My small family is me and my wife. And my wife’s Pennsylvania upbringing telling her that I am putting way too much seasoning in things. Yesterday I made steak. She only allows salt and pepper to be used on steak. I want to make curry steak. But I can’t.

Yes, and you already did it by commenting.

Did you just call me fat? I have gained a little bit of weight but my rack is still respectably less than A cup.

Get in there and clean it. It doesn’t take that long. This was overdue. It was jam-packed and now I have some room to breathe.

Someone had moved out and I just kind of added their spices to my collection. So I had like four things of ground ginger. I use ground ginger a lot because I make switchel. But when I opened up each one and smelled it, there was one that could definitely go. I found my missing nutmeg pods. I found my missing nutmeg grinder. So I get to wash that up and stop using powdered for a lot of things like butternut squash soup.

It’s not just about the cleaning. It’s about finding ideas.

Is this a weird reference? It smells like a weed reference.

I have an overabundance of basil this year. I’m going to let some of it reseed but I kind of need more thyme and parsley for next years’s planting. The tomatoes don’t have blight yet which is really rare so I might be able to replant here next year. I’m pulling off bell peppers better than ever before. This is the first year I’ve grown Ginger and it’s doing amazing. I already got a volunteer pumpkin and I’ve got four more Vines popping up that might be able to produce something ripe by Halloween.

I have a number of fruit trees I planted literally before I unpacked a single box when I moved in. Because the best time to plant a fruit tree is 10 years ago. I did manage to eat two plums off of one tree this year which is a first. I’m hoping next year for better results. My apple trees and raspberry did not do so well. We have some kind of rust that is affecting all kinds of stuff and needs to be treated. But I do have apples that are still viable on the tree. I might end up picking them just to make pectin.

The squash was destroyed by some fungus last week. It had been brewing for a while but they’re totally dead now. But I did get a lot of production out of them before the fungus killed everything. If I do squash next year. I’m going to have to find out how to treat for this fungus or make sure that I grow a squash that can be picked at any stage of development like a zucchini so that the moment I see a problem I can still eat it.

The groups are by type. All the herbs are in one section, seeds, stuff that’s usually reserved for baking, chili pepper based, spice blends, etc. This way I can just know the general vibe of what I’m looking for and let inspiration hit me.

On the bottom all the vinegars are in one section and sauces in another, etc.

This is my default in Spanish rack. I do have sub spice racks. Like this one with pre-mixed seasoning blends. The rack was made out of some cedar that my neighbor cut down. Emeril’s Bam, Curry, masala, Greek, taco. Each one is made by me and gets rotated pretty quickly. To the right hand side, you can see my instant reach oils. Olive oil, peanut oil, chili crisp, bacon fat. I made that spice rack out of poplar wood.

It’s ugly and overgrown with Acalypha rhomboidea (Three-seeded Mercury). And the tomato plastic are falling because I was lazy.

Thank you for posting the failed recipe. That looks very expensive. What is the batch size?

I’d know what to do with a jar of spiders. That’s easy. Spider scampi.

I’m thinking about making a clean room out of a retired refrigerator. Drop a humidifier, dehumidifier and a Johnson unit on it and use it for making cheese, curing meats and, now making cookies.

Chili crisp is an amazing ingredient. I use it for fried Asian food dips and sometimes as a finishing sauce when I’m sauteing vegetables or on something like roasted brussel sprouts.

But I haven’t made it myself yet.

I know it lasts longer than most things but I like to try to use whole slices within two years. And given how little is needed for any recipe it seems unlikely I’ll use it up.

These came from the Super G Mart. A close relative of H-Mart. I saw them and knew that for 99¢ I wasn’t going to be disappointed.

I was thinking about adding them to fried rice. Thanks for the heads up about when to add them.

I got it at the Super G Mart. It came in a Chinese printed plastic bag and I moved it to a pint for long term storage. Cost was $5. They had lots of other brands and size packages available but this was the least expensive.

Find your local international markets and spend a whole lot less on spices.

That looks so good.

I’m currently growing a bit of ginger. I’m going to have to harvest all of it before late fall. I could definitely make a lot of ginger anise ale and can it for long term use.

That sounds amazing. Now I need to find molds and a place for them to dry that is safe from cat hair.

Yeah, the eggs screamed mental issues, not quality advertising.