Cooking question:

I make a quick-and-dirty black bean stew-type thing by combining 1 can black beans, 1 can diced tomato (or dicing up a fresh one), and 1 can of Trader Joe's black bean soup (which is good, but bland). The overall taste of the whole thing is savory, but...bland. What would be good spices to add to it?

When it comes to cooking, I am VERY spice-ignorant, and I'm trying to rectify that, but I have to ask people so that I know what direction to head in.

I have a massive headache/neckache that starts at my eyebrows and ends at my shoulders. Advil, caffeine, decongestants, and food have not helped. In fact, it's worse. I never used to get headaches. Maybe it's tension. Maybe it's the rainy weather. Maybe it's how my period is going to manifest now that I have the Mirena. If I take a Valium or Tylenol, I'll be asleep and I don't want to sleep all day. If I don't, I won't get anything done. I probably won't anyway. Damn.

I just took a medicinal shot of brandy. Let's see what happens.

What would be good spices to add to it?

Cumin. Cayenne.

What would be good spices to add to it?

Cumin. Cayenne.

I was thinking cumin! Cayenne didn't occur to me, though. See -- this is what I mean when I say I'm spice-ignorant.

The overall taste of the whole thing is savory, but...bland. What would be good spices to add to it?

Cumin! That's what makes beans taste more like chili.

Also, I do a mix of what I think of as a Morrocan blend: cinnamon, allspice, cloves, cayenne.

Other things which add flavor: several cloves of finely minced garlic, liberal splashings of Worcestshire sauce.

Green chilies would be good.

you also might want to try a little oregano and/or thyme.

I really like thyme so I add it to a bunch of stuff.

I always say cumin. And green chilis would be delicious. Sriracha?

Other things which add flavor: several cloves of finely minced garlic,

I do add garlic (sometimes only garlic powder if the real garlic has disappeared -- I swear the dog eats it when we're at work, because we go through a head of garlic way too quickly), but it didn't get the stew all the way to where I wanted it.

liberal splashings of Worcestshire sauce.

I do love Worcestershire sauce. It makes my shepherd's pie SO GOOD.

I need to just buy the Flavor Bible, which is essentially a glorified list of All The Foods, along with what flavors/foods complement them. For someone like me, who likes to cook but hasn't developed any knowledge/instinct of what flavors/foods pair well together, it's *brilliant.*

I always say cumin. And green chilis would be delicious. Sriracha?

Heh. Here's my problem: I am a spicy (hot-spice, that is) food wimp. For things like chili, I cook the batch so that it's spiced to what I can tolerate, and then Tim adds Flaming Anus hot sauce (NOTE: not a real hot sauce, as far as I know) to his serving.

So he would have to add Siracha (which I always think of as "rooster sauce," thanks to the rooster on the bottle) to his own serving.