How many spices do you need in your rack? If you’re like our family, there are far too many sitting in there, collecting dust, turning into chunks of cement because we used them once in an obscure recipe, then placed them back in the dark corner to congeal.
 
Spices shouldn’t hide. They’re meant to be used. Why do we purchase caraway seeds, sage, capers or cloves? You may use them once, but probably never again.
 
Over the weekend, my younger brother and I were discussing how we check out recipes when in a waiting area for the doctor or dentist. One thing we both enjoy is browsing recipes and thinking about throwing our own twist on them.
 
We laughed though at the unknown spices that are often included in the instructions for the dish, and it’s a dab of this or a dash of that. Really? “Hey, let’s go buy that $4.99 spice, use it once and let it decay in the pantry for the next 17 years.
 
If you dig into the back of your spice rack, how many do you really need or use? To provide helpful advice here’s a few tips from my famous chef career.
 
Pepper – gotta have it. Great on potatoes, salads, and anything bland.

Accent – rather than salt, go with Accent. It reduces the sodium and tastes great.

Oregano – if you do anything Italian, oregano is a must.

Curry – if you like to add a touch of Indian-type flavor to your dishes, curry can be worked into sauces quite easily and add a unique taste.

Cumin – love it. Great in chili. Smell it, then think about what dish you can add it to. Be creative.

Meat, pork, chicken rubs – I have two containers with rubs for meat. Sprinkle them on any of the meat you like before cooking to add some extra flavor.

Yellow mustard – a personal favorite that I add when basting steaks (ketchup is probably a necessity for most people, but we don’t use it much).

Mesquite and hickory liquid smoke – unsung heroes. I alternate these when basting meats that I cook on the grill. Coat any type of meat before grill and let sit for a few minutes to soak in and your guests will rave about how much better the food tastes.

Garlic – can’t live without it. Bad for your breathe, but good for your health. Another spice that’s good in most Italian dishes. Great to add a kick to pot roast or meat loaf.

Cilantro – buy it fresh. Awesome flavor that gives a distinct bite to just about anything, but beware that some people find it tastes like soap.
​
Forget about tarragon, turmeric and thyme. You’ll use them once every lunar eclipse.
 
Onions are a must, but like cilantro, buy it fresh. You can keep onion flakes on hand for an emergency.
 
Nutmeg, paprika and poppy seed will sit on your shelf forever. Resist the impulse to purchase them in the supermarket even if the recipe in “Parade” magazine calls for it. Find something else you like on your shelf and toss it into the pot, stir it around and see how it tastes.

Bottom line: Buy the spices you like and will use. There’s nothing wrong with stocking up. Just make sure you spice us your dishes and your life with ones you appreciate.

​We need to flame thrower the Emerald Ash Borer. I’m not a horticulturist, but given how many ash trees have been killed in North America from this invasive insect, I think it’s time we brought out the big weapons.

If you drive through Illinois or Wisconsin, you see the tree carnage everywhere. Just glance out your window for a few miles and you’ll see decimated branches, bare trees, multiple trunks in a row with no greenery – the wreckage.

A few weeks ago, I visited with several friends in Kankakee, IL to play golf at the Elks Club. Across the course, there were leafless ash trees on almost all 18 holes. And this was after the greens keepers had taken down many of the dead ones already and burned them.

It was the burning that got me to thinking that proactive action is required in these situations. Frankly, I don’t know how to stop the insect from infesting new areas. So why not burn them while they’re in the tree?

That got me thinking about the flame thrower. I’m not talking about decimating forests, so hear me out.
 
The tactic to defeat the Emerald Ash Borer can start in a stand of trees where it’s clear an infestation has started. Make sure the fire department is on hand. Then bring in the flamethrowers to torch the trees. The fire department stands watch to prevent any spread of the blaze and jumps into action if it looks like there might be a problem.

If not, they just let the blaze burn itself out and kill the insidious insects destroying the trees. As a first step, this tactic can be applied to multiple trees when it is discovered the borer has appeared and started to attack.

This is war. We need to battle back.
 
I doubt there will be an immediate cease fire. Probably, at best, we can slow the enemy down. If we can, for example, limit their devastation of the ash species to 50 percent or 40 percent, we can declare a limited victory in the short run. Perhaps we’ll scare them off. “Henry, here come the humans with those torch things, let’s take a hike.”
 
Seriously, we should be coming up with much more thought-out and intelligent solutions to stop this species loss. I don’t see any forward thinking.
 
A longer term solution is to stop monoculture planting of trees when landscaping is done by businesses or local communities. When you plant the same tree over and over and over again, it becomes susceptible to a specific pest. Why not select five different types of trees and space them out so that you never have the same species next to each other? It only makes sense, but for some reason you don’t see this very often.

We’ve introduced 6-8 local species of trees to our land here in Wisconsin over the past two years. Hopefully over the years that will add diversity to our neck of the woods and lead to a more sustainable ecosystem. My wife and I find great satisfaction in making this contribution.
 
Everyone can take a similar step on their parcel of land in terms of helping to create a stronger mix of woods and forests. Just watch out for the flame thrower.

