We have a depressingly long list of errands to run this morning—dentist at 9:00, doctor at 10:00, piano at 11:00. Bleh! Lately we are not home schoolers but rather, back-of-the-van paperback bookers.
Fortunately, there is a light at the end of the morning’s tunnel in the form of this store—one of my favorite little shops, truly—where I will be replenishing my supply of herbs & spices.
Are you as crazy for herbs and spices as I?
My list is not that long this time—powdered ginger, lemon pepper, cloves and Chinese 5-spice powder. I will probably toss a couple of bags of oregano and basil into the basket because one can never have too much of those two items and I do not—at present—have any growing fresh out on the deck.
My favorite seasoning, hands-down? It would have to be white pepper. Oh, how I love white pepper! You haven’t really lived until you’ve made a béchamel with white pepper. (And yes, with last statement it’s official—I am a proper snob when it comes to sauces. Not that I’m all that great at sauces, but I can dream…)
How about you? Which herbs and spices are your favorites?
Ad Jesum per Mariam,
Well, here, my friend, we separate ways. I do NOT like white pepper at all. The only other spice I dislike as much (maybe more) is coriander. Can’t stand it. Uck!
Love thyme, cumin, bay, mustard, fresh basil, cilantro, sage and Italian parsley, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves.
I’m so envious of your Penzey trip. I love Penzey spices — good stuff.
Garlic. Is that a spice? I also like Cinnamon – my daughter calls it our “secret ingredient”. Basil, too. Gee, I wonder if we shop at the same store. Of course, it’s much closer to you than to me!
Garlic is actually an onion, Paula!
And Barbara, are we going to have to part ways? Or can we just agree to disagree?
Certainly this will affect the menu that I plan for your next visit! Unless it’s Good Friday, of course, in which case you can bet I’d make a meal with lots of white pepper and coriander.
‘Cause I’m just that good a friend. 😉
Can’t say I’ve tried white pepper, I will have to! My favorite is probably lemon pepper. I love it on chicken. I do NOT like curry. I would love to grow some fresh spices in my kitchen window, would that work here in MN?
Oh my goodness, I simply must have Thyme, or Lemon-Thyme, Rosemary and Sage in the house or I cannot cook!! I’m quite fond of mint and basil too when it’s fresh 🙂 Oh and about the garlic, it goes into just about everything! Happy shopping!
Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute- covers all the bases.
Margaret:
I have two cabinets…yes, entire cabinets that are full of spices. Big, round plastic containers full of ’em. We live in the midst of the most wonderful group of Mennonites and they have several little shops where they sell bulk goods. It’s amazing! The prices are ridiculously cheap.
My favorites? Rosemary, thyme and basil. In that order.
In the spring I grow them fresh, but meanwhile, it’s nice to have a really good selection of dried herbs to choose from!
Basil!
Still learning what I like and don’t like, as I didn’t start learning to cook (anything more than pancakes) at all until I was 23 and didn’t start learning to cook properly until I was almost 30…
Cumin has to be in moderation – overdoing it just ruins the whole dish!
Rosemary is MAH-velous!
Cinnamon and nutmeg.
We use – I think it’s marjoram? – in my grandmother’s stollen recipe – yum!
But I’m not that exciting yet – mostly I use a lot of Italian seasoning, and oregano!
Cayenne! I love hot and spicy.
my secret ingredient for chicken noodle soup is a little curry powder! yum.
otherwise, my favorite is fresh basil.
also, thanks to my Indian mother-in-law, I’ve come to love ginger.
*Fresh* anything, but particularly cilantro and basil are my all-time favorites…I put those in just about everything. I’m in total agreement WRT white pepper…there are just some dishes that black pepper wouldn’t do justice.
I grew up in a household where the two main ‘spices’ were salt and pepper. Basil and oregano made an appearance in the spaghetti sauce and hold onto your hats, poultry seasoning came out at Thanksgiving. My husband called my grandmother’s cooking “American Gothic” 😀
After getting married and being exposed to many new foods I expanded my own cooking repetoire far beyond that which I grew up with.
I can’t think of a spice I don’t like. I love cream sauces with tarragon-especially nice over pork. Fresh salsa made with a ton of cilantro. Garam masala and every color curry you can dream of.
I can’t stand capers, which are technically pepper right? Other than that, bring it on.
I’d love a ‘spice store’ there is probably one north of me but I’m not paying these gas prices to feed my food snob tendencies:) I’ll have to stick to the grocery store offerings, which for a rural chain store, are really quite good. Dh brings me back bottles upon bottles of vanilla from Mexico though.
Good Indian Madras CURRY! I make coconut curry beef once a week and the kids actually don’t complain that night 🙂
I love fresh cilantro and ginger.
