Inspiration from Marsha .....

I read Marsha's article and helped me with some thoughts I have been tackling. I wanted to make a cake yesterday, a homemade scratch cake, but I didn't have sour cream and a couple of other ingredients. Then for dinner I wanted to make a quick alfredo sauce, and I also didn't have one of the ingredients.

The past few days, I have been noticing that when I want to make something, I am missing either one thing or the other. Also, I admit I have been using that ugly gray junk in that can (pepper). Funny thing, I have these two REALLY nice black pepper mills that I bought as a treat to myself a couple of years ago. My husband and I both LOVE fresh ground pepper, when I first bought them I used them, but when the peppercorns ran out, I just didn't buy more.

Kosher salt is all we use, do not use iodized at all anymore. I cook mainly from scratch, my own sauces, gravies, cakes, stuff like that.

So my question is this: What suggestions do you all have for some good staples to have on hand for cooking? I have A LOT of olive oil, it is the Kroger brand. I had NEVER bought it before and it was on sale and I bought just to get a taste for it. My husband and mother LOVE olive oil, I will admit I am not used to it, but open to acquiring a taste for it. I do not have cooking wine. A couple of years ago I bought a few bottles from Kroger, and HATED the taste when I cooked with them. I think the reason I hated them is because it was cheap, inferior wine.

I LOVE to cook, I have a passion for food and learning. My mother always says, you know you could just buy a can of gravy for a dollar. And I say to her, yes but that gelatinous matter does not taste as good as what I make with drippings I already have and a couple of extra steps.

Anyway, what are some of the things that I could use to spruce up my pantry? Mind you, I am on a budget. I would not be able to purchase a 20 dollar bottle of oil, or 50 dollar bottle of wine to cook with.

Becky, I cook with much cheaper wine than a $50 bottle. There is an old canard - don't cook with any wine you wouldn't drink as a beverage - but that's unrealistic. In fact, many/most restaurant cooks use inexpensive boxed wine to saute with

When I can afford it, I buy more expensive olive oil, but most of the time I'm using the Kroger brand at home, too. Save the expensive stuff for a dribble of garnish, or for dipping good hot crusty bread into.

The dried herbs thing, I can't stress enough that you should swap them out for fresh whenever possible. But the ridiculous price of "fresh" herbs in those plastic boxes at the grocery make them cost-prohibitive (and they're likely very far removed from fresh). You can get bunches of good fresh herbs from the farmer's market or Paul's Fruit Market or Creation gardens, and even at the grocery you can buy good fresh bunches of flat-leaf italian parsley and cilantro. As far as dried herbs, I find dill and oregano acceptable, but if you've ever used fresh of either one it's a revelation. Never dried parsley or garlic powder/garlic salt. Yuck.

Expand your onion-like ingredient horizons. Buy fresh shallots and fresh leeks in addition to onions.

Explore good butter instead of margarine - once in awhile. When I was in school I read a study that said Kroger unsalted butter was chosen in a blind taste test by chefs more often than more expensive brands. Why? Because it's purchased so often that the store brand is often fresher than the fancier brands. And this extends to all sorts of products. Don't be a slave to brand names. Often the more inexpensive store brand is rated higher in taste tests than the the brand-name competitor. Simple staples like pasta, rice, canned tomatoes and the like are fine in store-brand form.

And speaking of canned tomatoes - choose them in the winter over insipid hydroponic tomatoes. You'll thank me for that one.

Buy good cheese. Sure, it's okay to use an inexpensive shredded mozzarella, but get a good fresh bocconcini of house-made mozzarella for your caprese salad. And explore the myriad of possibilities in good blue and goat cheeses. One of my favorites is "drunken goat", which has a rind washed in red wine.

Buy those peppercorns, Becky! You won't be sorry.

I've got a million more, but that's enough for now...

Oh, and by the way - olive oil is good for some things but not optimum for pan-frying. It denatures easily at high heat and breaks down into some horrible fishy-smelling concoction that will ruin your dish. Get a decent quality canola oil for deep-frying and a good grapeseed oil for quick sautes. I love grapeseed oil!

Oh, and by the way - olive oil is good for some things but not optimum for pan-frying. It denatures easily at high heat and breaks down into some horrible fishy-smelling concoction that will ruin your dish. Get a decent quality canola oil for deep-frying and a good grapeseed oil for quick sautes. I love grapeseed oil!

I'll second that. Regular olive oil (not extra virgin, etc.) does okay for short, medium-high heat sautes like broccoli, but I won't heat extra virgin above a low to medium low--in general (with some exceptions), that means it only gets heated if it's to sweat something. No frying and no sauteeing.

Nice article Marsha and some sage like advice! Couldn't have said it any better myself...