Spice Girls

[RedAngie]

DIS Ladies, (guys welcome too) what are your favorite spices/herbs? Do you use fresh, dried, and possibly grow your own?

Overall my favorite is marjoram. It goes well with practically anything I cook. I have a jar of dried, but sometimes I buy those fresh clippings in the little plastic cases from the produce section. I used to grow it too, but the plant died of old age a few years ago and I never planted more seeds.

I have a small rosemary plant and usually grow fresh basil too.

I really should look through my spice cabinet. There are probably things there that are 10 years old or more. (Chinese 5-spice powder from Calgary.)

Garlic powder and Italian seasoning blend complete my top 3 most used spices.

(Oh, and my favorite Spice Girl was Ginger Spice, naturally.)

 

[Dan Murphy]

Mine? Salt, pepper and on some things, cinnamon.

Not sure what Marie cooks with.

 

[Disneylover99]

I grow basil and chives.

I go through garlic powder, cumin, chilli, and cinnamon fairly quickly. I buy the bigger containers.

Ginger Spice was my favourite too. They couldn’t keep going without her. I think they could have easily replaced Posh though. Sporty and Scary had the best voices.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

My favorite spice is nutmeg, but not much call for it in every day recipes. Sometimes I unscrew the lid and have a little sniff, though. I cook with lots of different spices, but nothing too exotic or my family won't eat it.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Fresh basil is the best. Fresh nutmeg too.

I use dried mostly, because of ease. I'll go buy fresh if the recipe I'm using calls for it, except for parsley. I really do not like parsley at all; I just skip it altogether. Most of my spices are Penzey's; some Badia (from the grocery store); and a few of other brands (Spice Islands, etc).

I have a stand with jarred spices on it; a basket with spice bags in it; a drawer with more spices, both bagged and jarred, that couldn't fit in the other two spots; and a box with both bagged and jarred spices (extras from the ones out already) and bags of dried chilies (for chili, soups, shakshuka, etc). I'm sitting on $109 in Penzey's gift cards still, from last year's $50 for $35 offer, lol.

no room to grow my own herbs right now, I'm afraid. This place is packed to the gills (and the cats would eat it anyways). When we move, maybe I can go back to growing herbs and veg. We've had great success with basil, rosemary, thyme, chives, and jalapeno peppers.

(and I've never 'been into' the Spice Girls. DD#2 always wanted to be one, and took turns at each)

 

[Meriweather]

I buy from Penzey's

I use a lot of basil, oregano, cilantro, cinnamon, garlic (dried), onion (dried), pepper (various kinds). chives,
I get a lot of blends too

I have one cupboard in my kitchen full of spices.
A drawer in the freezer just for them.
And a good part of a large shelf in my pantry

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Pepper is probably what I use the most, I go through A LOT of it. Every day I put it on my egg whites, and salad. I have a pepper grinder thing, but I do not use it as much as just the regular pepper from the container type you put in a pepper shaker (requires less effort). I really like cinnamon, but I don't really use the spice, I just get cinnamon flavored stuff like coffee and tea. I do know somebody who can make coffee using the actual cinnamon spice and it is amazing. He uses a Bunn coffee maker, grinds his own beans etc... it is some pretty serious effort, but the finished product is out of this world.

I have tried to make my own cinnamon coffee myself, but I have never had good results. Probably because I do not have the ability to make drinkable coffee using a regular coffee maker. I HAVE to use K-Cups... for me they are not a convenience thing, they are a necessity for coffee fit for consumption.

 

[disneychrista]

I probably use garlic salt the most, mostly to salt the pasta water. Other than that it is Natures Seasons blend of herbs & spices.

 

[Cogswel_Cogs]

Use many.
Fresh would be
Garlic, Ginger, Basil
Powders/packaged
Cumin, Coriander, Dill
Excluding salt and pepper which i use on everything. If there is two I never use even if called for. is Rosemary and those litlle spikes like things you stick in a ham. For some reason hate them both with a passion.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

I mostly use Italian seasoning, cumin, and garlic powder.

We usually buy a potted basil plant every summer and keep it out on the back deck. DW had a tiny rosemary shrub several years ago.