Dried thyme is a must for soups and stews.
I’m hungry…
We absolutely love cinnamon around here – we even put it in the coffee grounds before we brew the coffee (and when I have it I like to add nutmeg too). 🙂 I also love garlic, cilantro and oregano. 🙂 Paprika is good in some dishes – like hungarian ones. 🙂
I don’t like Rosemary or basil.
~Jenny
I have recently become a lover of curry…just a little or the whole house reeks for days! But in rice, oh its so so nice!
I just made some homemade applesauce for my little angel with pumpkin pie spice, a little sea salt, and a little agave nectar. You would have thought that kid died and went to heaven. (She refuses to eat baby food out of a JAR anymore – God forbid I try to save some time!)
For our dinners, we love cilantro, basil, rosemary, thyme and when we’re making my favorite butternut squash, sausage and whole wheat pasta dish, sage.
Wow! We’ve just returned from our 5-hour outing (bag of spices in hand) and how I wish I’d been able to read your comments before leaving the house! Some great suggestions here.
Shivaun: You must send me your coconut curry beef recipe so I can make it/share it/eat it. Yum.
I love to try recipes with new herbs and spices. Personally I like just about every one I have tried! Favorites are fresh ginger and fresh cilantro. If you are looking for a new vegetarian recipe to try I posted one on my blog called ginger lentil soup. Made of course on a Friday in Lent. It was so good it didn’t feel like much of a sacrifice.
Here it is if you are interested:
http://houseofbrungardt.blogspot.com/2008/03/ginger-lentil-soup.html
I don’t know if I have commented before but I enjoy your blog!
Janet
I join the group of cinnamon lovers. I also like cumin (makes for yummy enchiladas), caraway seeds, and cilantro. I guess I’m a ‘C’ spice lover. (Even in ‘my world’ here in Europe cinnamon translated is canelle!)
I have to admit that I’ve never tried white pepper. You’ve piqued my interest. I do like black pepper…doesn’t fit with my ‘C’ theme….maybe ‘coarsely ground?’
Fun topic, Margaret.
Actually, can Shivaun post that curry recipe? Our house LOVES curry – we put it in deviled eggs, potato salad, etc. as well as in our favorite dish – chicken divan. My husband absolutely goes nuts for Indian cuisine. And I do not know how to make it!
We also like rosemary and thyme.
Shivaun doesn’t have a blog, to my knowledge, but I’d be happy to post it for her.
For all you cilantro lovers. Check out this recipe from Pioneerwoman: http://thepioneerwomancooks.com/2008/03/my_most_favorite_salad_ever_ever_ever_ever.html
I think I am going to make this for Bunco next month.
We are quite big fans of white pepper here. And Penzeys too. We visited a brick and mortar store of their in Southern California last year. It was so cool!
My husband is the sauce guy. We’ve both made bechemel but he is currently working on mastering all five Mother Sauces of french cooking.
I have never tried Penzey’s (and I should – there’s at least one in the Milwaukee area) or White Pepper. I’ll definitely have to give them a try! Though I am fond of Dr. Pepper. 😉
Beyond that, I like pretty much everything, depending on how it’s cooked and what it’s combined with. Basil, Oregano, Curry, Cumin. I particularly like Rosemary and Sage when they’re fresh (though I’m not usually good at keeping the rosemary plants alive for long). We always have leg of lamb on Holy Thursday with some slightly symbolic dishes which the kids all love (we generally take our ideas from The Year and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland – there’s basically that one spot that is permanently bookmarked and we forget about the book for the rest of the year – this has been going on for nearly a decade!). One year when I managed to have both a rosemary plant and a sage plant alive, I put huge clumps of each in with the olive oil and garlic on the lamb and it was wonderful! My favorite part, perhaps (silly me) is the way my hands smell after picking all those wonderful spices.
Thanks for your Blog 🙂 God Bless you
Oh, my word ~ after reading all these wonderful comments, I’m inspired to go cook something (and I’m not much of a cook!). Lemon pepper and garlic are our mainstays here. But, love basil, too, and curry occasionally, and whatever is in Old Bay ~ as a seafoodaholic, I can’t get enough of it.
Penzeys is great! A store recently opened near us–hurrah! I really like their Chinese cassia cinnamon, and the cake spice is great in sugar, muffins, and coffee cake. Fox Point seasoning is yummy on potatoes (but count it as salt). Parisienne blend is good for eggs and quiche, especially with a little extra thyme. Penzeys’ vanilla is light years better than others I have tried. I only use it in foods with simple flavors so the vanilla can shine. It’s not worth adding to chocolate or other intensely flavored goods.
I used to detest cilantro, but like it (fresh) now. I still don’t care for rosemary.