Frozen Garlic and Ginger Cubes

When I was in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, I made my mandatory trip to Whole Foods. While perusing the frozen food aisle, I came across this fantastic product; frozen cubes of garlic and ginger that you just pop out of the tray! The brand is Dorot.  There are 20 cubes per package, and each cube is equal to 1 tsp of ginger or one clove of garlic.

I used both in the stir fry I made last week. The flavor is great! So convenient, too.  Sometimes you don't want to go through the hassle of mincing a clove of garlic, or you are out of fresh. This is great to have in the freezer.

What's new in the kitchen? Blend It Up Southwest Spice Blend CONTEST

If you've been reading my blog, you know that I love my VitaMix. I've had it for 20+ years and use it 3-4 times a week. I was at Costco a few weeks ago when they were doing VitaMix demonstrations. While making a taco soup, they used a spice blend made by Blend It Up. Anyway, I really liked the flavor of the soup, so, I bought the Blend It Up Southwest Spice Blend.
You can imagine my excitement, when I met the person who produces Blend It Up! Here is the exciting part......... he has given me some product for a contest!



I will be giving away 3 containers of Southwest Spice Blend from Blend It Up. Here's what you need to do; make a comment on this post telling me your favorite southwest food. I will take comments until Saturday Dec. 20, 2008 at 12 noon MST. I'll use random.org to select my winning numbers. Tell all of your friends to enter!

Also, if you make an order with Blend It Up (click here and it will take you to their web site), mention the Little Red Hen, and you will receive a gift! What is not to love about that!

Garlic and Ginger in a tube!

I thought I'd introduce you to one of my favorite cooking items, Gourmet Garden Ginger and Garlic. They carry other items in a tube also, but these are my favorite! Whenever I am cooking and need some garlic or ginger, I just get the tube out of the fridge, squirt some into the pan or bowl, and that is that! Instant flavor without the mess. Now, usually I use fresh garlic or ginger, but there are times that I am out, so this is great to have on hand. Also, when it gets close to the expiration date, I just put the tubes in the freezer. I don't even have to defrost it as it is soft enough to squeeze out straight from the freezer. Great stuff. Wonderful flavor.

You can find this in the produce section of your grocery store, usually near the fresh herbs. If you can't find it, ask your produce person...they can order it for you!

Fresh Ground Cinnamon

Today for breakfast I had one of my favorites; cottage cheese and applesauce. I know, you're thinking, yuck, right?! This is one of my favorite summertime breakfasts. It is filling, and tastes great. Where does the cinnamon come in you ask? I grind the cinnamon right on top. YUM! This applesauce pictured I made from dehydrated apple slices (from my food storage) that I reconstituted using 1 part dried apples to 1 part hot water. You let it sit for 5 minutes, then put it in the blender (or in my case, the vitamix). This is the best applesauce! You can add sugar to it or not. I like applesauce to be a little thicker, not runny, so this works well for our family.

Here is the cinnamon I use for topping my cottage cheese/applesauce. It is a grinder that you can buy at the grocery store, right in the spice aisle. I think I got these on buy one get one free sale. This is really good cinnamon. I have given these as gifts to my friends, and they love it too.
Now with the weather beginning to turn autumn like, you may want to use your cinnamon for a warmer breakfast. I recommend cooked oatmeal, topped with applesauce served with a healthy amount of ground cinnamon! You might just think that you are eating apple pie! Let me know if you try it, and how you like it.