Question about Spices

We had a comment on what essential spices would be in the kitchen for an aspiring chef. As I am an aspiring chef myself of we can say a backyard chef I can give you all a good guess on what I would have in my kitchen. I think the essential spices you need in your kitchen depends on the style of cooking you like to do. If you tell me what style you think you like I can give a guess on the essentials for say Italian, Greek, Mexican, Chinese or we could list them all. In our kitchen the basics I would always have for everyday would be: Pepper, Salt, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Chili Powder, Dried Oregano, Dried Basil. I hope this helps for starters. We can get into specifics when we cook certain types of food.

The Bobby Flay recipes featured a variety of chilis. Some of the chilis were not as easy to find. The essential for Bobby recipes are: Ancho Chili Pepper, Arbol de Chili Pepper, Pasilla Peppers, it is also good to have some honey in the cupboard for Bobby.

Pork Skewers and Sweet Potato Tamales

This was a finale to the Bobby Flay themed recipes. We forgot to take a picture of the Chocolate desert and the appetizer. We will have to describe it the best we can. We did two entrees and two side dishes for this meal and an appetizer.

Lets start with the appetizer

Jalepeno and Artichoke Dip

We used Jarlsberg cheese and 1 Jalepeno and I used the boat motor to mix up the artichokes and cream cheese.

We served the dip with toasted french bread.


The first meat is a Bobby flay from Foodnetwork.

New Mexican Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Sweet Potato Tamales

Both of the Recipes above were delicious. We toasted the pecans a little to long so be aware. we used a sirloin chop instead of the tenderloing and I made a different sauce to go with the pork.

Apricot Chili Sauce

1/2 cup apricot jam
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup orange juice

We also made another Flay recipe with the wife loved.

Pork Skewers with Chili Sauce

Everyone loved the Skewers. The chili sauce was a hit with some but not everyone.

The last was twice baked potato's. This is a pretty standard recipe.

Bake the potato's for about an hour on 350°.
Cut the potato's in half
Remove the inside of the potato's and place them in a large bowl.

Add milk butter garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste.

Put the mashed potato's back into the skins and top with cheese.

Bake until cheese is melted to your desired taste.

The last thing we made was a chocolate caramel molten lava cake

We like to call this first Recipe Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate. It can be used as a cake, most of the time it is made in a bundt pan. We filled cup cake tins with it this time.

3/4 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil or applesauce
1 chocolate cake mix
1 sm box chocolate pudding
1 cup semi-sweet chips ( We did not use these this time)

Mix all ingredients. And bake 45-55 min. Check with a toothpick.

Our cooking time was a little less because of the cupcakes. We poured the batter into the tins and dropped som La Leche caramel in the middle. Served with Vanilla Ice Cream

Sorry no pictures. This was a big cooking day but it was fun.