier and chop more evenly. Fold the chopped basil into the nut/cheese mixture until the ratio of the two seems about even - it shouldn’t bee too dark green from too much basil, nor should it be too gray from the nuts and cheese. Don’t be afraid if it seems too garlicky, it’s gonna be stirred up into big, bland bowls of pasta so the flavor will spread out nicely. Salt to taste, or use none at all; you can always add salt when you prepare it later or at the table.

It’s also a good idea to have extra ingredients on hand because you might find that you got the proportions wrong and you want to add more garlic, almonds or basil.

Once your pesto is all mixed together and making the kitchen smell like garlic heaven, spread it into a large baking pan. Cut lines into the pesto slab to create little squares of pesto an inch or two along either side. The cuts will seem to heal up, but once the whole thing is frozen this scoring will be enough to break the pesto apart into individual servings. Freeze covered overnight and store individual pesto nuggets in airtight containers in the freezer.

My coworker brought his lunch last week and let me try some of his homemade red onion pickles and sent me a link to this epicurious recipe. I made it today with a few slight modifications.

They had poblano peppers at the local farmer’s market today, so I substituded that for the habanero, and I added garlic for flavor, and tiny slices from the rat-tail ends of beets for color.

• 2 red onions, halved, sliced thinly
• 2 tablespoons minced poblano pepper
• beet tails, washed and thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, shaved
• oregano
• juice from 2 or 3 limes
• distilled white vinegar
• kosher salt

Mix everything in a vase, jar, or bowl. It’s best to use glass because these strong flavors will linger on any porous material. Use just enough vinegar to cover the vegetables, use a glass or a bowl to keep the onions all submerged if you need. For best flavor, let the whole thing soak overnight, but after just a few hours, the mixture will already be pretty tasty. Strain off the vinegar and these will keep for a week or so in the fridge.

UPDATE - These came out great, we had them as a garnish on a kale, cilantro and mushroom stir-fry. The vinegar turned an amazing shade of fuchsia which I saved for inclusion in a future salad dressing.

A conscious effort to eat more fruit has turned into a strategy for eating more baked goods. Our well-intentioned banana purchase sits around for days until they start to wilt and the time comes to mash them up with some butter and molasses, hooray!

• 2-3 large mashed bananas (or 3-5 small)
• 1.5 cups flour
• .3 cups butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 cup sugar
• .5 cup molasses
• .5 tablespoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• .5 teaspoon nutmeg
• pinch salt

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Grease a oven-safe glass loaf pan with butter.
3. Sift together flour, soda and salt into a large mixing bowl.
4. Mix together remaining ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
5. Fold wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients, stirring until lumps are gone.
6. Spread mixture into greased loaf pan.
7. Bake at 350° F on a high rack for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

The heat broke a few days back and there’s enough energy at the end of the day for some food prep, but not so much full-on cooking. Here’s an all raw recipe that is better the second day. It even puts up in the freezer pretty well. It looks like mostly all corn in the picture, but we got orange tomatoes from a farm stand, so it looks more uniformly yellow than if we’d used red tomatoes.

• tomatoes, minced
• corn, off the cob
• green peppers, minced
• cilantro, finely chopped
• red onion, minced
• green onion, coarsely chopped
• garlic, minced
• red onion, minced
• lemon or lime juice
• tequila
• salt

Mix everything to taste, adding the salt last. Citrus can make food taste more salty than it actually is.