Most everyone keeps salt and pepper around but marketing manager Alexandra Yogman has a different go-to for enhancing flavor: ginger. "I add ginger to anything, not just the obvious stuff," she says.

Alexandra recommends throwing chopped crystallized ginger in brownie batter, chocolate chip cookies and banana bread, or folding it into cream cheese frosting. For savory dishes, she suggests grating fresh ginger into salad dressings or throwing it into the food processor with arugula or cilantro to make a pesto that works well with fish or buckwheat noodles.