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Day 18′s contest is over and Diane is the winner. Here’s the winning tip: My must have are shallots. They can make a great vinagarette, dress up most vegetables, and can be used for making a nice sauce to go with most entree meals.
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Every weekday for a month, someone reading these posts and sharing their knowledge will win a generous bag of cool groceries. Why not you? 
To enter today, tell us your secret weapon in the kitchen: could be a spice, a marinade, a rub, a product… what must you have on hand to make your kitchen magic happen?
(Each weekday’s contest will be different.)
Post your tip in the comments section at the end of this entry.
Please use your real email address when you register, so we can reach you when you win. (We won’t use it for any other purpose, I promise.) We’ll pick the best idea or recipe and award that person yummy foods to try!
When you win, we’ll contact you about how to collect your bag ‘o yummies in a reusable, eco-friendly shopping bag (Thanks, Whole Foods, for the bags!).
Watch this space for new questions and prizes every weekday for a month!
The bags contain lots of new foods you might not have tried. A few prizes are coupons for free items which will be sent to you, at no cost. Each bag also has extra packets of grocery coupons.
Every bag is different, but some of the items included are: Hungry-Man meals, Lance whole-grain snack crackers, Crisco olive oils, Skinny Cow ice cream treats, Wickles pickles, Penzey’s cinnamon, Orbit gums, Pepperidge Farm 100-calorie packs and granola cookies, Tyson products, Truvia sweetener, Eagle Mills Ultragrain flour, Zen Crunch, Dunkin Donuts, and lots of grocery coupons, too.
My secret weapon is cedar planks. I use the planks to grill fish and vegetables. Since the planks are reusable I was worried about where to store the plank after the first use (only reuse with the same item; fish reusable for fish and vegetable reusable with vegetables), and I decided to put the plank in a plastic grocery bag after rinsing in warm water, and store it in the freezer. Food is delicious, and the clean up is a snap!
A great spice team to have around:
McCormick Montreal Chicken seasoning for chicken or fish and Montreal Steak seasoning for steak, burgers, or pork. If you are a fan of grilling, one of these spice blends sprinkled atop meat lightly brushed with olive oil 1/2 hour before grilling(or broiling), and voila… a delicious meal is born!
Super 30 minute – 1 hour marinades can also be made using one of these seasonings, combined with 1/4 cup of olive oil and a couple of other ingredients.
My must have are shallots. They can make a great vinagarette, dress up most vegetables, and can be used for making a nice sauce to go with most entree meals.
My secret in the kitchen is wine. I use the less expensive ones but NOT cooking wine. A can of Campbells cream of mushroom soup becomes “gourmet” adding some mushrooms sauted in butter and wine and a little garlic. I also make a glaze for meatloaf with wine in it. You’d be surprised what just a “dab” will add to homemade soups and stews and I always add to my slow-cook roasts.
My secret weapon is Knorr brand pesto mix. This mix is the secret ingrediant in a pasta dish taht only takes 20 minutes to make. It tastes like a 5 star restuant. It has blown away everyone that has tasted it!
2 pkgs. Knorr Pesto mix
Fresh garlic
1 lb lg. Shrimp
1 lb. Mullers Bow Tie Pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
Boil water
Cut garlic and simmer in olive oil til soft.
Add 1 lb shrimp and 1/2 pack Knorr Pesto mix simmer til shrimp is pink
add pasta to boiled water (boil for approx. 15 minutes)
drain water put pasta back in pot and add shrmp and garlic
add 1-1/2 pkgs of Knorr Pesto Mix
My secret weapon is Extra Virgin Olive Oil. How can you cook/make anything without it? It is healthy and I use it for every meal – either in my salad and/or in my main dish. It is a “must have” product in every kitchen!
It’s not a secret. Lot’s of fresh veggies from Green Cay Farms.
Pizza Dough- I always have a few homemade balls of pizza dough in the freezer. Not only do I make Pizzas with the dough, I wrap the dough around an almost done burger that came off the grill and then put it back on the grill to cook the dough flipping once. Try it- It’s fun.
Vanilla. Pure vanilla. Added to so many dishes, it’s the magic that weaves the flavors together.
