[SPEAKER_01]: Hi, I'm Sarah, and I'm Megan.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're two women in our 40s who live in different states and have a lot of different interests between us.
[SPEAKER_00]: On this show, we talk about all the mid-life lady leisure pursuits we're enjoying at this stage of life, like travel, hobbies, food, wellness, style, and more.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am so excited today to talk about seasonings and spices.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like this is an area where I've become a little more confident and therefore a lot more opinionated over time and that has led to some fun experimentation.
[SPEAKER_01]: So looking forward to talking about seasonings and spices with you today, Sarah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today's episode is brought to you by our exclusive season sponsor and a long time partner of ours, Vionic Shoes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Megan, I have been wearing the uptown loafer and I know you have these shoes as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is my second winter season and they are my go-to cute, classy looking shoe that can dress up a casual outfit just a little bit and I can walk in them all day long.
[SPEAKER_00]: Use the promo code midlife at vionicshues.com for 15% off when you log into your account and be sure to check out the special page we've set up where you can see our favorite vionic styles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look for that in the show notes for this episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, thanks to Vionic for sponsoring this episode and let's dive right in to talking about our favorite spices and seasonings and maybe the ones we don't love so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Sarah, I want to start by asking you the flavor profiles to use some food network language of the last meal that you ate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, we're recording right around midday my time and I quickly shoveled some food in my mouth right before we recorded.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is fresh, fresh off my palate.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a kind of a grain ball that's a call back to a previous episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: We like to get very specific with our food episodes, apparently.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a pearl barley and white bean bowl, but the flavor profile, I'm going to say, was roughly Italian because the base of this dish was like a jar of Italian roasted red peppers and mushrooms when they're kind of like in the, they're like packed in oil, do you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that, that kind of was like the starter profile and then from there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So very loosely Mediterranean Italian, I would say.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so this is like, this was hard for me to answer because we actually are recording this a day later than we in expected to, so I had a different answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Answer in my yesterday.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I, I just started a new job and I was at a work party, a baby shower, actually where there was Chick-fil-A.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm really wrecking my brain.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I feel like it was, you know, Chick-fil-A has that very specific spice blend.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I had it recently.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was by the script.
[SPEAKER_00]: They dinner just like I two weeks ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's like peppery in paprika and I wonder if it's like a little vaguely southern American or southwest American?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, like I don't really, it didn't scream to me or doesn't scream to me any specific.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, like, international region, I guess, but it's definitely got a strong peppery flavor.
[SPEAKER_01]: I, I, I, on my palate, I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know it's more of American South rather than Southwest, if I had to guess more like there's no cumin and there's not, there's not like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it does, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so sweet don't you don't you feel like there's a like a there's a like a sugary or like something like a sweet counterbalance I think to Chick-fil-A into some other.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and also it depends if you go to the sauce to like, you know, so yeah, I think they're probably as a little sweetness in the in the mix, but like I really get more like the way I'd season a hamburger almost.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I can see that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I like it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But anyway, I did not, like I meant to come in and talk about something I actually made it instead.
[SPEAKER_01]: I talked about the Chick-fil-A.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just dated someone's baby shower, which was really nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, it's like a fun thought exercise, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm, which leads us into my next question, which is what spices and seasonings do we rely on the most?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then maybe if you want to get even more clever, like how do you use them together?
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I love this question because I had to actually reflect for a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to get it out of the way that I am kind of a salty.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a salty palate and I grew up in a family.
[SPEAKER_00]: My dad likes really salty food and I mean, table salt.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we sit down at a table and there's not table salt, it's like weird in our family.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I do think this has modulated or like leveled off a little bit as my, as I've just eaten more types of food and I've gotten more sophisticated with my food choices, but I don't think I don't have high, what would it be if you, what would you have to watch if you were eating too much salt, like what health issue, anyway, I don't think I'm like hypertension maybe.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I don't, I don't have any issues and actually my Ted doesn't either with like with the amount of salt and I actually I also don't eat a lot of high sodium processed foods, which that's where like sodium really I just am a table salt person so I thought I'd say that first because we're talking about spices and seasonings and we can't leave out your your trusty salt shaker on the table I enjoy that and I use it maybe less liberally than I used to but it's still a big part.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I get a lot more excited about like aromatics and fresh herbs than I do about dry spices, but I wanted to talk about them because we are talking about flavoring and seasoning our food and that that's in there as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so like fresh herbs, garlic and ginger, I feel like I come back to again and again, I use them, you know, you can have those in powder or dried or ground form.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can have them totally fresh and I've done both of those.
