Hello everyone. I’m writing this during the Nor’easter that’s pummeling the Northshore Area of Massachusetts, where I live, right after I was pummeling my fridge, cursing my father’s name for instilling in me the value that you should NEVER waste food. The catalyst for this pummeling is because I have a large spice collection that I’m proud of. Only some of the spices are probably half a decade old, because as I said above I was taught to never waste food. I want to tell you about my solution, because I love a good solution, “but first let me tell you why I’m this way, hold on” – Jay-Z.

How I Resemble My Old Pops

Up until very recently, like two months ago, I was living as both my parents do, very austerely. It wasn’t their faults. My mother was a single parent raising two children, and my father… I’m not sure if he, and my grandparents before they died were living in poverty. My dad now has a very nice home and wants for nothing. I do know they started out without much. And I think that’s why they’re good savers. But I haven’t seen him enjoy his money. He has a poverty mindset, which I think would be the most accurate way to describe him.

Unfortunately for me, I inherited his habits. And a substantial amount of debt from a previous life, where I was married and paying for us to live. Quite lavishly I might add. It wasn’t my ex’s fault, or my parents’. I made the decisions I made and take responsibility for them. But this is why it’s so important to teach your children the life lessons you’ve learned, and the missteps you took while learning them. One of the ways this manifests for me is having difficulty wasting food.

Guilt Is a Dish Best Not Served at All

In my last posts I wrote that my mother would often say, “we have a fridge full of food” whenever I complained about being hungry. So, I took her at her word one day and was punished me severely when I defrosted porkchops to make a meal for myself. They were for a meal she planned on making later that week. But I didn’t know she had a meal plan. I was terrified after that encounter, and probably why I still get the feeling that I need to sneak food, even though I bought it!

And my father always looks for the cheapest options at the grocery store, even though they have the means to eat whatever they’d like. He often eats Maruchan ramen noodles because they’re cheap. It’s not so bad if you add accoutrements, as he would say, to his noodles. But he breaks them up into little pieces and eats them plain using only the broth packet to flavor his noodles, and in so doing, sucking the fun out of eating ramen. None of the buenos.

It makes me sad to think about them this way because I know they have food favorites. Like the cannolis, champagne cookies and ricotta pie my dad would sometimes bring home from Mike’s Pastry in the North End, where he grew up. Or my mom would make rice crispy treats, peanut butter cookies and coffee cake for us sometimes. But we all had a poverty mindset. Where if you liked something and you had to pay for it, it was an indulgence we couldn’t afford. Looking back I think this is more about us feeling as though we weren’t worthy of nice things. Regardless, I’m breaking that habit and it starts with my shopping list.

Black Beans, Tea & Sympathy

I put a shopping list together to make a few recipes, and was looking for ones where I could use the spices I already have. I chose a black bean recipe I got from a restaurant I used to work at that is stellar. A lentil soup recipe that is a close second to my mom’s chicken noodle soup (using egg noodles of course, served on the side so the noodles don’t get mushy), and a curry dish that has a lot of the spices in it that I want to use.

But while I was wrapping up my cooking session, not having made all of the dishes I set out to make, I realized that for the amount of spices I use for the recipes I make, it would take me years to go through them all. And the black bean recipe uses eight or nine. I’m already pretty heavy handed with the spices, and coming to terms with reality made me angry. This is something I’ve known for a while, my food hording tendencies, but had told myself that I’ll use them, I just need to find a way. But this was really denial disguised as optimism. After I simmered down I decided to make a concerted effort to look for other ways to use the spices. I’ve come up with a few satisfying solutions, one that I am particularly pumped about. Let me share with you what I’ve found.

I’ma Makin’ Me Some Masala Tea

This isn’t a new concept, but one I hadn’t thought about before in context to my spice collection. I’ve been drinking chia tea for a long time. A popular tea in India that uses a variety of aromatic spices, and mixed with black tea to create a unique drink. It gained popularity in the Boston area in the early nineties. That was right around the time independent coffee shops were coming to prominence. Where singer-songwriter musicians were gaining popularity by playing at independent cafés, venues that weren’t bars or clubs. They were laidback, and you didn’t need to be of drinking age to hangout in. Starbucks was also giving coffee shops street cred too, as the new, “cool” place where teens could go.