Hot sauce – It can be added to almost anything to give a little kick or flavor…eggs, bloody marys, marinades, soups, sauces. Depending on the heat, mild, medium, or hot…it can make or break a meal!
Mojo, that’s all you need for any marinade!
My secret weapon in the kitchen is Ranch Dressing (not lowfat). You can use as a marinade for chicken, fish, or pork. Ranch Dressing has buttermilk in it, so your chicken, fish or pork will never be dry when you bake or grill it.
My “secret ingredient” in the kitchen is Angel Hair pasta. It cooks in only 3 minutes (versus 8-10 for other forms of pasta), and combines with anything you have in your fridge or pantry to make a tasty, filling, inexpensive entree! A little garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper to dress it and you have an appealing side dish, and tossed with mixed vegetables that come frozen and are microwaved, you have pasta prima vera! Toss it with any tomato based sauce and voila – pasta marinara, or with meat sauce or meat balls (beef or turkey) and serve with crusty Italian bread. Yum!
I have 2 secert spices 1 in my BBQ sauce is cinnamon,this is really good. The other spice is fennel seed or powder in my vegetarian spaghetti sauce, it makes my sauce taste like it has sausage in it. Have a great day
My fave to add to any dish is the old fashond Worcestershire Sauce.
My Mom told me about it for years and now I am using it.
Worestershire Sauce can be added to anything from meet to eggs to veggys.
the history is
Worcestershire Sauce
© 2007 Peggy Trowbridge FilipponeWorcestershire Sauce History
Worcestershire sauce has its roots in India, but was actually created by accident in its namesake town of Worcester, England in 1835. As the story goes, Lord Marcus Sandy had returned home to England to retire after successfully governing Bengal, India for many years. He so missed his favorite Indian sauce that he commissioned drug store owners John Lea and William Perrins to come up with a reasonable facsimile.
The original intent of the chemists was to keep some of the batch to sell in the store, but the fish and vegetable mixture had such a strong odor that they decided otherwise and stored it in the cellar. It lay forgotten for two years, until it was rediscovered during a clean-up mission. The batch had aged into a wonderfully flavored sauce which was bottled and quickly became a hot item with customers.
Lea and Perrins successfully branched out by convincing stewards on British passenger ships to include it on their dining table set-ups. It soon became a British staple, primarily as a steak sauce, and further emigrated worldwide. The guarded recipe basically remains the same. However, the advertising no longer purports to “make your hair grow beautiful.”
I know this has been around forever…………….but it adds a nice taste Sue
MASHED POTATOES FLORIDA STYLE
My secret weapon is delivering piping hot (homemade) mashed potatoes to the table without all the last mintue fuss.
For years, as a kid, I watched my aunts, and mom rush to mash the potatoes the last minute, so they would be warm for all those special occassions. This created a great commotion, as the gravy was being made, meat carved, etc., all the typical last minute prep before a big meal is served.
I admit, I too did this for awhile, until I got tired of sitting down to a nice dinner looking like I spent the last 20 minutes in a steam bath. After, moving to Florida, and melting in the heat, I decided there has to be a better way.
I searched the Net, only to find they suggested, placing mashed potaoes in a double boiler. No way, more steam. I wanted hot potatoes, not a facial.
So, I devised this simple way. Make mashed potaotes, as usual(butter, milk, S&P), only a little moist. They can be made early in the day, covered and set aside in an oven-proof casserole. About 1/2 hour( or slightly more depending upon size) prior to serving, place covered potatoes in the oven at 350 degrees to heat. They will stay nice and hot at the table, while you remain c-o-o-l.
My secret ingredient is grated fresh garlic! Thank you!
My secret weapon for adding flavor to any dish is Everglades Seasoning. You can sprinkle a little on just about anything to add unmatched flavor. I use it most on veggies and plain popcorn.
My secret ingredient is thickener. 2 Tablespoons of butter mixed with 2 Tablespoons of flour. I mix it in larger quantities and keep it in the refrigerator. You can mix this in with soups, gravies and stews to thicken them up. Also after you pan cook chicken, hamburger or any type of meat, add a few tablespoons to the pan on low heat, scrape the drippings from the bottom of the pan and then add about a half cup of water to make gravy..easy and very tasty