[SPEAKER_00]: For me the hybrid is they come in these frozen like one ounce or not even one ounce these little tiny ice cubes Basically that you can buy and keep in the freezer and then when you go to make a recipe It tells you like one of the cubes of garlic is equal to one clope and then with ginger it gives you a Conversion so I use those a lot when I'm cooking
[SPEAKER_00]: with with dry spices often I'm following a recipe.
[SPEAKER_00]: We did an episode of this podcast about like trying new recipes and where we get our recipes and I think that's how I learn spice combination.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when you ask how I use them together, I'm like, oh, I feel like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, whoever it says.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah,
[SPEAKER_00]: I know, although I do think at this point in my cooking, I know just enough about different cuisine, big, um, big cuisine, or umbrellas, like Mediterranean, um, like Latin, Latin, yes, I could.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if I were doing something like in one of those big families, I could, I would know what to pull out of the spice cabinet.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think I'm also getting better about
[SPEAKER_00]: when to use dry spices like when and making a soup or a stew or something, when do you even do them?
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't put them on at the end like I do a salt, like you do them when you're cooking.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, can I just say that my family has always loved loury's season salt, which feels so kind of like, I don't know, basic or like, 1970s.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just feel it's very, 70s, 80s to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I wouldn't even say basic, just, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's dated, but again, my dad loved it and we always had it at my house growing up and then somehow we realized That a local place a local burger joint that here like a teeny little hole in the wall burger joint that we love We thought their fries were so good and I peaked in their teeny tiny kitchen one time and I was like guys, it's loweries.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're putting loweries on their fries
[SPEAKER_00]: So I started buying loury's, I think I don't think I used to buy it, and I'll put it on like roasted potatoes, or anything that the kids are going to be like, no, no, no, it's a classic for a reason, you know, it's for a reason, that's right, baked potatoes, basically potatoes and loury's go real good together eggs too.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does that even bring up for you, Megan?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, I love hearing all this because, um, first of all, I think that we all come by our
[SPEAKER_01]: our proclivities honestly and often that's family of origins stuff or just what we grew up with.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I kind of had to grow into using seasoning because I grew up in a family that didn't really season food.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I grew up in far north for one thing in a very midwestern, but very north midwestern town.
[SPEAKER_01]: Michigan's Upper Peninsula is not known for having a lot of diversity in
[SPEAKER_01]: food offerings.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's put it that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even things that are really well known up there, like a pastie, for example, which is like a, um, a little hand pie sort of thing that's got the meat and potato filling.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's just seasoned with salt and pepper.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't it's very basic, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So salt and pepper was always available, and I think my mom used both heavily, and then she would have things she might also use like, um,
[SPEAKER_01]: like if she had a wild hair, she might get shaken bake or something.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like something that had more flavor in it, but we just didn't, like I wouldn't have known the spices then that would go into like an Indian dish or something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know if they were available.
[SPEAKER_01]: really at the grocery store locally.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, like soy sauce.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember, like we would make a stir fry in my family growing up, but I think it was just soy sauce or soy sauce.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, soy sauce, exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you didn't necessarily have the other stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and I think like maybe
[SPEAKER_01]: oregano and time like maybe some Italian seasonings or what are considered Italian seasonings maybe we had those but anyway didn't didn't have it so that's kind of what I was coming from and I will I will say I really have I have really become a much well I'm I'm almost 50 years old now I'm not really I'm a year and a half out but I think I get to say I'm almost 50 now um okay
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm much more adventurous than I would have imagined that I would become, but it took me a long time to get here, and it took me a long time to become like comfortable with, oh, these taste good together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, those taste good together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Probably well into my late 30s, or maybe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I would say the same word for me too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there comes a time, you know, when we had little kids, like you're cooking just to make everybody happy, you're not being so experimental.
[SPEAKER_01]: So all that to say,
[SPEAKER_01]: I, you know, I wouldn't say I'm somebody who really hits the salt shaker hard, but Eric really is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, he's salt, he puts so much salt on food.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do think you're right.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the sodium that's in our food, not like the table salt, you know, the salt shaker at the table.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is really like a blood pressure risk for most people.
[SPEAKER_01]: But even as much as he puts on is just a little more than I would.
