I love to cook. I learned from my mother, who learned from her mother, etc. The only drawback is that, because we grew up on a farm, we relied mainly on simple, inexpensive foods that were readily available (ie: homegrown, rather than grocery bought). This wasn't such a problem, but a lot of the foods I learned to love (and love to cook!) aren't very healthy. I can make a killer country fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy, and they'll taste wonderful. But obviously, that's not such a good choice. I'm now baking, grilling, and broiling a lot of my foods, but my husband doesn't like the same old things all the time, and I'm running out of ideas.

I'm finding that when I cook, I have no idea what to do to spice things up - literally! I use a lot of cinnamon, cilantro, oregano, and pepper, but that's about the extent of my spice knowledge. I'm looking to grow an herb garden starting this spring, but in the mean time I'd like to buy a spice rack and get at least somewhat familiar with what I'm using.

So, ladies, what are your favorite herbs & spices? What do you recommend for general cooking purposes? How's the best way to familiarize myself with them?

I don't know if you like spicy foods, but I put cayenne and chili pepper in nearly everything I cook. I LOVE it on turkey burgers and in stir frys. I use rosemary on chicken too.

I use cayenne and occasionally chili pepper too. Hubby doesn't like spicy food as much as I do, so I get as much of it as possible when he works

Rosemary.. I've heard of a lot of recipes with rosemary, but I've yet to try any. What sort of flavor does it give off? What's the best way to use it?

A little basil is nice, but don't overdo it. dill also has a neat taste.

Honestly, I think the most essential are salt and pepper. If you have sodium issues, then I guess salt is out, but we use it a lot to bring out flavor. For instance, when sweating onions for soup, a little salt helps the liquid come out and improves flavor. We brine chicken breasts, so salt there, and cook steak with simple salt and pepper as seasoning.

Pepper. I use a lot of black pepper on salads and in all soups and ... wow, just about everything. We grind as we go.

I know they aren't exciting, but if you can use them well, they really help!

I also end up using a lot of lemon juice in a number of marinades and vinaigrettes. And we use a lot of lime == chicken breast we brine, then rinse and put pepper on it, then grill and squeeze lime juice on as it cooks. yum.

Great question!!
Until recently (and I'll talk about it later) I used a lot of parsley (my family is german!) and I LOVE garlic. I also used a lot of italian-type spices -- basil, oregano. 3 years ago I studied abroad in Hungary -- and that's when I discovered paprika. There, they use locally grown paprika to actually flavor foods -- not just to add some color to deviled eggs. I brough (*cough* smuggled *cough*) some paprika back with me and it tasted so much BETTER than any paprika you just buy in the grocery store in a plastic jar. It had such intense flavor... and when I ran out a good friend of mine went to an international food store in St. Louis and picked up 4 varieties of paprika for me made by Penzeys Spices. I now have California Sweet (regular grocery store variety...blah), Hungarian Sweet (just like what I smuggled here!), Hungarian Half-Sharp (a little spicy), and a Smoked Spanish (deep, rich, and smokey--almost my favorite!) So I use paprika a lot on top of potatoes, on cream cheese spreaded on crackers, on my deviled eggs, to make meat marinades and rubs, etc. The key with paprika is to get a slightly nicer blend -- not just .99/bottle. A little goes a long way...

And until about 2 weeks ago that's all I used. But I just bought "The Sonoma Diet" book with lots of recipes that use a lot of different spices that I had on my spice rack and never used -- and they are really good! So you might want to head over to that forum and read some of the recipes there. The spices in my rack are being used up instead of just sitting there, and it makes such a big difference!

Good luck.

Good reminder -- I use tons of garlic AND onions.

And I love Penzey spices... lots of variety, and the prices aren't bad -- sometimes a lot better than the grocery store (and fresh too!). Penzey's has a nice catalogue and do a lot of mail order.

Oooh! Fresh grinding pepper makes such a big difference... You can get some non-refillable pepper and salt grinders at the grocery store with the spices if you don't want to buy a nice, refillable one. There was a sale at my kroger's last week on these grinders -- 2 for $4.00. I bought a multi-pepper blend with black, white, green, and pink peppercorns.

Thanks guys! I'm doing some searching and taking some notes

Hi Brandnewme

My contribution as follows:-

Allspice - Use with beef, fish, beets, cabbage, carrots, peas, fruit.

Basil - Use with beef, pork, most vegetables.

Caraway - Use with beef, pork, green beans, cauliflower, cabbage, beets, asparagus, and in dips and marinades.

Cardamom - Use with fruit and in baked goods.

Curry - Use with beef, chicken, pork, fish, green beans, carrots and in marinades. Or vegetable curry too!

Dill - Use with beef, chicken, green beans, cabbage, carrots, peas, salmon and in dips.

Ginger - Use with beef, chicken, pork, green beans, cauliflower and eggplant.

Marjoram - Use with beef, chicken, pork, green beans, cauliflower and eggplant.

Rosemary - Use with chicken, pork, cauliflower, peas. lamb and in marinades.
(new potatoes, rosemary and garlic roasted together foil wrapped in the oven is wonderful)

Thyme - Use with beef, chicken, pork, fish, green beans, beets and carrots.

Sage - Use with chicken, pork, eggplant and in dressing.

Tarragon - Use with fish, asparagus, beets, cabbage, cauliflower and in marinades.

friskipixie -- Can you tell me how you use curry powder to make say, a vegetable (or other) curry? We just bought some heavenly smelling stuff (from Penzey's) but I'm a little unsure how much to use and ... when.

No problem Wyllenn ... I have not heard of that curry powder but I can email you recipes if you like ...

Do you like Indian, Thai or Chinese curry? Those are the only three I know.

Thanks again ladies! I'm printing this out so I can start getting some different stuff!

Ditto to everything that everyone else has said, but I would add tumeric to the list. It is one of the main components of curry powder, and is a serious anti-inflammatory. I try to sneak it into something everyday. In cultures where they eat a lot of curry or tumeric, there is little to no alzheimers disease. It is also a strong anti-cancer agent. They are doing research on it right now to see if it can actually shrink tumors by itself. Everytime that I have hit a major plateau, I have taken up a new ethnic cuisine. It tricks my body into burning fat again. I have also found ways to still make my childhood favorites by cooking them "cleanly." I grew up on fried chicken and chicken fried steak. I use skinless chicken breast, pound it flat, and lightly coat it with low fat bread crumbs, and bake it on a rack in the oven. Mix it with some instant mash potatoes made in the microwave with promise fatfree butter, and lots of herbs and garlic. I don't do it everyday, but It is close enough for a nice Sunday dinner now and then.