DW likes to visit those spice and tea shops when we travel. She probably has a dozen or more little packets of spice blends, most of which have never been used.

And I know there are some jars way in back that are very old and likely lost whatever potency they had.

I was partial to Posh Spice, even though I don't think she could sing.

 

[Carol_]

I have it all. I don’t cook since my husband does… But if he isn’t cooking, and once the ramen runs out, I’m ready for anything, especially if it needs thyme, anybody need a bottle or two of thyme?

BTW: This thing is awesome:

 

[Wendy1985]

My favorite spice is cinnamon

btw I am a true 90s kids because I thought you were talking about the band

 

[fla4fun]

I probably use garlic salt the most, mostly to salt the pasta water. Other than that it is Natures Seasons blend of herbs & spices.

I love the Natures Seasons blend. No one in our house even bothers to put salt and pepper shakers on the table. We all use NS.

Other than that, I like Italian food, and go through a lot of oregano, rosemary, garlic and onion powder. I also go through a lot of chili powder. Cayenne pepper is another one I go through a lot. It goes on almost everything.

 

[Kitty 34]

Love pepper!

 

[tvguy]

Garlic.

 

[ronandannette]

DIS Ladies, (guys welcome too) what are your favorite spices/herbs? Do you use fresh, dried, and possibly grow your own?

Overall my favorite is marjoram. It goes well with practically anything I cook. I have a jar of dried, but sometimes I buy those fresh clippings in the little plastic cases from the produce section. I used to grow it too, but the plant died of old age a few years ago and I never planted more seeds.

I have a small rosemary plant and usually grow fresh basil too.

I really should look through my spice cabinet. There are probably things there that are 10 years old or more. (Chinese 5-spice powder from Calgary.)

Garlic powder and Italian seasoning blend complete my top 3 most used spices.

(Oh, and my favorite Spice Girl was Ginger Spice, naturally.)

Has anybody in human history ever used an entire can of 5-Spice? You and I could have shared the same one and 10 years later we'd still have tons.

My go-to is Mrs. Dash Original, which is amazing. It goes into almost all my regular dishes. For eggs and beef, I love thyme; for poultry and pork I love sage, and for any fish it's dill. When I want those flavours to dominate I don't use the Mrs. Dash. Lowery's Seasoning Salt is also a staple. Almost all my stuff is dried and packaged but I only use fresh garlic and onions. I buy fresh basil for certain recipes and fresh mint and dill for others. I also LOVE salt and fresh ground pepper. I think of them as my secret weapons. My cooking often gets raves from people who must tend to under-season theirs and when they ask what's in it, I just say "salt".

 

[TippyThomas]

I've been making things that have smoked paprika in them lately. I'm just following recipes I see online, but I have enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Definitely going to be a regular for me in the future.

 

[amcnj]

I grow basil, parsley, thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage, scallions and chives. But they are outside so only have them fresh seasonally. I used to try and bring some plants in but got tired of fighting bugs over winter and having them spread to the inside plants. So most of the time I use dried.

I probably use garlic, pepper and salt most frequently. But the ones listed above along with parsley and dill, are frequent fliers, and others are more “once in a while” to “almost never” ones.

 

[mylilnikita]

Garlic powder

And Ginger (Spice Girl) cause she looked sassy and I can relate lol

 

[bcla]

Cumin, granulated garlic, or thyme for me. Star anise is actually pretty good but more as an infusion (maybe in a spice bag so it doesn't need to be fished out). I wouldn't use the powdered version. I do the same with cinnamon sticks, although powdered cinnamon has its place too. Star anise is rarely this perfect looking though. Most pieces are broken and not perfect ones with 8 petals. The word in Chinese is 八角 (Bājiǎo) meaning "eight horn".

As far as packaged mixes go, I like this one. It's easy enough to find (sometimes the 6 oz package at Dollar Tree) as well as larger versions.

My wife has been buying stuff online (especially from a place specializing in Asian foods) and found this one. It's kind of an Asian take on Creole. It's got some interesting stuff like Himalayan pink salt. Not sure if this is a one off for them, since I can't find it on the Hayllo Spices website, and the label looks like it was printed on an inkjet.