[SPEAKER_01]: ever go for, but I like a salty food.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do like a good salty fry or a good salty, I don't know, just like a, I usually probably lean heavier on salt than...
[SPEAKER_01]: a lot of people might, and it also really does bring out the flavor of other seasonings.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it makes a big difference.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I think for myself, if I just rattled off the the ones I reach for, and this is a no particular order, and I'm not late.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not like,
[SPEAKER_01]: grouping these together.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are just the ones that I use the most.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would be like cumin, paprika, thyme, cinnamon, ginger garlic, which I also prefer both ginger and garlic fresh cilantro, fresh, um, I like them all better, like I like a fresh herb better as as well than a dried seasoning or or spice in a jar most of the time, but you can't always get everything fresh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, some of them, yeah, some of them just lend themselves better to the
[SPEAKER_01]: And then those are, so those are probably the biggies and then after that, like depending on what I'm making, I really love something with like a turmeric or a coriander cardamom.
[SPEAKER_01]: Grimm Sala, I don't know if they've said that right, Garam Masala is always not sure if that's how you say it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those get less used, but I always have them because if I want that thing, I really want that thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those would be the ones that I would probably feel more intimidated just winging it, but I have them because when they come up in a recipe, I'm trying yeah, I love those flavors.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then like chili powder.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess we have a lot of different chili powders.
[SPEAKER_01]: I I just tend to stick.
[SPEAKER_01]: Meaning like, you know, we might have some chipotle powders and things like that that are hot or spicier at a smokey or spicy, I tend to take a pretty light hand with those.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not my favorite flavor, but you also got to have them like you have to have something like that in your in your spice cabinet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, roasted red pepper flakes, or sorry, just red pepper flakes.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when we're like, I don't like a lot of heat either, but those can really live in something up when they're called for an recipe, and it's like an eighth of a teaspoon.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, yes, I do want an eighth of a teaspoon.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do want just one eighth teaspoon.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm hoping I don't get the mouth full that accidentally got two red peppers flakes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So on that, on that same note, I thought we should talk about the spices that we don't love that much or the seasonings that we don't love that much.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have finally decided at this point of my life, 48.5 years old, that I don't really care for oregano.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's such a simple, like it's such a, um, that surprises me because it doesn't feel offensive to me, but, but I'm not offended by it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I mean, like if it's in a spaghetti sauce or something fine, but like, at no point do I ever think, you know what this could use?
[SPEAKER_01]: oregano.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: What I want more of oregano never.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I always have it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I always have more than I need because I don't like it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's one of those things you feel like you have to have.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's such a staple.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then when I buy it, I only ever use it if I'm making something that explicitly calls for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes I will substitute marjoram.
[SPEAKER_01]: I prefer marjoram.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they have similar, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're kind of adjacent.
[SPEAKER_00]: to each other, but I don't have to pay more attention to that, because I don't think I have us.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't smell marjoram in my mind's nose.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's your mind's nose.
[SPEAKER_01]: I forgot to mention Rosemary before, and Parsley, Parsley and Rosemary, but interesting sage, I don't care about.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the fresh strawberries.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, oregano is whatever to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how I feel about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Same with basil.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, this is kind of crazy to me because basil is one of those things that I think you're expected to love.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do love.
[SPEAKER_01]: a fresh basil leaf like in like a pesto or in a capricious salad or something, but if I have basil like dried in my cabinet, I will just like almost never use it because it's whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel the same about cayenne.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take it or leave it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't, I just don't care about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Eric loves cayenne.
[SPEAKER_01]: He puts cayenne in everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I do not know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would not like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think cayenne is what packs like the,
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's the type of heat I'm most sensitive to because when I'm making something that's a little bit spicy my spice tolerance is like in terms of heat is like Maybe it mild plus like I can go between mild and medium and be okay, but can whatever it does is like the thing that's too much for me And we have a couple recipes where I'll just leave it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not the flavor so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just don't like that kind of heat.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess
[SPEAKER_01]: If for me, I'm not even sure if it's the heat.
[SPEAKER_01]: I find it just sort of repel it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing it does is something I like.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it does nothing that I like.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's me.
[SPEAKER_01]: How about you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm going to agree about dried basil in a jar.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is my California privilege showing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just would never.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it just doesn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't, like, it's kind of like, but why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like basil is such a lovely fresh herb.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't think I'd ever...
