image courtesy of Penzeys Spices

If you ignore your spices and use whatever you have on hand, you will be in for a treat if you splurged (just a little!) and bought fresh, fragrant spices from this wonderful store.  Penzey’s Spices has a successful mail order business, but in the past few years they started opening stores all over the country.  Bella and I are in DC this week visiting her grandparents and I had to go visit the Rockville, MD store in person.

I easily could have gone wild, but I gave myself a 20 minute time limit and a $20 budget.  I came in under budget at about $16.  I am really pleased with what I bought:

4 oz of Sandwich Sprinkle $4.15 – intended for croutons, great for subs & tuna salad, but has been recommended as an excellent all around spice mixture

.7 oz of Vietnamese Cassia Cinnamon $3.25 – spicy, hot cassia cinnamon – strong and rich

.8 oz of Chili 3000 $2.79  - In my rush and enthusiasm, I bought two chili powders accidentally.  There were so many that I couldn’t make up my mind, so I guess I’ll have to have a chili taste test to tell the difference between the two.  Both are salt free.

1 oz of Chili Powder Regular $2.89

.8 oz of Aleppo Pepper from Turkey $2.89  Turkish crushed chili, similar to ancho, beautiful red flakes, great for meats

Mama (Bella’s grandmother) came with me and she bought Chesapeake Bay Seasoning and Apple Pie Spice.  So far, we used the Chesapeake Bay seasoning on crabcakes last night.  They were wonderful and a great change from Old Bay – which as Marylander I love of course, but it is often way too salty.  Penzey’s version was fresh and did not overpower the wonderful jumbo lump crabmeat.  For breakfast,  we cook our oatmeal with bananas (my awesome brother-in-law’s recipe) and I topped it with blueberries and a very generous sprinkling of the Vietnamese Cassia Cinnamon.  It made me realize how very flat and monotone my McCormicks is at home.  This cinnamon is reminiscent of hot, spicy cinnamon hard candy.  It will be wonderful for winter and I can’t wait to try it out some for hot, Cinnamon Yeast Rolls.

Consider buying spices that you will use soon from Penzeys.  Remember spices should be replaced every 6 months, if you buy McCormicks, or every 12 months, if you buy Penzeys. In general, Penzey’s spices are more fresh than McCormicks.  Buy in small quantities and write the date on your jars.  Spices may seem expensive if you go out and replace them all at once, but they are one of the more frugal and healthy purchases that you make as you only need a little bit of  a high quality spice to make a big difference in your cooking.  Remember, using great spices is one of the best ways to cook high flavor but low-calorie, low-sodium and low-fat delicious, healthy meals.

Bon appétit !

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