Before you go and look, guess how many bottles of cloves you have in your spice cabinet. Ground and whole cloves. What do you think? One or two, one of each?
When I moved recently, I found I had six bottles of ground cloves, two of whole.
Now, this isn't Renaissance England and I don't need to rub cloves on myself in order to smell good (thank you modern plumbing and Dove soap). I do not make pumpkin pies every day, nor do I decorate a ham with a crosshatch cut, pineapple slices, maraschino cherries, and whole cloves--I have never done that. I don't think I've eaten a ham like that since 1985.
So what's up with the cloves?
And the number of ground ginger bottles was alarming. Chili powder? You'd think I entered into chili competitions weekly.
I saw an ad for McCormick spices, and it said if the bottle in your cupboard had a particular address on it, the bottle was over 15 years old. I threw away three bottles, one of onion salt. This was a very smart advertising campaign, a good way to get people to start chucking bottles and then go out to buy six more bottles of new cloves.
Star anise--petrified. Cardamom pods? Good for the compost pile. Fennel and cumin seeds? Dead, dead, dead.
Bay leaves like brittle paper, crystallized ginger like granite.
I did feel a little nostalgiac about dishes I made with the now defunct spices. Chicken Diablo--my friend Cindy's boyfriend gave me the recipe in 1984. Goodbye antique chili flakes.
But what was a doing with star anise? Hmmm--I must have repressed the memory.
So here's my call--go into the kitchen. Yes, do it. Open the drawer, the cabinet--look on the shelf. Start examining those bottles. Smell them--if you can't smell them, buy six bottles of ground cloves.
Jessica Barksdale Inclan
6 comments:
That's really funny. My mom used to give me a basket full of spices every year for christmas. I don't know why. I have one small bottle of cloves, but I actually use them. Every year at Halloween, I get some oranges, lemons and limes and stick whole cloves all over them, then roll them in ground cinnamon and put them in a dish. Not only is it pretty, but it makes me place smell good too.
Mary--What a great idea! I could have used up all those darn cloves. It feels so nice to have gone through everything though. Really, a task I needed to do years before!
Thanks for the comment.
Best,
J
I am afraid to look in my spice cabinet!!
Do it Estella! You will feel so cleansed once it's over.
:)
J
lol...you know what I am really afriad to look in? That lowest drawer in my kitchen cabinets that has all sorts of things in it I haven't used in a year.
I did a spring cleaning a few months ago when I was given some new pots and pans and had to make room for them and took everything out of of the cabinets and when I started taking things out of the bottom cabinet....I kept saying things like, Oh, that's where that went." "I don't remember putting this in here." "I didn't know I had one of these." LOL
I just cracked up. I purchased 6 new bottles of herbs yesterday, after going through my cupboard. The stupid thing is I bought the exact same 6 that I tossed & will probably use once a year. But I am ready for that one time now, apparently.
marypres@gmail.com
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