This means go buy them please.
1. Olive Oil: I use it almost every day. From browning things in a pan (you HAVE to start with a fat… And while I have plenty of that on my person, I can’t use that to cook my food).
2. Salt: All the kinds. Sea salt, Course sea salt, table salt, the salt from your own tears. All of it!
3. Black Pepper: It’s delicious. That is all.
4. Butter: Anything you bake starts with this. It adds flavor, it adds fat, you can use it to grease up your hand when it gets stuck inside a glass you’re trying to clean… (One would suppose).
5. Flour: You need this to bake. You need this to thicken sauces, and soups. You need this sprinkle all over your clothes to make people think you’re working harder in the kitchen than you actually are. You just need this.
6. Canola/Vegetable Oil: Or any veggie based oil you see fit. This gets used in baking a lot, but it also has a higher smoke-point (The point at which your oil smokes, for those who didn’t understand that obvious description… I know I’m a jerk. It’s OK though).
7. Garlic: Garlic powder. Minced Garlic. Fresh Garlic. Have it all kids. We’re gonna use the hell out of it.
8. Hot Sauce: Don’t just pigeonhole yourself into one kind of hot sauce either. Franks Red
Hot for that vinegar flavor. Sriracha for spicy garlicy goodness. Tabasco (BOTH the green and the red). Variety (and hot sauce) is the spice of life.
9. Crushed Red Pepper Flakes: This goes in almost ALL of my soups and sauces. It’s delicious. It keeps for a long time. I don’t have to explain myself to you. Just buy it.
10. Broth: It’s not just for soups anymore. I use this to flavor sauces, and braise things. I keep several cartons of broth in my cabinet. Yes, I should make it myself. I don’t. So I buy boxes of it. Low sodium is your best choice here. This allows for you to season as you go.
11. Pasta: Keep some noodles and some macaroni in your cabinet. You NEVER know when you need to feed a crowd (Or just you because pasta is delicious and you’re in a safe space, and no one is here to judge you except me). I like to keep some of the frozen pastas like gnocchi and tortellini for soups and such.
12. Canned tomato: Crushed, sauce, diced. There is a lot that can be done with these. Especially if you buy all the spices I’ve listed so far.
13. Instant coffee: Not for drinking. We’re better than that. This is for baking. Or even steaks, and sauces.
14. Herbs De Provence: This pretentious sounding seasoning blend, is literally every herb you need all backed into one “pinky-out” package.
15. Sugar: We use this all the time. I’m not going to get into the why. You should just have it.
16. Brown sugar: We use this less than sugar, but we still use this. It’s not only for baking either. It can make savory sauces and salad dressings delicious. We’ll get to those eventually.
17. Bread Crumbs: I like to keep both regular and panko bread crumbs in the house. Sometimes we like to bread things. Sometimes we make meatballs. These are there for us during those times.
18. Onions: Yes. They go bad if you don’t use them. So use them. They are the base for almost everything I make. Embrace them. Take them into your world. Learn to dice them. Learn to mince them. Learn how to make your hands no longer smell like them. Be one with the onions.
19. Lemons/Limes: I cannot tell you how much I use these. Even if it’s just in my cocktails, and not in my cooking. Do I sometimes forget I have them and have to throw them away? Sure. But if I want them and don’t have them, I am inconsolable. I’m very dramatic that way. (DO NOT buy those stupid squeezy bottles. You know the ones. I will say it in every post if I have to. NO. NO. NO!!!).
20. Music: I don’t care what you listen to. Just don’t cook in silence. It’s bad. Silence makes your food taste bad. That makes me sad. Do you want to make me sad? I’m going to pretend the answer to that is an emphatic NO!
I could go on and on here. These are my absolute go-to's though. Buy them now. You will use them soon.
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