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I can't think of a time where dried basil.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess in something Italian, maybe.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but like if you were making again, if you were making like a pasta sauce and you didn't have access to and you didn't have access to fresh or it wasn't worth it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, yeah, you know, here there's lots of times a year where I would have to purchase a little clam shell for three bucks for, you know, yeah, a few leaves and it sometimes doesn't feel worth it to do that either.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, hot tip for anyone who hasn't tried it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Usually the potted basil will last.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not going to be your longest living potted plant, but it'll last for a month or two on your kitchen counter.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to have a whole herb garden.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can just buy the living basil from the big grocery store.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they are often the same prices those little clamshells.
[SPEAKER_00]: They'll be like $3.99 and then you put it in a cute pot and you have basil on your counter for and then when it dies Don't worry about it because it was $3.99 and you right like anyway just relative to the clam shell.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I found
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm um, tie basil this year on my own.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have tie basil in our garden too.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it grew so abundantly and so easily.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I'd never grown it before and it was, and I actually enjoyed the flavor a teeny bit more than just regular basil.
[SPEAKER_00]: We like tie basil a lot and it's still out there because we don't freeze.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the garden is kind of nothing right now, but the tie basil is still there and it has purple flowers now.
[SPEAKER_00]: So thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, for me, the what came to mind is I love regular paprika.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's a go-to for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've always loved the taste of it, but I feel like smoked paprika is everywhere now, and it's in a lot of recipes, and I hate, well, I hate, like, artificially smoked flavors.
[SPEAKER_00]: We both hate smoked.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, we do, we do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Especially, like, kind of artificially smokey flavors.
[SPEAKER_01]: And especially when that's not what you were wanting.
[SPEAKER_00]: right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that's not what you were expecting.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I don't enjoy it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And paprika, I, I could totally could be my perception, but it feels like smoked paprika has had a moment where it's in more recipes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the store, sometimes you see smoked paprika and either they're out or they haven't stocked normal.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, yes, bring back the normal paprika people.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's what came up when I'm talking about what I don't like.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that I had that exact same experience a couple times in the last ever since getting married where I've asked Eric to pick up Peck Bricka and he brings some smoked.
[SPEAKER_01]: You may think he like, well, if Peck Brick has good smoked Peck Brick has even better.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, well, okay, now I can't make devil eggs with this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not gonna put it in, I don't know, like any of the, I put Peck Bricka in everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh-huh.
[SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, when in doubt, just add Peck Bricka.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I agree.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: it's the way I cook.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even when I'm making oatmeal just kidding.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: It could be good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some people do like savory oatmeal, so maybe I'll try it one day.
[SPEAKER_01]: But not with smoked.
[SPEAKER_01]: No way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Funny story.
[SPEAKER_01]: As a little aside, you know, I'm going through this T-Smollier program.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it involves blind taste tests.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's a very famous smoked T called
[SPEAKER_01]: And it keeps making it its way into my blind taste test.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know it from across the room.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like Eric always prepares my blind taste.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh-huh.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll be like, I smell it, just get rid of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I already know what it is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please take it out of the lineup.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't even stand to, I don't even want to look at it or smell it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'll just have him pour it in the midnight smell it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like across the room, I'll just be like, okay, well, just move it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know which one, like I'm going to know that one.
[SPEAKER_00]: So just move it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, that's how much I dislike smokey flavors.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, let's describe our current spice and seasoning storage stitch.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd love to hear if you've got any snafu's in your background with this, I know I have that one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'll try to be really assisting.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a weird skinny pull-out drawer in the lower kitchen cabinet.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're pulling it out at your hip height, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it goes, it goes from the floor to the top.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like almost the shape of a drawer you'd pull out to have a trash cannon, like picture that, but like half the width.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's kind of skinny.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that has some shelving built into it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the top shelf of it is where we keep our spices.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a weird setup and it does mean that when you open it, you're looking down upon the tops of the lids.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does that, can you picture that?
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's like, yep, yep, yep, yep.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've had a seasoning drawer that was not that you opened it and you could look down at the bottles.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were all lying.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you're just seeing the top.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have to stand up because it's really more this pull out thing is really more of a series of open shelves rather than a drawer.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like you're pulling out a three tiered shelf is more like what's happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: I see.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I did finally after we've been in our house five and a half years and just before this holiday season I finally did the thing I wanted which was to get a consistent size of round sticky round sticker labels and label the tops of each of the spices so that when you open it and you're looking down you can you can see and you don't have to either get down on your knees or look from the side or pull them out.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that is a little better, but it is not ideal, and it's also not enormous.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we really have to keep track of like duplicates or things that are expired.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to like, we have to keep on top of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, wait a second.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a question because when you describe this to me before, not was we recording.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think I didn't realize that there were three tiers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so we keep like I'm just my half to put a picture in the show notes because it is hard to explain we keep like tin foil boxes anything long and skinny can go in there or small and upright it's a very strange shape so on the lower to
[SPEAKER_00]: shelves.
