Purpose

Over the last few years, I've found myself becoming a half-decent cook. Not a great cook, but a good one. I can look at a recipe and use it as a base for my own ideas; I can even freestyle with generally good results. I'm not super-creative, but I'm a decent kitchen craftsman.

I have a few blind spots, though. I can't bake for crap. I'm really bad at timing a meal. And I know absolutely nothing about spices. Not that I can't use them; I have a decently-stocked spice cabinet, and can follow a recipe. I can even infer, based on similar dishes, what spices I should use. But I don't have a feel for them, the same way that, let's say, I can tell when a dish might want Cheddar versus Parmesan cheese.

This is fixable. And, since I work better with structure, I'm giving myself one. Fifty-two weeks in a year; one spice a week. My Year of Living Spicily. (And I'm not going to nitpick the definition of spice, either. Herbs and other flavorants count.) And since I'm starved for things to write about, I thought it might be fun to blog about it - to not only share results and recipes, but to see what other people might have to offer.