Layers of flavor

Some of my friends are amazing cooks. I love going to their houses. Walking in the aromas wafting through the air make me feel at home. One of my friends is Italian and she makes some bangin’ red sauce. Another friend of mine is from Alabama. Her husband is a very lucky man; when he puts his fork to his mouth and on it is balancing tender roast and bits of rice, or an aromatic creole dish, oh, how I envy him. I  have yet another friend that I used to cook with to help my Mom out for her Holiday Open Houses. We would have a blast planning. OH... How I love and miss her pound cakes.

I have other friends that HATE cooking, it’s a chore for them.

When I talk about food it brings me joy. It’s a subject I know about and want to learn more about. Everyone likes talking about things they understand. I’m not ever going to argue with you about the bible, but I will have a fist fight over the many uses of anchovies.

When I cook I want to create layers of flavor.

I love anchovies. I cook with them all the time. They add a depth of flavor to sauces. I’ll saute onions and garlic in olive oil then add 2 anchovies, they melt into goo. You have just started making the beginnings of a great sauce.
Pureed Solid canned tuna, a couple anchovies, a tablespoon of capers and some olive oil…an amazing spread or dip.
I also love those anchovies so much I will stand there in my kitchen and finish off the rest of said anchovies…Cat like tendencies again.

Fresh herbs are a main stay in my ‘fridge.
When I’m making a sauce…almost any kind of sauce I’ll add herbs at different times. The fresh ones are last.
Keeping fresh herbs in your fridge is something that many people don’t do. They think it’s a waste of money. A recipe calls for, lets say a couple Tablespoons of fresh parsley, they decide to use dried because they think the fresh it will rot in the crisper before than can use it all.
I’m here to help you.
When buying and storing herbs make sure you look in the middle of them to see if there are any dark bits that might be the beginnings of rot. Rot begets rot. When you get them home don’t clean them till you need them. Place them stems down in a glass with shallow water. Place the clear plastic bag you brought them home in and loosely cover the herbs and glass. Place in fridge…walllaa! They will keep for quite a while…they are live plants.
I’m not denying you, or me for that matter the use of dried herbs. I use them all the time too. The fresh ones just add….HELLOOOO…a certain freshness to each dish.
I make a basil, garlic and olive oil mix that I keep and can uses in lots of stuff and is great on sandwiches, broiled for a bit;)

The juice of REAL lemons, limes and oranges…that stuff in the little plastic green lime looking thing…I have no idea what’s in there, but it doesn’t taste like lime juice to me. The same goes for ‘real lemon’ juice. It’s easy to keep a couple limes and lemons around in the crisper.
With Greek and Arabic dishes lemon juice is essential.
Thai food requires limes, real ones.

Fake stuff is well fake, unless we are talking about breasts…and then they are real, really theirs.