[SPEAKER_00]: We keep like the tin foil and the seran wrap and those types of things, but on the top shelf, we keep the upright bottles of spices and there's just a little lip on either side.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's open on both sides and on the top.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's enough of a lip that they're not sliding off the sides.
[SPEAKER_00]: So those would be all of the normal sized spice bottles like the standard grocery store size, but what that doesn't work for is like we have several that are larger, like a garlic powder or cinnamon.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a few that we buy maybe at Costco and you know that kind of like commercially sized, like I don't know how many ounces it would be.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if it's not a little spice jar and it's a bigger double sized something,
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, we keep it in this upper corner cabinet where we have our olive oils and our vinegars and some baking supplies, so it's split that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you know if you're going for garlic powder, like Morton salt, like the big thing of salt, a big thing of peppercorns, those would be in the upper corner cabinet and then all the regular sized.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's in the pull-out drawer and I will say like it wasn't a snap-hoo, but getting the labels on there was a good accomplishment this fall.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel good about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I also wanted to ask you if you have a spice grinder or if you do spice grinding in any of your cooking, because I have a snap-hoo with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: we have like a mortar and pestle which I do actually pretty often I'll not pretty often but you know every now and then I'll get something in a whole form like I have coriander seeds for example or like a star anus or cloves or something and I will grind those up and quite enjoy it
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I want a mortar that's actually that's like what I would rather have but I went googling and I I honestly thought that a spice grinder was like a separate thing and then I realized that coffee grinders and spice grinders are truly Yeah, they're the interchangeable, but then I so
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I got out.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a little coffee grinder that is not the one we use every day anymore This is like it was like in the back of a cabinet.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got it out and I was like, but it's so filled with like old coffee grounds At my spices we're gonna taste like coffee grounds and I didn't realize that there's a whole part that can come out and be like fully washed I'm sure I had wiped this down before but it was just coffee grounds
[SPEAKER_00]: for like 10 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it had never been used as a spice grinder and I sort of like sheepishly realized I'd never washed it because I didn't know you could and then I figured out how to take apart the top and then that has kind of made me happy because that's actually fun to grind spices in that coffee grinder.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that I know it can be used in that way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now that we're talking about grinding.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, do you do fresh ground pepper and salt?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you care about that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you care about salt?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's another like you're a salty girl.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you particular about your salt?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm getting more particular.
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't been my whole life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the flaky mild on salt and I, um, that usually would go on something after it's cooked.
[SPEAKER_00]: You wouldn't use that while cooking.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and then kosher salt.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do have kosher salt and I'm noticing more recipes call for kosher salt.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think we're getting brine and I both getting a little more Fussy about our salt, but I'm also just fine with table salt and I do like to grind I have a nice wooden pepper grinder that if I'm if I'm just finishing something off with pepper I will grind that but then I also just have a container of pre ground black pepper that I'll use if I'm cooking
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so yes and kind of we used to be really into or I guess I used to be really into kosher salts and big fat grain salts for a long time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had it like in a little salt pig, you know, but yeah, we have one out too.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll describe it just in case someone's like, what are you talking about?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like a it's a little dish that holds your salt, but then there's like a little half lit sort of like a blocks greaser, whatever from getting in it while you're cooking, but it's not fully covered.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I used to have one in my kitchen and I would just pinch off a little salt and sprinkle big flakes of salt and stuff and I just I guess when I Moody with Eric I did not Install my old salt situation here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Eric is very into mineral salt.
[SPEAKER_01]: So like Redmond's real salt.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's supposed to be higher in mineral content He has opinions from oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think about salt.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm not happy with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not aware of all of that
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, it's a whole world that you can get into.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are many, there's like a gray sea salt that looks
[SPEAKER_01]: like a bunch of fish died in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where every time I look at it, it looks like it's where the bottom of the ocean floor.
[SPEAKER_01]: It makes it been dying in it for centuries.
