I truly love the fact that I have a pretty crazy imagination.  In fact, I think that may be an attractive trait that I possess – at times.  There are definitely instances that such an attribute proves to elicit an eye-rolling and hackneyed apathy to those close to me, but for the most part, it creates exciting conversation and experience.

I have quite an imagination, I believe, when it comes to flavor combination.  Having grown up in the food industry, this “foodie” sense is ingrained in me.  I have no formal culinary training and I have no way to teach the way I dream up combinations of flavor, texture, color, and sensory properties of food.  (By the way, I just googled “mouthfeel synonyms to impress readers with a super duper fancy way of communicating my point and came across the greatest document: “A Mouth-Feel Wheel” for wine.  I adore the creativity of words).

I just know food.  And, I dream about it – in complex and strange ways.

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Last week I was rather randomly inspired by the flavor combination of fennel and cinnamon.  This marriage of flavors was actually in the form of a herbal honey lozenge.
The idea of the two flavors together is certainly not anything new, as I have a tendency to add risky amounts of ground cinnamon to my tomato based sauces, coupled with Italian sausage, more often than not, containing bits of fennel.

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This marriage that Wedderspoon was advertising, though, led to me determining that more guests might be a positive addition to this party.  I created a friendship of flavors, if you will.

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Cinnamon, fennel, fresh ground peppercorns, Himalayan sea salt (of course), with the addition of freshly ground cloves.  And…fresh basil.  To me, the aroma of fresh basil is absolutely, without a doubt, intoxicating.
The party began – a perfect mixture of all these elements – cloves and basil were a wonderful addition and were happy to be invited to the friendship, as were heirloom tomatoes.  (Certainly not local, but a treasure this time of year, nonetheless).  Just a touch of balsamic vinegar turned this into a frienaissance.

2 thoughts on “An Unlikely Friendship”

  1. Sounds like a wonderful combination and creative, indeed! This isn’t an area where I’m very strong, but I’m glad you are, so I can learn from you 😉

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