Striking oil

Those who know me are probably amused at how obsessed I am with kitchen pantry items, both common and rare. Sometimes these ingredients are the subtle backbone of a recipes—that je ne sais quois that can take a recipe from drab to fab. Over the holidays I treated myself—and my kitchen pantry—to a panoply of cooking oils from La Tourangelle. Some were just replacement oils for the ones I always have on hand, such as walnut, peanut, canola and sesame oils. Some were more adventurous, such as pistachio, hazelnut, avocado, pecan, pumpkin seed, acorn squash seed and Thai wok oils (the latter is seasoned with lemongrass and kaffir lime). I also got some virgin coconut oil because its such a hot culinary item these days. Time to go play in the kitchen!