food on my mind

I'm a lover of great food and cooking. One of the most important things I've learned from cooking is that the quality of the ingredients you use makes all the difference in how good-or bad--the food tastes. Stellar ingredients can transform a so-so dish into something spectacular. here is a list of ingredients that i could not imagine living without:

Sea Salt or kosher salt, instead of iodized salt
Take that salt in the blue cylinder with the umbrella girl and throw it away--right now. It's disgusting and too salty, and the only thing you should ever use it for is to gargle or clean with. Sea salt and kosher salt don't cost a lot more (Trader Joe's has a huge can of meditteranean sea salt for 99 cents), yet the difference in taste is worlds apart.

Freshly ground black pepper
My pepper mill cost two dollars (and it was filled with peppercorns) and I love it to death. I have no idea why people settle for gross pepper that looks and tastes like flakes of black construction paper. Good salt and pepper are probably the two most important things you can do to make food taste immediately better. I'm not being snooty--try it, you'll see!

Parmesano-Reggiano
If it doesn't have little pinpricks on the rind that spell "REGGIANO," it isn't the real thing. Granted, this item is pretty expensive, but it's so, so, so, so good, and is delicious grated on anything. Even strawberries and melon slices.

Fresh Garlic
Enough said.

And to prove my point, make the following recipe with the above ingredients and be amazed:

Famous Potatoes
3 Russet potatoes, cut into medium sized peices, skin on.
Extra Virgin olive oil
Sea Salt
Fresh ground pepper
Lemon Juice
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
(Optional: Rosemary or thyme)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees farenheit. Combine all ingredients, adding rosemary or thyme if you have it on hand. Pop into the oven for 60 to 90 minutes, checking on them every 20 minutes or so to stir them around and make sure they don't burn on top. If desired, grate Parmesano reggiano on top before serving.

Guaranteed to make you fall off your Atkins diet wagon.