cooking

Visions of Sugarplums

Do you believe? In sugarplums that is? Sugarplums are the things of fairy names and sweetened childrens’ dreams on Christmas Eve. An old-fashioned confection made with a potpourri of holiday spices, dried fruits and nuts, held together with molasses, honey and powdered sugar–sugarplums are very real. In these sweet hours before Christmas I’m going to give you a sugarplum [...]

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Green Tomato Mince: What Is It and How to Make It

This is the spice season…is it not? While Spice Sherpa has some cool stuff on tap for you in the coming month, (A giveaway! A spice freebies section! Spicy gift guides!), today’s post spotlights a simpler, more wholesome, and frugal time. And it all starts with the cold weather. Quick 10 second diversion: if you were anticipating [...]

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Spices, Horses, and the MS Society

Last week was summer’s swan song and I sent it off with a pile of fresh fruits paired up with fun spices. This week I’m buttoning up the season the same way I started it: immersed in the horse world. Four years ago the barn where I keep my horse began hosting a horse show [...]

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6 Must-Have Spice Blends for Camping Cook Kits

Road trips. Car camping. Backcountry backpacking adventures. If any of these resonate with you, then it’s an absolute fact you’ve faced the reality of creating yet another meal with an open flame, minimal ingredients, and a collection of those adorable little cooking utensils that the more masculine among us prefer to call “the mess kit.” [...]

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Basil: 5 Things You’ve Never Heard Of

So you know that part in Alice in Wonderland when Alice sees what appears to be a common rabbit hole? She peers in, then falls and discovers a deep world filled with amazing, wondrous, unpredictable surprises? Basil is like the rabbit hole. Yes, basil. It’s green, pungeant, fragrant and anchors the 8,000 equally delicious variations of [...]

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Grilling Healthy with Summer BBQ Spices

June is upon us and the weather forecast is sending us days of sunshine. Memorial Day, Father’s Day and summertime — the outdoor grill is the icon of good times. Where there’s a grill there’s fire and coals. And those delivers the heat and smoke giving us those delectible, crispy outer bits of vegetables and meats loaded with that [...]

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5 Spices for Cinco de Mayo

Here’s the deal. Today is Cinco de Mayo. Having grown up in California and raised on avocados and Baja cuisine I’m compelled to celebrate our Southern neighbor. Ah, but now I live on the other side of the country. And while today is Cinco de Mayo it’s also Thursday. So my bright idea was to [...]

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Book Review: The Spice Merchant’s Daughter: Recipes & Simple Spice Blends for the American Kitchen

“It was the aroma. The exotic scent of spices: rich, alluring, and almost magical. A scent that would sometimes overpower the freshness in the air and sometimes subtly mingle with it to create a tantalizing bouquet. A scent that would always bring me back to my childhood.” Author: Christina Arokiasamy Such is the introduction to [...]

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How to Roast Spices

Spiced ales, spiced nuts, spice cake, sugarplums, gingerbread…the holidays are practically synonomous with spices. Whether your kitchen inspiration is limited to these seasonal celebrations or you’re a full-time, dedicated foodie: spices are the key ingredients to many holiday dishes. Dry roasting your spices is a simple but often overlooked way to bring extraordinary flavor to your cooking. The gentle heat used [...]

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Candy Corn Cookies With Natural Coloring

About a week ago Food News Journal posted a link to the most adorable cookie recipe on the blog by Baked Bree. I knew immediately that I’d be making the recipe. But as I scrolled through the comments, one in particular caught my attention. We don’t do artificial colors in our house because they have a [...]