Bring the meal together, Dried Fruits and Herbs!!

The concept of bring the meal together doesn't refer to plating it up or presenting it on the table or buffet but rather tying the flavors together to compliment one another. This can be as simple as one ingredient in one dish. Herbs are a dominating factor for the marriage of a meal but there is a little known trick I stumbled across many years ago when I was working in New Mexico at the Hilton's Pinion Grill in Santa Fe. I had access to the best herbs in the country from Abaque New Mexico, the mushrooms where the size of a dinner plate and you could taste the red earth in just about everything grown there, the herbs were as if they came from the valley of the giants, big and so packed with flavor I am reliving in my mind the aromas and taste, the problem was availability due to seasons like winter when most herbs go dormit in the snow and freeze. The menu would change with the season as would the concept of my execution of the menu. To spare you a 1000 word dissertation what I found was that dried fruits would often be the denominator to what would tie the whole meal together, fruits such as apricots, cherries, cranberries, mango you got the point. Most often just a hint of one of these fruits in one of the dishes on a plate such as the starch or veggie was the link that did it.
There is no recipe in this posting just a trick of the trade and the nudge to use your imagination. Just as I relived my time in New Mexico years ago I carry valuable information with me from my past, just the same I am not stuck there, I have moved forward with great understanding an openness to change. I have banked away so much information since that time and experienced things beyond my wildest dreams. My love and passion for the Culinary Arts is and will always be one of change much like our relationships, as I grow they will grow sometimes with profound change and understanding, what a gift to know I will never stop growing or becoming stuck with the same old grind everyday in my kitchens.
Since there have been so many readings to the Award Winning French Onion Soup recipe post(over 1000) I will be back with another soup recipe that will knock your socks off or at the very least raise and eyebrow or two.
It is very cold out there this morning so stay warm and as always be safe!!!!