Tag: A. Catherine Noon

It\’s been a while since I\’ve written a Thursday 13, but here goes:

13 Herbs and Spices

What’s the difference between an herb and a spice?

It depends who you ask.

To a botanist, an herb is a plant lacking a permanent woody stem. To an herbalist, it is any plant used medicinally (which can include trees and fungi). To a cook, an herb is the above-ground part used in cooking, as opposed to the root or the seed (celery, celeriac, celery seed). A spice, therefore, to an herbalist is the same as an herb (cinnamon is an herb used medicinally). To a cook, though, a spice is the dried part of a plant, i.e. the seeds, roots, bark, flowers, fruits and rhizomes that also are used as a flavoring agent in food,(rhizomes are an underground, horizontal stem such as ginger). Herbs can be used in either a fresh or dried state; spices are almost always dried.

Here is my favorite place to learn about spices and cooking, as well as to purchase your supplies:

http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/

Here is my favorite place to learn about medicinal herbs and techniques:

http://www.jeannerose.net/

1. Cinnamon

I love cinnamon-sugar on toast. It makes me feel comforted, like good comfort food should. I also like to sprinkle it on the coffee grounds before I brew a pot of coffee. It makes the area smell nice and the coffee taste really good.

2. Salt

While it may not be the most healthful of spices, I have to say I love salt. I recently got introduced to different kinds – and colors! – of salts and have had fun taste-testing them.

3. Jane’s Krazy Mixed-Up Salt

No, this isn’t a hoity-toity blend. But my grandma had it in her kitchen and it’s tasty. I have had trouble finding it since then, but whenever I do I make sure I buy it. Turns out they have their own website:

http://www.janeskrazy.com/products.asp

4. Oregano

Other than its uses in cooking, once I came to Chicago I got turned on to the concept of oregano on pizza. Try it.

5. Garlic

Need I say more?

Well, okay, I do. In Jeanne Rose’s class, one of the projects is to make a garlic soup. You’re supposed to simmer like 20 cloves, right? Then it says, take the cloves out, press, and discard.

Apparently, in my world, discard means “eat.”

I figured, garlic broth good, garlic cloves AND broth, better.

…

Don’t do it.

Just, don’t.

6. Onion

Yum yum yum. Just brush yer fangs afterward, will ya?

7. Ginger

Yummy! I love this in tea. It’s fun to buy, since it looks like a mutated plant part that’s going to eat your refrigerator…

8. Lavender

It’s edible. I read a book on it, you can make candies, and put it in a marinade for lamb. I tried it.

It tastes like soap.

Oh well.

It’s good in tea, though.

9. Basil

One of my favorite spices. I put this in my garden every year. We have Genovese, Opal, Purple, Cinnamon, Lemon, all sorts of basils. It’s good stuff, Maynard!

10. Curry – not really one spice, but a blend

I didn’t know that it’s a blend. I like mild curry, particularly in egg salad. Raz al Hanout is really good in coffee with cocoa.

11. Vanilla

Sex on a plate. ‘Nuff said.

12. Anise

I love anise. Tea, in my chicken soup, all sorts of ways.

13. Thyme

This is a really good tea for when you have a cold. I love it!

13 Random Thoughts on the Train

1. The sun is really bright today. The sky is a blue field, no clouds visible as the train snakes its way toward downtown. There’s something about the air when it’s cold, even mores in the dead of winter – the air is so clear because it holds no moisture, it’s too cold to, so the light just fills your eyes.

2. Daylight Savings ends this weekend, yet another of Bush’s idiocies – I hope the new President will end that farce. The equipment manufacturers, even for new equipment purchased since he’s been in office, do not hold to the new change and I wonder if that’s because they don’t like it either, and know it will be eradicated like Akhenaton’s brief flirtation with monotheism.

3. The Noble Horse Theater is on my train ride in ever morning, and I want to go to the Nutcracker on Horseback this year. I mean, how do they get the horses to dance? Dressage is like ballet on a horse, and I’d love to see it.

4. Cabrini Green is nearly gone, a legacy to the failed experiment of public housing that Chicago, like so many other cities of its size, tried. It’s sad, the remaining buildings with their boarded up windows stand like elderly soldiers, the passage of years in their empty eyes while the world around them forgets why they exist. When the last one falls, will anyone be there to mark its passing, besides the wrecking crews?

5. Gas prices have fallen, but I hope too late to save this Republican presidency. I don’t understand my country anymore. The America I thought I lived in appears damaged beyond repair, though Obama offers hope. What balls it takes to write a book entitled The Audacity of Hope. It’s vindicating to have someone of his station write such a title, because hope is such an underrated commodity. I’ve spent my life teased for being an optimist, hopeful, cheerful, etc; to have the possible Commander in Chief echo my feeling is vindicating.

6. Samhain is here, at last. What year it has been. Not “bad,” precisely, but I won’t mind seeing it go. In fact, I would rather push it on its way.

7. Stuff always takes longer to do than I give it credit for. Which is frustrating, you know?

8. Breathing is underrated. I am forever reminding myself to take a deep breath. Of course, this backfired one day in the elevator, when another building occupant looked at me and said, “That’s a Monday sigh if ever I’ve heard one.” In spite of myself, I couldn’t find it in me to contradict him.

9. Artist dates are hard.

10. Halloween candy is enticing and way too fattening to indulge in. I’m proud of myself though, I’ve walked by that stupid basket all week and not indulged once. (Ever seen the cartoon Tazmanian Devil? Yeah. Me at the candy dish. Not a pretty sight.)

11. It gets dark fast when winter’s coming. It’s startling to look up from my desk and see the windows completely black, with offices across the way lit back at me.

12. I’m excited to see the new exhibit at the Art Institute on tapestries. Go here, look! http://www.artic.edu/, click on “museum.”

13. I like Sting’s music. He’s a tremendously talented musician and composer.

Happy TT!

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