Me and my friend group were around when the first independent café in our area opened it’s doors. It was Atomic café, and the year was 1993 or ’94. My friend T-Bone was the first to find it, and came back to regal us with tales of the new ambrosia he’d discovered. It was chai tea, and it was delightfully delicious with an aromatic bouquet that blew or pre-teen minds. Cinnamon and clove, cardamom and ginger, we had no idea that tea could take other forms than Red Rose, black Tea. I’m not trying to throw shade at Red Rose. Shout out to those little figurines that came in the large boxes. But because of this discovery, we now recognized that the world was a much bigger, and more interesting place than was sold to us through the ads and trends that high schoolers are so susceptible to. This was edgy, had character and let us give the slip to the businesses that would try and mold us into the “ideal consumer”. Now that you know the history of my love affair with caffeinated beverages, let me regal you with the blends I’ve been finding while looking at my spice cabinet. Let me be your T-Bone.

Raiding the Spice Cabinet

Gone are the days of sneaking vodka from my mother’s liquor cabinet. I now have a new liquor cabinet, my spice cabinet, where I’m brewing up a different type of bevie. I decided to start with the foods I like, and see where it would lead me. I have a lot of favorites when it comes to the different recipes I make. Some of my favorites are from when I ate meat. They were; Dim Sum, pork dumplings with the ginger soy dipping sauce, breakfast sausages and bratwurst, duck and sea scallops, tikka masala, eggnog (I love eggnog) and smokey things, like smoked almonds and cheeses. I kind of ate the pork dumpling like tea, as I would use so much sauce I may as well had been drinking it. But I haven’t branched out into savory teas, yet.

I do, however, like the idea of bratwurst tea. One of the main ingredients of its spice profile is fennel. It has a licoricey flavor, but not as strong. With my trusty Yeti at my side I ready my ingredients. Here’s my ritual.

Iced Sausage Tea, With Fennel

Makes one quart

Ingredients list:

• 4g Chopped Green cardamom pods
• 4g Freshly grated Nutmeg
• 4g Chopped fennel seed
• 1 tea Coriander powder
• 2 Tbsp Sugar (optional)
• 2 Lemon Wedges, Small (not poisoned, optional)
• Ice cubes
• Hot and cold Water

*4g is equal to about one heaping teaspoon

Steps

1. I gather all my spices and the equipment I need. For this blend I’m using, Nutmeg, green cardamom pods, Fennel Seed, ground coriander (fun fact, coriander is the seed of cilantro, and smells like Fruit Loops to me 🤷), hot and cold water and ice. And any other additions, such as sugar, lemon, etc.. You’ll also need a cutting board, small but sturdy paring knife (I find these work better than a large chef’s knife, but you do you), microplane, teaspoon (yep, that’s actually why it’s named that), one fillable teabag like this one, and one bag of your favorite black tea. Or one you don’t like, I don’t want to tell you how to make your tea ( ; One small jar, heat resistant and spoon to stir with, and your trusty travel mug, or whatever you’re using. This may seem like a lot, but it’s stuff you probably already have and doesn’t take long to gather. Don’t fret : )

2. I take the spices and chop, or grate them into a size suitable for extracting the most flavor. I grate the nutmeg, chop the cardamom pods and fennel into rough pieces, like the size of very coarsely ground pepper. Alternately, you can repurpose an old pepper mill or coffee grinder. Just know they’ll smell like the spices you’re grinding, which tracks. My mug is about a quart, or four cups. So I’ll need about 4g per cup. Luckily, one teaspoon is the exact amount or tea or spice you need for a bag, about three grams. But adjust the amount to taste. I like mine a bit stronger so I go heavy on the spices. Also, when chopping whole spices I find it best to put a kitchen towel over my hand, covering the spices like a tent. This way your spices won’t jump off the cutting board and all over the floor.

3. I put six teaspoons of sugar in the one cup mason jar, with the hot water to melt it. I don’t like having the sludge of unmelted sugar at the bottom of my cup, the way it does when you get a to-go iced coffee and dump sugar in it with a half hearted stir because you’re too busy to take the time to do it right. Personal preference.

4. I put all the processed spices into the empty teabag, close it up, and place it in the hot sugar-water with the black tea bag, and steep for about ten minutes. Some will say that you shouldn’t steep black tea for more than five minutes, tops. But I say nuts to that. Do what you feel, it’s your tea.

5. Next I fill my mug with cold water, and a few iced cubes (five actually, I’m very precise when it comes to the ice). I then take my spoon and press the teabags against the wall of the glass while I pour the tea concentrate into the chilled mug. Now you’re ready to add some lemon, or whatever you feel like adding.

And that’s all. You can adjust your morning beverage to the seasons, to coordinate with your outfit, or to poison unsuspecting roommates with (just kidding, don’t poison anyone). I feel less guilty about my horded spice collection now that I’m putting it to use : ) If you have some favorite flavor combos put them in the comments below. It’s satisfying finding new blends to use. And as always, take good care and thanks for reading ⛰️🌙☕ : )