For those of you who aspire to become a chef, here's an important tip: Cumin starts with a "Cu". Why all the spice companies make cumin and cinnamon bottles look so similar is a mystery to me...and my family. A few weeks ago I was making some potentially-delicious chicken chili and I started throwing in whatever spices appealed to me at the moment. When I applied a rust-colored spice liberally, Michael asked, "Cumin?"
A gasp escaped our heroine's mouth. She grabbed the suspicious bottle of which she could read from the label, "Ci..." "That's not cumin....that's not cumin...." thrummed her panicked thoughts. She turned the bottle to read the rest of the label: "Ground Cinnamon," it read.
"AAAAAAGH!!!!!" involuntary screamed the cook.
"Hahahahaaa!!!!" laughed her unsympathetic husband.
(K, back to first person...) As I frantically scraped the majority of the cinnamon off my chili (thank heavens I hadn't stirred yet!) Michael took a deep sniff.
"That actually smells pretty good. Mind if I taste it?" I didn't, and he did. He said it didn't taste bad, but if he had to eat a whole bowl of it, it would make him sick. So I spent the next little while straining my chili under the water faucet and trying to salvage it. It did eventually turn out nice.
I guess it served me right for teasing Michael so hard a few months ago when when he put ground cumin in our raisin oatmeal.
Now if you ever look in my spice cupboard you will understand why my cinnamon bottle had been generously clarified.
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