These cheerful little dried berries are the red things you see in all those multi colored pepper blends. As far as I'm concerned, those blends were put together by someone who noticed that they were all called pepper and looked pretty next to each other. There is no way I would have come up with that blend for flavor purposes. Pink peppercorns are an awesome spice, and the soul of my Five Pillars of Greatness blend. They have a thin bright red shell over what looks like a little peppercorn, but there the resemblance ends. their flavor is somewhere between juniper and the sweet part of pomegranate. Their flavor comes through, but it is hard to overpower a dish with them, so use them liberally. buy them unground, and add them late in the cooking process for full potency.

This is one of my favorite spices. Cardamon always brings to mind thoughts of my grandmothers Finnish pulla bread, and holidays spent inside near a crackling fire with good company. It is the sweet good cheer in my Five Pillars of Greatness blend, and used sparingly in a lot of my cooking. It is versatile enough to be used in anything from serious meaty dishes to light deserts, with a flavor reminiscent of true cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, but with with none of the bite. I use the green, but I find the pods to be more trouble than they are worth for most applications. The ground product loses flavor fast. Buy it in seed form and grind on demand.

Johnson and Johnson has released a new "Nothing But Tears" line of Shampoo this week aimed at toughening up newborns. According to TheOnion, ""Nothing But Tears" shampoo contains only the most abrasive of natural ingredients". I think it is clear what their ingredients list contains. Onions! My evidence?   It is natural and causes tears. It is being reported by the Onion; clearly a biased publication. It isn't listed in their advertising as an ingredient. Where will it end?

  You know how sometimes you are eating and you come across a little burst of flavor and you wonder what spice it was? Chances are good it was cumin. The little seed is quite a chameleon, with a flavor that is both strong and iconic, yet blends with the flavor of a dish in such a way that a new flavor is born that is greater than the sum of its parts. You can find it in massive quantity along with peppers and garlic powder in that cheapo curry powder that forms the base of so much commercial Americanized Mexican food. I use cumin myself as a brute force flavor for taco meat, but it also has a great deal of complexity to add to a variety of classier dishes. Its raw flavor is a strong and a bit on the green side. If you toast it the force of the flavor subsides into a lighter, more complex spice suitable for less potent fare, but over toasting it will leave you with something bitter and undesirable. It is a strong spice, but I always find myself adding more as I cook. Make sure you label it well in whatever spice ...

George Foreman is famous for having a punch to the body that could make the toughest boxer double up. He named all five of his sons George, and created a grill that is more waffle iron than barbecue. I'm not a big fan of putting meat in the waffle iron, but he also sells a more traditionally styled grill. I've had mine for many years now and even bought a second just to make sure I have a backup in case of apocalypse. I have a real barbecue as well, but there are times when between weather, darkness, and housing constraints, starting up a fire outside just ain't gonna happen. The important thing is knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the tool. There is only one weakness I've found, but it is a big one. You miss out on that flavor of smoke and char you get cooking over flame. My secrets to mitigating this are simple: Smoked Peppers and soy sauce. For the peppers I recommend smoked pimenton from Spain, or smoked pasilla de Oaxaca. For lighter fare like chicken and fish I may use toasted sesame oil. The trick with the soy sauce is that if you pour it ...

I'd like to welcome a new blog into the blogosphere. Cooking on Sundays was started by a good friend of mine who would like to share their tradition of cooking dinner for all their friends each Sunday with the world. Each Sunday, a post goes up detailing the experience and walking you through the tasty and usually vegetarian recipe of the week, from conception to completion. Be warned, Cooking on Sundays is not yet an onion free zone. We will have to enlighten them to the wickedness of their ways.

These are one of my favorite sources of heat, and single handedly provide the fiery bite of my Five Pillars of Greatness blend. They are tiny dried red peppers with a smoky, short lived, but potent heat. They are small enough that you can often use them whole in soups and sauces which makes them much more convenient than most peppers, which often require de-stemming, de-seeding, baking, peeling, chopping, etc. I've tried just about every pepper out there, and this is one of only a few I keep on hand at all times. If you don't have pequins and have to substitute, I'd use De Arbol, which are available in most stores. You can buy Pequin peppers here on amazon in a the quantity of your choice.

An ancient search, finally concluded. I was in Costco the other day and found this salsa by Del Real Foods. Its short ingredients list (Roasted Tomatoes, Roasted Chilies, Salt) is a real strength, not just for what is is obviously lacking, but because it is good just how it is, and it won't add that cheap processed flavor to your food if you mix it in with your cooking. It is also good with chips. a little shredded cilantro, and a squeeze of lime. Looking around on their site, I notice that most of the products from Del Real Foods have few to no onions. Del Real, I salute you, for attacking the enemy in their stronghold, and emerging victorious! Update: Thanks to commenter Cinco, we now know of yet another commercially available place to buy salsa without onions. 505Chile.com sells quite a few salsa and chile products, several of which are onion free, these include: Their medium salsa (yellow label but not green) The red chile sauce/enchilada sauce. The southwestern marinade. Their roasted and diced medium green chile. The chipotle and honey roasted green chile.