Spice Quest, Pho, and Homemade Dog Treats

Initially recommended to us by another farm friend, Seven Arrows Farm, an "Uncommon Plant Nursery," is a wonderful treasure near our home. We first visited this location this past summer and found fantastic herbs and peppers for our garden, as well as a grand nook of bulk jars filled with medicinal and culinary herbs and teas.  How unsuspecting I was about how much I would come to need the nook!

Repurposed jars (Thanks, Grandma!) -- and a fun start to the morning.
Though not pictured here, the star anise jar is my favorite -- so festive!

In the recent cookbook testing, I've been called out of my comfort zone a bit with the required and diverse seeds and spices -- many of which I have used before but in their ground forms.  Though I certainly recognize the fresh vibrancy of newly toasted and ground seeds, I find myself torn between whether or not this step is worth the effort and time.  Certainly, I saw the difference in the fresh broth made with a variety of toasted and then immersed spices in this weekend's "Pho Noodle Soup with Tofu and Bok Choy." However, in other recipes, it seems to take more time with no resulting flavor augmentation.  I think I'm going to try a few recipes with half as noted and half readily available to give this some additional study.

Readers -- I'm curious about your thoughts.  If a recipe gave a listing of seeds and whole herbs that you didn't have readily available would you 1) just used the ground variety that you had? 2) be more or less interested in a cookbook that repeatedly calls for those specialty items?  Hope you'll share your answers with us in the comment section.

As for recent deliciousness, here are some photos:

Terry Hope Romero Test: Pho...in progress

Pho -- YUM!

For the fur children: "Sweet Potato Apple Dog Treats"

I found this recipe in a recent Whole Foods flyer and modified it slightly by using leftover apple peels (finely chopped) from making applesauce. :) Mine clearly were not as cute as those pictured on the link, but believe me -- Nes and Boom did not mind one bit about the aesthetics.  They LOVED them!

Hoping to fit in two more tests today, and some additional tests this weekend.  However, I also hope to include pictures of our culinary fun from our upcoming trip.  WOOHOO!