Category Archives: Cheat Codes
Getting the Most Out of Ingredients
When you don’t have handfuls of money to throw at things, it’s generally a good idea to use all of something that you’ve spent money buying. For some things this is easy to do. Any pantry staple you buy and then just keep in said pantry until it’s used up. For other ingredients though it isn’t so obvious, and a lot of times you end up throwing things out. I’m going to give you some hints on how to use up less obvious leftovers.
Cheat Codes: Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte
As mentioned in my last post about pumpkin pie spice, every October September August, millions of yuppies and idiots run to Starbucks forking over shit-tons of money for their limited time pumpkin spice lattes. It’s a tasty treat that you can only get for a few months at a time each year, and is pretty fun as far as coffee is concerned. And again, there seems to be a tremendous amount of novelty in the idea of pumpkin pie lattes, since they do taste so reminiscent of their namesake, that you might fool yourself into thinking the flavoring is some sort of complex concoction involving impossible spices mined from the furthest reaches of outer space and dehydrated pumpkin flakes created using factory-grade machinery. But like I said in our article about making your own pumpkin spice, it’s really just a handful of spices you probably already have on hand. There’s no pumpkin involved, unless you want to get really fancy.
Though hopefully not THIS fancy.
Cheat Codes: Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice
Everybody loves Fall. It’s got everything good about life all rolled into one season. Nice weather, cool scenery, fun holidays, and awesome food. That last part obviously being relevant to anyone possessing a sense of taste/smell. There’s a lot of fun flavors and culinary themes going on from September to November you don’t encounter for the rest of the year. Out of nowhere, it’s the 20th, and suddenly everything smells like cinnamon, and tastes like a pumpkin. I don’t know, I’m not a scientist, I don’t question it, it just happens.
“After countless hours of work we’ve finally concluded that this cinnamon smells EXACTLY like cinnamon.”
Cheat Codes: Cinnamon Sugar
Some things are so easy to make yourself that I’m always shocked that people would pay money to have other people make it for them. One such item is cinnamon sugar. For as long as I can remember we’ve had a container of cinnamon sugar in my house that my mom would mix together herself.
This would be the container I’m talking about.
I was absolutely confounded when I saw small bottles of pre-made cinnamon sugar for sale in the grocery store. Cinnamon and sugar are both cooking staples you should already keep on hand, so why buy more of something you already have, and pay more for someone else to mix it up for you?
Cheat Codes: Growing Your Own Herbs (the legal kind)
I think it’s safe to say that as a general rule, people like it when their food tastes good. One easy way to achieve this is by using herbs and spices when you cook. Unfortunately, going to buy dried herbs and spices is often a traumatic experience because of how expensive so many of them are. Though I suppose it’s not all that shocking considering that it was the spice trade that ruled the world for awhile, and even led to the discovery of our country (that would be America). For the most part you’re stuck turning to others for your spice supply needs, but luckily herbs are nice and easy to grow at home.
This yummy chicken dish was made using homegrown herbs.
The Poor Couple's Food Guide 
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