I simply love listening to talk radio on my long commutes during the day. It doesn’t matter to me if the talk revolves around politics, religion, or money – it doesn’t matter to me if I am for or against whatever the topic might be – I simply love listening to talk radio! My daughter thinks I have issues; but, I think the talking keeps me alert because, unlike the lyrics to a song, I have no clue what might be said next.

Take yesterday, for instance, one radio host had listeners call in and answer this question: “If you could forget about one chore for the rest of your life – while doubling up on another, what would those respective chores be?” People called in offering to forget about doing dishes, laundry, paying bills, etc.; but, the second part of that question remained unanswered.

For the rest of my drive, I couldn’t stop speculating about that second part of the question. Now, there aren’t a whole lot of chores I detest, and the ones I love, I am not sure I would want to double up on, so to speak. I love the mental wind-down cooking gives me, but I am not sure I’d want to cook 2 full meals every night after work; I also happen to love yard-work; but, I live in a tiny house on almost an acre of land – that’s a lot of land to mow X 2 -with a pushmower! And then it hit me!

This month’s Recipe Redux challenge for members was to look through our cabinets and find an “ingredient/spice/condiment” that had been forgotten about and “give it the attention it needs”. Well, I get around to cleaning out my spice cabinet maybe twice a year – sometimes even less (shame on me -huh?!). Oftentimes, I wish I cleaned it out more as I seem to find forgotten treasures in there when I do – only, by then they have passed their expiry date. Now, if I could double up on cleaning out my spice cabinet, I would remember to use the Star Anise I found stashed in the back of it, more often!

Most of my exposure to star anise has been in savory dishes like rice-bryani and chicken and fish curries. While star anise is said to have numerous health benefits -from alleviating respiratory tract infections to digestive issues to colic in babies- I just happen to love the subtle flavor it ads to curries like this fish one.

 [Tweet “Fish Curry with Star Anise @RunninSrilankan #RecipeRedux”]

Here’s hoping y’all give this a try, because, in my humble opinion, spiced up fish is wonderful to end the day with!

 

Today I leave y’all with two things –
First: Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all y’alls incredibly kind comments, emails and Facebook messages on my last post – I am always blown away by how lucky I am to be part of this amazing blogging community! You guys – you guys – ROCK!
And, second; if you could forget about one chore for the rest of your life – while doubling up on another, what would those respective chores be?