​June 3, 2039 – Boston, MA – The NBA Finals opened tonight with an historical first: Three former players – LeBron James, Kevin Durant and James Harden – served as the officials. All three players, after they retired from their storied careers, decided they wanted a new, more difficult challenge and decided to take up officiating basketball. Despite their skills with the ball, it took them each over 13 years of tremendous effort, training and personal/video feedback to make it back to the NBA championship.
 
“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” James said when he found out he would be the referee (the lead official) for game one of the finals.
 
“I always wanted to do something more for the game of basketball after I retired,” Durant said, “and I’ve dedicated myself to this awesome endeavor for 13 years now. It’s a tremendous feeling.”
 
Harden had the toughest time being recognized for his officiating talent, languishing on the G League roster for years before finally realizing he needed to shave his signature beard to advance. “Man, the sky was the limit after that,” Harden smiled and said in a pumped up voice.
 
The first game between the Celtics and London Bridgers (who joined the league in 2027 along with the Berlin Beermeisters) was tight throughout. “I can’t believe how big, fast and strong these guys are,” James commented afterwards. “I can’t keep up with them.”
 
Jeff Van Gundy, commenting for IESPN (International ESPN) from the sidelines in his fully operational electronic wheelchair with voice activated commands, weighed in regularly on the officials. “That’s not a foul,” he screamed in his crotchety old voice in the first three seconds after DeShawn Decampo went up for a four-pointer and got hammered across the arm. “I can’t believe they called that,” he yelled, despite the bone piercing the elbow and the puddle of blood on the court. Emergency personnel immediately came onto the court to whip Decampo to the hospital, where officials expected the newest instant stem cell injection coupled with pinpoint laser therapy will prep to play for game four. Stay tuned.
 
The game stayed close throughout the first half. In the first five seconds of the second half, Van Gundy again weighed in: “The refs clearly aren’t blowing their whistle in the second half. That was a foul. And so was that,” he remarked as action zipped by on the court too fast for him to register.
​
Sweating in the locker room afterwards, the three officials, reunited from their days playing in the NBA, had this to say: “I challenge anyone to come out and officiate basketball. It’s next to impossible to see all the activity and you have to be razor focused at all times and make instantaneous decisions correctly over 95 percent of the time. Shoot, when I shot 75 percent on my free throws, I was doing great,” James exclaimed.
 
Durant agreed, “It’s was WAY easier for me to hit my jumper anywhere I was on the court because I was so much taller than anyone who guarded me and I had long arms. I wish I could go back to 2018 tell myself to quit whining and just play, now that I know how hard it is to referee in the NBA and make the finals.”

Harden, the most stoic of the three, observed, “I wish I’d shaved my beard earlier. Man I love refereeing.”

​Who would have ever thought it came to this? I saved three clicks on the computer the other day and it was a big deal.
 
Fifteen years ago, I would have never said that. Maybe not even five years ago. Perhaps not even 2-3 years ago. But I said it last week when someone showed me a shortcut.
 
“Here, click this on instead,” my coworker said. “Now go here. Scroll down. There it is.”
 
So, rather than randomly going through 6-7 taps that you have to remember in sequence, I could shortcut to the projects he and I worked on together in three quick taps of the keyboard, cutting my workload in half. Whew, that was awesome. Now, of course, you still have to remember the exact commands to the shortcut, which is a whole new problem in our current click, tap and scan world. But still, for the most part, it will make life ever so slightly easier.
 
One of the best things I like about Microsoft Word, our operational document editing choice, is that now when you return from another site location and call up files, the system brings up your most recent 6-8 documents. That’s wonderful when you are writing or editing and had to leave to take care of some other business, whether that was for 10 minutes or 10 days. Those most recent files are right there.
 
You don’t need to remember their names. You don’t need to remember where you stored them. Easy access.  I love it. Thank you, Microsoft.
 
Humans are a lazy species when you think about it. We want to shorten up tasks, and get things done with less stress and energy so we can go watch roller derby or pro wrestling matches. Since those entertainment options are more important, we try to find ways to shortcut our work output. Microsoft figured out this part of human nature and gave us what we wanted.
 
GPS apps for your smart phone are another great example of this. Though we use them straightforwardly to find where we are going, we also look for shortcuts. When notified of bad traffic, what’s your instantaneous thought? “How do I avoid that red line? There’s got  to be some faster way to get there.”
 
So we search for alternative routes. “Find the green line for me, dammit.”
 
Companies that tap into this impulse, saving us time and mental energy, are locked into success. We always choose the easier route given the option.
 
That’s what hand technology gives us these days -- all those extra options to figure something out. With too many commands though, rather than making life easier, we’re baffled by the choices or can’t figure out how to navigate where we want to go intuitively. So we might avoid taking advice, like that given by my coworker.
 
On the other hand, when it’s sage advice that you can quickly incorporate into your brain cells and retain for future use, then the new method is golden. Turn it into a regular pattern.
 
If you master enough shortcut commands, think about all those extra sporting events you can watch on TV, comic books to read, naps waiting to be taken, meals you can eat. Master those shortcuts and the joy of the world unfolds before you.