Currently Reading: A Perfect Blood

Things I Love: Helpful Ingredient Short-Cuts

These are some of my favorite go-to items for making cooking easier, because not everything that goes on in the kitchen needs to be a long drawn out ordeal.

Say what?

Store bought, packaged goodness that takes time off the overall cooking experience - not to mention reduces mess.  Which, let's face it, is the main reason I love these items.  I hate to scrub down my kitchen and anything I can do to reduce the number of things I dirty the better.

First up: Dorot Garlic Cubes:

One cube = one clove garlic crushed.  Holla!  I have a garlic braid from my other hometown, B'ham - but I don't want to remove a bulb yet (it's just so dang pretty).  Not to mention I still haven't found the perfect garlic mincer yet and I have grown VERY tired of crushing and chopping garlic by hand (not to mention the fact that my fingers smelled like garlic FOREVER).  I found Dorot at Trader Joe's and almost wept in the freezer isle I was so happy to see a solution to my smelly garlic fingers.

Gourmet Garden Ginger (say that five times fast):

The other day I was bemoaning to Stephanapolis that I have so many recipes that call for ginger but I hated buying hunks of the stuff because I never knew what I was supposed to look for, or how much I needed to buy.  Holy, freakishly long sentence, Batman!  And then there's the fact that most of the local grocery stores don't carry ginger (it's a specialty item).  Frustration abounds.  Enter this tube of awesomeness.  Life saver.  I see many more ginger infused meals in my future.

Amore Tomato Paste in a Tube

Words cannot describe the feelings I have for this tube of tomatoey goodness.  Double concentrated tomato paste perfect for those recipes that call for a tablespoon or two of paste (really, how irritating are those recipes to make when all you have is a can of paste).  Perfect of any occasion - kind of like a LBD only not really, so nevermind.

Do you have any favorite kitchen short-cuts that you use when you cook?

Whoa.

If you haven't noticed, I've been gone for awhile.  Life got a wee bit hectic on me.  Actually, it was more than a wee bit hectic - and I wasn't even the one in the middle of most of the chaos (I stayed on the fringes where it's safer).  More to come on what went down.  But for now, I must tell you a little secret. 

Are you ready?

Are you sure?  It's a doozie.

While flipping through my CD collection (yes, I still have CDs and yes, they are filed alphabetically) I stumbled upon my first CD ever:

I immediately grabbed it and ran out the door to run errands.  People of St. Louis - if a car zipped past you with the windows down blaring early 90s pop, chances are it was me.  I have no shame.  I flipping LOVE THIS CD.  What's not to love?

Would you check out the vest?  It matches the swag he's standing next to.  I just said swag - teehee.

The hair.  The jewelry. Oh, my!

The "I'm trying for sexy and not quite getting there" expression.

My elementary school heart goes thump.  

Whoa.

In case you're curious as to what an early 90s music video with Joey Lawrence looks like click, here (beware it's not the whole song - so sad).  I have no idea what is going on in this video, none at all.  It is, however, my favorite track off the album.