[SPEAKER_01]: But apparently it's very good for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know, Sarah, because I've explained this to you a million times in complaint, you I should say, at least a dozen times, not maybe not a million, about my spice situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'll just quickly describe it for the listeners,
[SPEAKER_01]: So Eric, my darling husband, built the house, I believe what happened is that he chose the cabinets, all the cabinetry, and he outfitted the whole thing before he got the appliances.
[SPEAKER_01]: That thing happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in fact, he did work for a guy at KitchenAid and got paid in appliances.
[SPEAKER_01]: So our appliances are very, very nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're high-end KitchenAid.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm not complaining.
[SPEAKER_01]: Big big, you know, a six-burner stove, all the things that you want, but the hood comes out from the wall, almost the exact same distance as the slide-out spice cabinet that's okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of those narrow spice cabinets that pulls out, and sounds actually a lot like yours, and it lines up the whole, yeah, and yours is below.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when you pull it out, one entire side is blocked.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it holds, it holds bottles about too deep.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can't get to the other side.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can never get to the other side.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I sort of can, if I pull it all the way out, I can, and hold my neck at just the correct angle.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the lighting is just right.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can sometimes see enough to pull things out.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm like, I'm honestly gonna hurt myself.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how I feel is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, this is the kind of angle I don't want to hold my neck at.
[SPEAKER_00]: Injury by spice cabinet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so half the time, it takes me so long to find just fumbling the problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not really that big of a problem, because I could just move everything out of there.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have enough other storage space.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just, I guess I just haven't yet, because that would require me to like completely rethink another drawer or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so anyway, it's just a dumb little annoyance
[SPEAKER_01]: It probably, it would be such an easy fix, but also part of me doesn't wanna be like, make a bigger deal about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think Eric is already a little irritate with himself that that's what we ended up with.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, I also don't wanna make a bigger deal about it than it needs to be, but part of me one day just wants to redo our entire situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe something else would work better up there or we could just ignore it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not like just because that's what it was made for, doesn't mean we have to use it for that or for literally anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't you love, I kind of love thinking about how every kitchen in, we'll just say America for this, for the sake of this sentence, like every kitchen in this country has some work or like frustrating little thing that people are just living with and they're just living with kind of like,
[SPEAKER_01]: like and that's true if you have a brand new kitchen like every kitchen just has a weird thing or two or five I kind of like the dishwasher when you pull it out you can open another cabinet there's actually like almost no way to not have that because everything has to work together and the way modern kitchens are so fitted you know and everything is like
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like it all, like everything has to sort of fit.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's, I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: And our work around's are sort of charmingly weird.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, oh, well, we actually keep these spices in the pantry, but we keep these out here because they're living at your sinker in idiosyncrasies and I kind of love it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think that now that we even are just talking this through, probably one solution would be to remove the middle, I think it's three tears.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I could probably remove the shelves and then just have it hold like olive oils and stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: That wouldn't be so bad because then I could just come at it from one side.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's having to get at it from the other side.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's
[SPEAKER_00]: yours does sound i think that format wise the same as mine i bet well mine's down low and i think mine is bigger but it's the same open on both sides three tier yes format yeah well this is helped me people helped me today
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, well one last question.
[SPEAKER_01]: This one will be fun for us, I think.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll talk about the spices and seasonings that we either over buy or under buy and how we have figured this out.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll go first because I feel like
[SPEAKER_01]: it doesn't really make it for me the under buying part is it does not seem to have a lot of rhyme or reason to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will just it's almost like the things I'm most likely to under buy are the things I use so often that I assume I already have them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it'd be like cinnamon, paprika.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like how are we out of this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: And or garlic salt, which I don't even really.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now that's a bad example.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't really ever use garlic salt.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I prefer, I prefer to, I almost always actually dice up real garlic, but sometimes like, sometimes it just makes more sense to use it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a, like a, like a whole sheet pan of roasted vegetables or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: I might just do garlic powder in a set of, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and garlic powder is a good example because I actually think I've been out of it now for like three weeks or something and I keep needing to get it and I keep not getting it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, so that on the underbying side, it's always just a dumb oops, like how, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, with the over buying, um, when I, when Eric and I got married, unbeknownst to me, he had an auto ship.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, remember?
[SPEAKER_01]: Every single month with six bottles of spices, like, of, of seasonings.
[SPEAKER_01]: And oregano featured heavily in there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, cumin.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was just like a couple of things that like we were using first of all, maybe sometimes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, and basil basil was one of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, well, you, how does a single man go through an entire jar of spice in a month?
