Question of the Day, Friday, Feb 10

Good morning!

My question today is for the cooks and bakers here: What is your favorite spice or herb?

I love cinnamon for baking. It has such a clean, spicy scent for cookies and cakes. For cooking, I think my favorite spice is cumin. It took me awhile to enjoy using cumin, but now I use it in a variety of dishes. I'm also a big fan of smoked (also called Spanish) paprika and I use it in bbq sauces and in potato and pasta salads.

that's such a hard question to answer. Like you, I find cinnamon is such a wonderful spice for cooking and for breakfast foods. I love cinnamon on homemade french toast and even mixed in to pancakes. 

As far as other spices go, I think I have a soft spot for rosemary and thyme, but I think its mainly because they smell so good!  

Note about myself, I'm a very scent driven person.    When I cook, I go around smelling my herbs and spices and think about what smells like it would go good with what I'm cooking.     I made a pork tenderloin roast about a week or two ago and I put thyme and rosemary in it and smelled heavenly.   

Oh this is funny...mine is cinnamon and cumin.  I started using cumin last summer and really enjoy it in soups.  It gives it that bit of heat and really ups the flavor I think.  I also made a baked bean recipe using liquid smoke.  OMG...they were the best beans ever.  Not a lot, because a little goes a long way.

Sometimes I just boil a pot of cinnamon with water to make the house smell homey.  But, def cinnamon is my fave for baked goods.  Oh man, now I have to go have some cinnamon toast after all this talk about it!

I love using paprika in my cooking. When I was in Spain I brought home a bunch of paprika, and now I use it in everything. In baking I love cinnamon or my "pumpkin pie spice" with is a mix of cinnamon and others. 

My all-time favorite herb is dill, but it's too cold in our garden to grow it. We have lots of fresh mint, though, so that's my current favorite. Funny but I can't stand cinnamon, it smells & tastes like bad breath to me, lol. I really dislike when restaurants add it to my coffee, ugh, what a way to ruin a good cup of coffee! 

p.s. I also think that parmesan cheese smells like vomit, so it's probably me that's the problem.

Cinnamon

Hmmm.....  It is a hard question!

I love the scent of nutmeg!  So I'll go with that for baking.  For regular cooking I'll say basil.  It's tasty and fragrant.  Especially fresh!

I love cinammon and paprika.Good question  x

I´m hungry...

SwampWitch said:

p.s. I also think that parmesan cheese smells like vomit, so it's probably me that's the problem.

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Nope, not just you. Parmesan cheese smells like stinky farts to me. When I worked at Pizza Hut and had to fill the cheese shakers I always called it the "stinky cheese". Smells terrible but tastes great! Of course, my husband tells me I don't know what stinky cheese smells like until I have experienced real homemade Goat cheese. Thank god I haven't had that experience yet! 

For me, when it comes to baking, I pretty much follow the recipe as is. I'm a good baker I think, as in things come out tasting like they are supposed to, but I don't experiment much. When it comes to cooking, there are very few things I make that don't include thyme, parsley, oregano and a touch of rosemary. What can I say, my mom's family is Italian. I made chili once for my old boyfriend (who grew up in Texas), and to me it tasted perfect. He ate one spoonful and said "I'm eating spaghetti sauce with beans in it". So I dumped some Cayenne pepper in and he was happy.

One of the easiest, and tastiest, dinner I make is chicken breasts dipped in olive oil (or vegetable oil, either works) and then coated with a mixture of breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese (yes, the stinky cheese), thyme, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper. I don't really have a recipe, I just season to taste. I go heavy on the oregano because it gives it a kick. Put them in a casserole dish and cook for about 1 hr at 350 or until the chicken is done. You can also use round steaks cut into smaller pieces.  

SwampWitch said:

Funny but I can't stand cinnamon, it smells & tastes like bad breath to me, lol. I really dislike when restaurants add it to my coffee, ugh, what a way to ruin a good cup of coffee! 

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Finally someone else who doesn't like cinnamon. Everyone looks at me funny when I tell them I hate cinnamon.   I don't like when its added to things it shouldn't be in. The one Chinese food place where I used to live put cinnamon in their egg rolls. Maybe that is normal, but I thought they were disgusting. 

I like to use Italian seasoning. I'm not big on just one spice, I usually buy packs with more than one (Italian seasoning, garlic lemon, citrus herb, etc).

I dig rosemary.

Nutmeg too! Cinnamon, eh.