oh yeh. im all on that. but im talking, like example, in the case of roasted tomato, it seems in the stuff i buy they put some kinda spices in it?

with that said, i fuckin LOVE Easy Mac Tombstone flavor... but its fucjking annoying buying the little packets. So i know they put in oregano, some onion and garilc powder.. but what else? it made me soooo sad cuz i can kinda get it to taste like it.. but not really :(. id much prefer to make it on my own, not only cost and convenince wise but this way i can make real sauce with real cheese rather than powder and fuckin water. but ya, again.. its the spices i cant figure out!

basil? thyme? you know how to make a béchamel? they might add seasonings to the canned tomatos, read the label. :confused:

let me rephrase... maybe its not necesssarily WHAT spices, but the quantity. know what im sayin? i can generally taste spices but when it comes to how much of what.. im lost

and yeh, i can definitely rock the bechamel.

awesome, you got 1/5 of the mothers sauces down and mac and cheese is just a sauce pan away for you. McCormic rocks, they make a decent curry and jerk thats dried spices. Dried spices go in in the begining and you use less, fresh spices go in at the end and you can use a little more. I would say, if you are new to a spice keep a spoon handy and taste until you know you got it right. you could just add like a table spoon of italian flavored tomato paste and be done with it. its going to be trial and error, then again maybe someone here can give you the proper measures. I really don't measure a thing, unless Im baking bread.

exactly. im pretty good at spicing stuff but when you get to depth like that its just wayyy too much. ill be trial and erroring forever. god damn kraft and their secrets. why cant tey just hook me up??

:(

it doesn't take long. Cooking is the easiest thing you'll do in a day.

i been cooking pretty much my whole life.. and i dont really measure either (except, like u, with baking).

but as for the spices thing, i dunno.. its hard. id literally hafto sit there with a bowl of easy mac, and my experiment, writing all the measurements down. taste the mac, then the experiment, adjust... repeat.. :( ugh.

then of course, if i go TOO far with someth ing, ill need to make sure i have a big enough batch of the experiment to start over.... just SOOOO much work :(. not to mention that everything will constantly be getting cold, ill start mixing spoons, the phone will ring and ill lose my concentration etc...

im waiting for that todd wilbur fellow to come up with the recipe, maybe i should email him!!

todd wilbur: http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/

ah, dried spices. you can lightly cook them in some white wine to release more flavor and add that to your bechemel

i used to have an herb garden but damn bunnies and slugs kept eating them

:( they also ate my tulips. we're building an extention to the house, so the plan is to keep a little herb garden type thing in there.

I have a problem with pest as well, they always get in my plants. for slugs you can spray your plants with diluted alcohol on the damaged areas. the alcohol will make the slugs dry up and wont change your soil ph

can you tell Im southern?