Variety REALLY is the Spice Mixture of life

Some people collect stamps, some people collect coins, after going through our spice cabinets, we found out that we were spice collectors. So, in keeping with the gifting theme, we thought it appropriate to share some ideas for spice gifting.

Does the person you’re giving a gift to enjoy baking? Give them a little kit of a pie pan, server, and homemade pie spice mix. To make it even more personal, attach your favorite pie recipe that uses the spice mixture.

Giving something as simple as a mug filled with mulling spices for wine or cider or even a cocoa with marshmallows and a bag of homemade cookies, can make for a quick and inexpensive gift. If you want to add to this, put in a book that you think the recipient would like, maybe add in a CD or a snuggie (come on, you know you want an excuse to buy one!)

If you want to give a variety of spices, and aren’t sure how to highlight each, create your own spice rack with some of your favorite mixtures. We went to the dollar store and found some spice jars, and used a silverware organizing basket as our rack. We filled each of these with homemade mixtures. A Cajun spice mix, an Italian spice blend, a BBQ spice, and of course the pie spice mixture. If you’re pressed for time, and don’t want to create your own spice mixtures you can take the store bought mixtures and put them into the nice jars in the rack. Make sure you label each jar with what spice mixture they contain.

There are ways to customize even further. Add in a few recipes, or include a small recipe box/book with recipes that use the spice mixtures that you have prepared. Find out your recipients favorite cuisine and create an entire spice rack that correlates to that cuisine.

If you’re planning on doing a larger number of racks, a great place to find spices is at one of those large warehouse stores. Membership is normally required, but some will give you a free one day trial membership. If you DO plan on making the spice mixtures yourself, try to locate a store with bulk spices (many co-ops, as well as whole foods and fresh markets carry bulk spices, as do online stores, such as penzys.com). We find that you get a much better bang for your buck with these spices.

So, now you’re completely excited to start making your spice mixtures right? Below are just a couple of the links we used to find recipes.

http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blspice32.htm
http://www.budget101.com/seasoning_mixes.htm
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/emerils-creole-seasoning-essence-recipe3/index.html