Five things that are not a meal but you should have anyway

The plan with this blog is that I'll make the recipe and give you exact information on how long it takes to prepare, how much of things to use and roughly how much the meal will cost.

So, while I've got a fistful of meals on standby, I can't really upload any of them just yet.

Instead, I present to you; "five things that are not a meal but will make meals a lot better"

The first one is Salt.

Last year, Bec the housemate and I went to Aldi. I bought salt in a container like this. It was less than $2. It's got about a quarter left in it still.

It goes without saying that salt is just one of those things that you keep in the pantry. Makes food taste...salty. Also, it is good for emergency antiseptic (when dissolved in warm water) and toothpaste, when you do not have any. Still, don't swallow it. Tastes like warm ocean. Mmmm.

Something worthwhile knowing about salt is that you need it in your diet to prevent cramps. That is, iodised salt, or better yet, sea salt. There's a few dozen minerals in there aside from sodium and chloride. That said, celtic sea salt is somewhat high up the pricy salt list.
Advice? Get something cheap, but don't get table salt.

Also, don't eat too much. It freaks out arteries over time.

Next Item. Salt's best buddy.

Pepper.

And this is how much my Dad loves pepper.

I bought the pepper at the same time as the salt. From Aldi. For the same price.
I understand that there are not as many pepper fans out there are there are salt-people. I don't mind a bit, but at the same time, will stop to remove whole peppercorns from the spaghetti bolognaise that my Dad makes. Partly because there are so many, partly because I find no joy in eating whole peppercorns. That is irrelevant.

Pepper and tomato are like, best buddies. Pepper and most soups, too. It's good for adding a little bit extra to the food, and you don't have to like it a whole lot, but sticking some in the food does make it slightly more awesome.

Also, the grinder I bought with the pepper in it last year looks like it's good for another year. It was about $2, and it's cracked pepper. Which tastes more like pepper and less like a sneeze, which is the essence of ground pepper. But that's up to you. Ground pepper is pretty affordable, after all.

Did you know that in the old days, pepper was worth its weight in gold? All the spices were.
Why? They were actually pretty good at making past-use-by meat eatable. Fun fact.

Third thing?

Believe it or not, Stock Cubes.

They'll set you back a couple of dollars.
We had beef ones until we ran out, and now there's chicken stock cubes in the cupboard.

You can buy stock in liquid or cube form, but ultimately, the cubes are cheaper and keep for longer. Stock is useful for adding flavour when you don't have a lot of other things to add. Stock cubes just have to be rehydrated; crumble one into a cup of boiling water and add it to whatever you're going to add it to.

I can't think of anything interesting to say about stock at the moment.

Fourth item?

Garlic

Garlic has many uses. It can be used to stave off vampires, potential dates and make your house smell of awesome when it is being fried.

We use garlic in a lot of things, and those lot of things don't have a whole lot of garlic in them, so it's not too strong. But it, like every other flavour-device in this post, is good at flavour.
Also, it's less than a dollar for a bulb, one of which we use in a bit over a month. And that's because we run out of it, not because it goes off. Don't store it on the bench, or in the sun.

Last item, and possibly the only one that will cost you over $2.

Olive Oil.

Olive oil is one of those things where the best will cost you a lot more than the uni-student equivalent. So, Extra Virgin olive oil is probably not on your shopping list. It's not on mine either.

But, we use it a lot. Heating and nonstick and flavour (more about that bit later). It's about a medium on the 'grease-type things you can use', between butter and peanut oil.

How to say? Um. You would use butter to fry things that are supposed to be either sweet or a lower temperature fry. Olive oil is good for most meats and things you cook in a pan. But, it goes carcinogenic at higher temperatures, so it's wiser to use peanut oil or something with a higher heating temperature for insta-cook.

On a side note, olive oil is also good for treating earaches. Warm a little bit up (and I mean barely lukewarm), lie down with the sore ear up and get someone to carefully pour a couple millimeters in. Stick some cotton wool in after it. It softens angry eardrums.

...You know, I wasn't planning on sticking bonus non-food-related material in the blog. But if something vaguely handy pops up, I'll probably put it in. Hope it has not put you off the thought of food.

If it has, think of caramel. No, wait. Don't.

Ah well.

Brooke Out.