[SPEAKER_01]: A and why those ones?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like did someone tell him, you're a single dad now?
[SPEAKER_01]: What you really need to have on auto ship is,
[SPEAKER_01]: So they were just getting stuck in the back of the pantry and it wasn't until I did a big pantry clean out after we'd been married for probably like six months to a year that I found boxes and boxes and boxes.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we did our best to use up what we could and finally I was like we got to start fresh because some of these have been in here for years now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So but every now and then I
[SPEAKER_01]: six bottles of cumin or something and be like, okay, well, here you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, what about you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, okay, I did try to think about which ones we over under by, but I do want to start by saying I it's very it it pokes at all of my frustrations when we buy spices that we already own.
[SPEAKER_00]: It sort of brings up my own self-criticism about being organized, about not being wasteful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's all about me, but Brian is of the mind that, like, well, I'm gonna make a recipe or I wanna make chili and I don't know if we have it at home.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what's the harm in bringing home another container of chili powder?
[SPEAKER_00]: That, like, the what's the harm?
[SPEAKER_00]: I totally understand, he should feel that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for some reason, for me, the harm feels deep and grievous.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have been like there was one passive aggressive time where he brought home.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was chili powder and he was kind of unpacking the groceries for the thing he was going to make and I pulled out three and a half used containers of chili powder and I just put them on the counter right next to the one he bought and I didn't say anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my goodness.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know why it just, it's like makes me feel like I said it's pulling at my own weird like self-criticism.
[SPEAKER_00]: But
[SPEAKER_00]: Cummins feels like a thing that 99% of the time we have and we don't need more and we have plenty because Brian keeps buying it and then all of a sudden we have none.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Cummins actually powder.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cummins and chili powder both when when you're making chili recipe.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's that time of year when it's chili time of year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that and it's also, it calls for more of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: At least the recipes, it's like not a teaspoon.
[SPEAKER_00]: It'll be like two tablespoons or three tablespoons of those two in particular.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you do go through them, at least for me, when we're cooking from recipes, you use more of them in a given dish than you would of say any of these others that we've been talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's my only theory.
[SPEAKER_00]: The other thing that happens is that the holidays, this would be more me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd get really excited about all the baking we're gonna do
[SPEAKER_00]: perhaps be like, okay, I know we are going to go through not make.
[SPEAKER_00]: So even if we have a little extra, so I did notice when I did my kind of spice clean out, I was like, okay, we are good on clothes, we have ground clubs and whole clothes for good on not make, we're good on cinnamon sticks.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all those things that I, that might, I might have done a little bit of the over buying on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cinnamon sticks is another thing that for some reason Eric had so many of now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love a cinnamon stick like in a You know in a rest certain kinds of recipes.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if he thought he was just going to get really into mold wine or something Yeah, or like I have a cider every night and stick one in there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but of like why and they're big they take up a lot of space.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah Not big is interesting because you really don't ever need much of it
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's so tiny.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, you're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So like I can get through probably two years of Christmas baking.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and still be on the same bottle of not like I don't feel like I go through that very fast at all, but
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but yeah, it is funny how we have, I don't know, yeah, we just have quirks.
[SPEAKER_01]: We all have quirks with quirks with the way we shop, and we have quirks with the way we, you know, use things and store them and I do reuse my spice jars, especially the glass ones.
[SPEAKER_00]: I try if we are going to buy, I try to buy glass, I just like, just less plastic if possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the glass ones, I have
[SPEAKER_00]: reuse either by taking them to a refill place and getting, you know, like bulk spices to put in them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, or just finding other little uses for them, or at least the glass can be reused recycled.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I try.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was saving all of our glass bottles for a while, glass by stars.
[SPEAKER_01]: thinking I was going to find a used for them and one day Eric held up this box and he's like are you going to do anything with these?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said I said I really want to say yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he in front of me was poured them out.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're saying that I was like I want so badly the high now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Check for those.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know, it's me too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eric, can come to my house too.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just in front of you one by one, toss them in the trash and give you all you die inside.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that was fun, everybody.
[SPEAKER_01]: What a fun episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll just a reminder that you can find our expanded episode story with photos and links on
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's also where you'll find the special page we have set up with some of our favorite vionic styles.
[SPEAKER_01]: Use the promo code midlife at vionicshoes.com for 15% off.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for being here.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk to you soon.