Monday, December 27, 2010

Weigh In

Did Santa visit y'all this year?  The older I get, the smaller Christmas gets.  Especially as it is just me and my daddy-o.  But he still manages to surprise me a bit.  I had asked for a food scale a while back.  Because so many recipes written these days use weight measurements instead of cups and whatnot.  Which makes sense but when you don't own a scale...  Dad remembered, even though I never told him where to purchase said scale.  Because I didn't actually know and was too busy to figure it out.  He braved the mall (I am proud to say I never once set foot in any mall this season!) to visit Williams-Sonoma and find my scale.  Can't wait to start using it.  To measure out some of the 25lbs of my favorite gf Better Batter flour that was under the tree too.  I need to go out (after the Noreaster blows through town of course) to buy proper storage as it is in this giant professional baker's flour bag.  But dad also let the WS girl talk him into buying me several littles as stocking stuffers.  Which I of course love, but one is sort of a mystery to me.  Chinese five spice.  Have any of y'all used it before?  Dad said that the WS sales girl (who was clearly doing a very good job!) said that it was all the rage with foodie types.  I am sure I do not qualify as a foodie.  I do in fact continue to profess my love for my crockpot, Sandra Lee (Laura is cringing), and once in a while, Chinese take-out.  But I am a sometimes-wanna-be-foodie-because-all-the-cool-kids-are-doing-it, so I am determined to make this cute little jar of Williams-Sonoma sales girl professed magic spice dust my end all, be all.  So tell me, true foodies and those with better stocked spice racks, what should I spice up five Asian ways?

10 comments:

RiZZiE aka Lip Gloss Lover said...

You could use the spice in so many ways! I love spices in everything, from sprinkling a little on my eggs to dumping spices in a hot chicken stir-fry! I don't cook myself, but suggest my mom sometimes. And congrats on the kitchen goodies, hope you'll have a great time cooking!

I'm a follower of your blog! :) Please follow me as well!

theperfectpout.blogspot.com

Sara said...

I love the spices from Willams Sonoma! (A little goes a long way) I would use this with a shrimp stir fry or with some pork in your slow cooker. It's a great mix of spices- I am sure it will become one of your favorites in no time.

Paula said...

I haven't used Chinese Five Spice in a while. My mother-in-law once gave me some from Penzey's. I believe that I used it in a chickan marinade for grilling. I'll try to check on that for you.

Dr. Blondie said...

There's a recipe in my wok's cookbook called "5 Spice pork and potatoes" that is really good and it calls for Chinese five spice. I think that you could use it in any stir fry.

Have fun!

Lauren (Healthy Delicious) said...

love 5 spice with shrimp! I make shrimp cakes with it... so yummy. It also goes really well with pork (like short ribs)

Kelly said...

Not sure about the 5 spice sorry! And i cant remember if I learned about Better Batter from your blog or not, but I LOVE IT! Sadly I learned AFTER using 5 lbs of it that you need to double the amount of liquid in the recipe to sub it in for regular flour. I was just thinking my textures were different bc it was GF flour lol. Oh and my breads werent rising. Sad. They should really make that print on the box bigger =o) Just thought Id give you a heads up in case you didnt know that!

Lori said...

Thanks for popping over and for the comment! Hope your Christmas was merry!! :)

caknitter said...

The five spices sound interesting. What does it smell like, spicy, or sweet?

Ruth said...

I bought some not long ago and am still try to figure out what to do with it. If you find a good recipe please share.
Glad you had a wonderful Christmas

REBrown said...

My mom is a big fan of five spice, she got some as a free sample from King Arthur Flour one year. It's a little spicy and a little sweet. I think you can really use it on anything!

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