Monday Menu: Sugar and Spice

It’s going to be a busy few weeks as my family and I deal with my dad’s illness. So postings will be brief.

I wanted to talk about cooking shortcuts, which somehow dovetailed nicely into things being so crazy that cooking becomes secondary.

Spice mixes have come a long way since I first began food blogging. I often included homemade mixes in some of my recipes – but mostly I had a list of herbs and spices for the recipe. And I hate that, I often turn away from a recipe once the ingredient list becomes unmanageable.

As I am always looking for shortcuts, and since friends often gift me fun food-related gift cards, I have come into possession of many amazing spice mixes. Better than I could make myself, and of very high quality. It used to be you could find a few in the grocery store that were mostly salt with a few herbs or spices mixed in. Now I can buy containers of spices from regions I would never have tried on my own.

So I’m here to recommend simplifying your cooking AND experiment with different flavors, by trying out some new and exciting spice mixes. Then something as simple as grilled chicken, steamed rice, or vegetables, take on entirely new flavor profiles.

A few recommendations:

• don’t skimp, find the highest quality you can afford – the higher the quality, the less you have to use to get optimum flavor, so a small container goes a long way.
• skip the salt – buy mixes that are salt-free – don’t pay for something you can add yourself. And it’s always best to control salt amounts yourself.
• buy local if you can. Best spice mixes usually come from the freshest sources.

Go wild and enjoy!