Using lavishly. We tend to like stronger tastes in our home. It seems like we are always "adding a little something" before we eat it. That may kill two birds with one stone.
Thanks chacha1.
Mid America Mom
Overall Rating: votes
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Posted 1 year ago #
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My folks had a problem with what the local agricultural extension office told them was sawtooth grain beetles. They have much of their dry goods/staples in their extra frig now. But not everything, so I look closely when I use anything at their home. From what I've read online, they're not dangerous, more annoying than anything and hard to get rid of.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Weevils also come pre-packed. They, at least, seem to be easier to deal with than the various beetles mentioned here. Freeze the product (generally flour) for 48 hours before putting it into an air-tight container.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hi Laetitia & everyone
Your comment Laetitia made me smile. I knew straight-away that you were either from the NT, Qld or north Western Australia ~ weevils often are the result of buying flour or other powdered products from supermarkets without a big turnover when you live in the tropics! But I don't want to live anywhere else.
Your idea of putting the flour into the fridge for 24-48 hours works well and I tend to do this now even when I buy from Coles or Woolies because I was 'caught' once and it was so embarrassing I nearly gave up entertaining friends at home forever. Luckily, they were more "Territorian" than me at the time and laughed it off and we just did without gravy that night....
Nothing more "off-putting" than extra Protein floating in the gravy :-( Yuk!
Posted 1 year ago # -
i live in FNQ and i know the evil weevil well.
i never knew about refrigerating the flour...thanks for a great tip! i learn something new every day here!
i do buy a little bit of white flour and grind my own flour as well.
the white is to lighten up the wholemeal a bit, that's all.
that stuff is going in the fridge now!Posted 1 year ago # -
Most of my spices are fairly current, but I know I have a few left over from my college days, when I was first teaching myself how to cook. And most of those are spices I hardly ever use anyway--such as Cream of Tartar (anyone have a good, consistent use for that?). My mom never really taught me or my brother how to cook, and we actually lived with a broken oven for two years before I moved away to college. We always joke that my mom thinks the four food groups are Bagged, Boxed, Bottled, and Canned. I think because I taught myself how to cook, I didn't know about making a menu plan and only buying spices as you need them--so I would go into the spice aisle at the grocery store and think I would eventually need all the spices, so I started "building a collection" (hello, packrat tendencies!). And it's hard to give up those Martha Stewart, Perfect Homemaker Fantasies, which is probably why I haven't thrown out the old Pumpkin Pie Spice, despite the fact that I don't make pumpkin pie but once a year, and when I do, I use all the individual spices, such as clove and cinnamon, that Pumpkin Pie spice contains!
We currently store our spices in two large Sterilite brand plastic drawer bins, stacked on top of each other and against the wall opposite the stove. It's not my ideal space, and the drawers are really too deep for the spices (I have to rummage through them to find the spice I need) and they always get disorganized, despite all my attempts to alphabetize them. There is just not enough drawer or cabinet space, and definitely not enough counter top space next to the stove without them being dangerously close to the heat. Of course, our entire kitchen is not laid out very well. :(
Posted 1 year ago # -
HappyDogs - I need to watch out for those now... who knew we had to keep an eye on our spices to make sure they weren't breeding bugs!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hi, all, I go through my spices annually and recently tossed out most of them. I tend to use the same ones over and over. I currently keep them in a clear shoe box size container on top of my refrigerator so I can grab them easily when i'm cooking. I am in the process of redoing my pantry and hope to have space to put them in there as I want to clear off the top of my refrigerator.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Ninjanun, "pumpkin pie spice" is great in cookies, brownies, oatmeal, or granola. It'll be gone in no time. :-)
Cream of Tartar ... is that used for *anything* besides glossing up meringue?
Posted 1 year ago # -
I use cream of tatar in my banana bread :)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Ooh, Sky, I make banana bread frequently. How much Cream of Tartar do you use, and what is it for?
Posted 1 year ago # -
ninjanun...1 1/4 teaspoons. Not really sure what it's for. My recipe is my Mom's and I've used it forever.
Posted 1 year ago # -
My spices consisted of salt and pepper. :) I don't cook much. Oh, a jar of bay leaves, which are awesome in pasta. Then dear boyfriend who I mention so much here moved in, and he bought a counter-top spice caddy. He uses them from time to time, he is a very good cook. But, I kind of wish the clutter wasn't there...or that he'd cook more often! (all I have to do is ask, he says.)
Posted 1 year ago # -
things to do with cream of tartar:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2081866_find-more-uses-cream-tartar.htmlPosted 1 year ago # -
Minbani - yes, I'm a Queenslander (currently in Brisbane area again after 3 years in Mackay) - you mean they don't have weevils down south?
bandicoot - love those ideas for Cream of Tartar - I wonder if it would work on NQ little brown ants or whether they'd just treat it as a white hill to climb. :-)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Oh my my my goodness, my mom and I combined households back in February, which means, we combined spices...oh, and when hubby and I married in 2007, guess what? We combined spices!
We have, and this is NO lie, over 50 different bottles/tin cans of spices. ONE of these days I'm gonna alphabetize them and sort them THAT Way.
Mom's spices consist of the McCormick with the GREEN lids/labels. They haven't made those in a LONG time.
Recently hubby and I went to Sprouts Food Store and bought spices to replace the old "McCormick" spice rack (2 tiers) spices I got back in 1996. A friend of mine worked at McCormick and had extra spice racks. She gave one to me. So that was 1996...and I 'treated' myself to new spices in 2009! I reused the bottles and re-labeled them.
I am not looking forward to organizing those spice jars though. We have a wooden cabinet that my father made to house the spices. The front is a counted cross-stitch picture that talks about spices & the use for various ones.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I actually threw out 3 spices that I don't use yesterday, so now I'm down to only 20:
- whole black peppercorns in a Peugeot pepper mill
- sea salt with herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme and basil) in a spice mill from Rosendahl
- Maldon sea salt
- Maldon smoked sea salt
- herbes de provence
- rosemary
- thyme
- sage
- basil
- tarragon
- juniper berries
- curcuma
- cumin
- paprika
- smoked paprika
- bay leaves
- fennel seeds
- chili flake mix
- barbecue spice mix
- curry in a spice mill from RosendahlOne could argue that the sea salt with herbs in a spice mill is exactly the same thing as mixing the separate sea salt with the exact same herbs that I also have, but it's a matter of convenience to have the mix as well.
All my spices (except the ones in mills) are on a magnetic "bulletin board" near the stove. It's a very intelligent design, with a magnet on a metal clip that you just put around the spice jar, thus making it possible to put the jar on the "bulletin board".
Posted 1 year ago # -
Candy- I did not know you could buy juniper berries (dried I assume). What dishes do you use those for?
Posted 1 year ago # -
I use juniper berries (yes, dried) for venison. My father hunts a lot, so I get some very nice meat from him and juniper berries is sort of a traditional Swedish spice to go with venison.
Posted 1 year ago # -
For ninjanun:
Cream of tartar is great for cleaning darkened aluminum cookware- boil about 2 to 3 Tablespoons per quart of water in pots/pans to brighten them.
My preferred use for Cream of tartar is for Snickerdoodle cookies, but I like clean pans, too.
Posted 1 year ago #
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