This post is part of my series, “Kickin’ It Old Skool: Why and How We Are Old-Fashioned” or KIOS for short.  If you’re new to the series, please read my disclaimer before continuing on.  I’m keeping a table of contents to this series here so you can see what I’ve already written about and what more there is to come.

It’s time to start winding down this “Eating” series!  I had no idea it would take me this long to catalog all the food that we eat.  So here’s a quick overview of the some of the extraneous foods that we use to make all our other food taste good.  I’m sure I’m forgetting other food items in our kitchen but I think this will be good enough!

Condiments:

Mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup:  We don’t eat ketchup any more because of the crazy ingredient list.  I made my own once; it was easy and delicious but I’ve never managed to remember to make it in time again.  We buy full-fat mayo from the grocery store but I know that’s one particular item I need to start making myself.  We also buy mustard from the grocery store; its ingredient list is remarkably innnocent.  It’s also super easy to make so that’s on my list as well.

Salad dressing:  We never buy it – have you looked at a list of ingredients on a bottle of dressing?  Pretty scary.  Usually we just drizzle on some really good olive oil, then some vinegar (either balsamic or red wine), and then salt and pepper.  Easy and delicious.

Hot sauce:  Nik likes to use hot sauce so we usually buy Tapatio or Cholula, both of which have pretty OK ingredient lists.

Soy sauce/fish sauce:  We buy both of these from our local Asian store.  I know I can do better than the brands that we buy but I haven’t figured that out yet.

Spices/dried herbs/salt:

Spices/dried herbs:  I buy almost all of my spices and dried herbs in bulk from our local health food store.  It’s infinitely cheaper to buy them that way than in the tiny bottles from the grocery store.  I know it would be even cheaper to buy them in bulk on-line but I prefer to buy smaller amounts so they stay fresh.  [Random side note: I am forever converted to grating my own nutmeg rather than buying ground nutmeg.  It’s infinitely better!]

Salt:  We buy sea salt, both fine and coarse, paying particular attention to the ingredient list (yes, even salt has one!) to make sure that it just says “salt” and does not have any additional additives, such as non-caking agents.

Vinegar:

Balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar:  We buy these from the grocery store.  I know we could get artisanal balsamic vinegar that would taste much better but that’s also pretty expensive so we haven’t gone that route.

Apple cider vinegar:  I buy raw organic ACV from our health food store.  ACV has an amazing amount of beneficial properties to it, and I know I should be using it more.

Rice vinegar:  We buy this from our local Asian store.

White vinegar: I buy this in 5-liter bottles from Costco.  I use it mostly for making pickles and cleaning but rarely for cooking.  (Just make sure it’s distilled from grain and not oil when you buy it.)

Oils: 

We stick with traditional oils and avoid the non-traditional ones.  We only use two kinds of oil on a regular basis, extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil.  We do not use vegetable oil (i.e. corn, canola, peanut, etc) out of health concerns, preferring to use oil that does not have to be chemically processed in order to be extracted.

Olive oil:  We buy extra virgin olive oil from Prima Foods (the local Greek store).  We consider Greek origin oil to be superior (naturally) but clearly there are lots of good olive oils out there.  You do have to be careful to buy actual good olive oil though.  Most supermarket EVOO is not true extra virgin olive oil and is usually low quality.  This is another situation in which we are willing to pay more money to get the superior product.

Coconut Oil: We bought five gallons of coconut oil in January 2011 and it’s almost gone!  I use it for baking, cooking, frying, and skin care.

Sesame oil:  I do keep toasted sesame oil on hand for making certain Asian dishes.

Lard:  We get lard from a local farmer who we trust and I use this occasionally for cooking and frying.

Sweeteners:

Maple syrup:  We buy maple syrup from a farmer in western Pennsylvania.  We buy Grade B, preferring the assertive flavor (more bang for our buck!).

Honey:  We buy raw honey from a local bee keeper, at the farmers’ market, usually in the 5-pound bottle.

Sugar:  We use organic evaporated cane juice as a replacement for white sugar.  I buy organic brown sugar from Trader’s Joes.

Nuts: 

I buy almost all of our nuts from Costco.  I haven’t done much research into the world of nuts in terms of organic vs. not-organic.  But nuts are really expensive and Costco is the best deal for us right now.  I keep pecans, walnuts, and pine nuts on hand.  For snacking, we buy peanuts and cashews from Trader Joe’s.  They have a 50% less salt option, which we really like.  We do buy organic natural peanut butter, having read that conventional peanuts are pretty heavily loaded with pesticides and fungicides.

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A really interesting post on good fats vs. bad fats with lots of links to more resources.

10 “real food” salad dressing recipes if you want something fancier than oil and vinegar.

Buying coconut oil in bulk is the only way to make it even close to affordable.  We bought ours from Tropical Traditions and I need to start haunting that website again to find a great sale like we got last time.

The book, Extra Virginity:  The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil is a great read and particularly eye-opening.

A delicious homemade ketchup recipe.