Happy Birthday to Me!

I was very surprised to receive some vgifts for my birthday. Thank you, anonymous readers, for my birthday surprises! Why anonymous though? Hopefully you'll see this post and know that I saw them :-)

I had a good birthday spent with friends and yummy food. I used to be shy and a very picky eater. Who knew I'd grow up to be sociable and obsessed with food?

Roasted Spiced Sweet Potatoes

Very simple recipe. Tastes delicious on its own or served as a side dish. I've been loving it with lamb dishes.

I've started making big batches of this spice blend (4 times the given recipe) so that all I have to do is toss the sweet potatoes with 3 Tbsp of oil and about 2 tsp of the spice mix on nights when I want to make this. Some reviewers mentioned this blend works well with other vegetables too. One person loved it with zucchini.

( Click for Recipe and Bigger Photos )

Clear Your Cupboards - plus a Grocery Avoidance Game

It's January and maybe there's still a sense of wanting to do something to organize my life. I didn't make any specific resolutions though I still have my ongoing list of 101 Things to Do in 1001 Days. I should post an update on that.

Since I spend so much time in the kitchen, organizing things in there would give me a nice mental lift. I started poking around and found that there were many ingredients that I've had for a long time now. How did they get there?

• Some were gifts.
  
• Some were used once in a recipe and then never revisited.
  
• Some were bought for a recipe that I never got around to making and have since forgotten about.
  
• Some caught my eye in the grocery store but I didn't know what to do with it.
  
• I heard about the ingredient and thought it would be healthy to add to my diet but I didn't actually know what to do with it.
  
• Sometimes I even used the ingredients but it was a big container and it'd be nice to hear some new ideas of things to make with it.
  

So the game is that I'm going to try using up the food I have in the house and avoid going to the grocery store for as long as possible. (and when I do go, minimize the shopping to just replacing essential ingredients and no new impulse buys).

OK...here are some things stuffed into my cupboards. Help me use them up so I can buy more food! Post your own list and I'll try to come up with ideas for you too.

• Things from the Chinese/Asian grocery store:
  - rice vinegar
  - bag of fried shallots
  - thick soy sauce
  - five spice powder (I have so much of this!)
  - black bean garlic sauce
  - rice flour
  - glutinous rice flour (had bought to make mochi)
  
  
• Healthier Eating Kick and alternative grains:
  - millet
  - bulghur wheat (or was I going to try to make kibbeh with ground lamb?)
  - quinoa
  - kasha
  - ground flax seed (I think I'm supposed to be able to bake with it. But I've just been sprinkling it over oatmeal.)
  - agave nectar (can I use it wherever a recipe calls for sugar? I've just been using it in my tea.)
  
  
• I keep wanting to learn to cook Indian food but I haven't made much progress:
  - curry powder (I know you're supposed to grind your own spice mix but I'm still getting started)
  - turmeric powder (another spice I have a ton of. Buy your spices in small ethnic grocery stores. They're cheaper and they give you too much of it)
  - cardamon seeds (do I need to grind these? Can I just use them as whole seeds? They're not the pods)
  - Sooji/suji - I've used this to make upma/oopma and liked it a lot but there's still more of it.
  - Durum Whole Wheat Atta Flour - bought this to make flat bread but then remembered how much of a pain I think making flat bread is. Can I use this as regular whole wheat flour to make things like bread or even pasta?
  
  
• pectin
  
• raspberry syrup
  
• molasses
  
• corn syrup (light and dark) (can corn syrup go bad? I've had these for at least 3-4 years now)
  
• dried flowers (maybe roses and chrysanthemum?) - I think I'm supposed to just add them in with black tea to flavor the tea. I hadn't tried that yet but I'm going to now. Any other uses for dried flowers?
  
• enriched quick hot wheat cereal - Had been trying to make the hot cream of wheat that Neighborhood Restaurant in Somerville makes. Haven't quite figured that one out.
  

So...Come play! Give me ideas. Post your own list of loitering ingredients and I'll try to come up with ideas for you too.