Yeah, OK – I got a lot of herbs and spices on hand here at the Urban kitchen – maybe too much, even considering all the developing work I do. Since the Lunar New Year is fast approaching, I started pulling stuff down, making keep or trash decisions, and performing a thorough cleaning before Zao Jin, the Kitchen God, heads back up to heaven with his kitchen report to the Jade Emperor – Never screw with the Kitchen God, folks.
I got to the top shelf left, which is, mas o menos, sweeter stuff. Everything from several different varieties of vanilla bean and cinnamons, to clove, powdered citrus, honey, molasses, agave nectar, and finally, allspice, whole nutmegs, and mace – and those last ones got me wormholin’ a bit.
Why these three spices? ‘Cause I think they’re under appreciated for their savory powers and maybe not as well understood as they might be – so let’s have a gander.
Mace and nutmeg both come from Myristica fragrans, a tree native to Indonesia. The two spices literally grow intertwined – Mace is the bright red aril, the ropy outer layer that surrounds each nutmeg seed. The fleshy peach-colored fruit is made into jam and candy, and the rind gets used for local dishes and nutmeg juice.
Mace, good mace, has that bright red color when it’s fresh. Peeled off the nutmeg, it dries to a yellowish, rather brittle leather which then makes for a very nice powdered spice. You can buy mace wrapped around a nutmeg, or whole dried – the latter is a great way to keep it, as it’ll last a lot longer and provide a cleaner, more distinct taste profile. Mace has the same nutty, peppery notes as nutmeg, but is subtler.
Whole nutmegs are gorgeous – They’re hard, and grate wonderfully into the pungent powder we know and love. Buy fresh whole nutmeg when you need to reload – while the powdered spice will degrade quite quickly, whole nutmegs are good for 2-3 years, and will give you much richer flavor. Nutmeg has a warm, nutty, peppery profile with a lot of potency.
Whole Nutmeg & Mace
Allspice is a berry from the Pimenta dioica tree, a shrubby evergreen native to the West Indies – they’re grown across many warm climes these days. The berries are picked green and sun dried, finished, they look like large peppercorns. Biy allspice as whole berries and grind what you need fresh – that’ll give you much bolder flavor and longer storage life.
Dried whole allspice berries
Allspice, especially good, fresh stuff, has an amazing depth and breadth to it – it smells and tastes like a blend of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and pepper, and is simply fantastic – like Mace and nutmeg, it is great for so much more than sweet stuff, too.
Jamaican Jerk Rub
Allspice is the heartbeat of Jamaican jerk seasoning, the scotch bonnet chile fueled spice rub that lights up poultry, fish, and veggies.
Garam masala
Mace is used widely in regional Indian cooking, especially in Mughai cuisine. Quite a few masalas (spice blends) feature it.
Nutmeg makes its way into savory dishes as a je ne sais quoi – a subtle hint of something more – from Mac and cheese to soups and stews, it’s fantastic.
All three of these spices will shine in spice rubs for proteins and veggies. They’re best as warm, minor notes that add a subtle bass note to the stronger headliners like salt, sugar, and pepper. Like Chinese Five Spice blend? Any of these could be one of the five, or added to, and would absolutely shine. You really can’t go wrong deploying them that way. So dive in and have some fun.
Jerk Seasoning Blend, AKA Jamaican Jerk, came about as a dry rub for pork, albeit you see it in chicken most often these days. Fact is, it’s way more than just a dry rub, and it rocks on everything from veggies, dressings and marinades, to beef and fish.
Like most signature blends, there really isn’t a go-to version, as every chef has there own swing on it. What you can count on is that it’s a complex mix, often anywhere from 12 to 16 ingredients.
The non-negotiables are serious chile heat at the fore, onion, garlic, cumin, and the warm spices that define Caribbean cuisine – allspice, clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg. What else you put in there, and in what proportion, is up to you.
Some folks will argue that the chile must be Scotch Bonnets, and that’s fair, but I’ll say that any chile with decent heat and a complex fruity background does just fine – remember, it’s your blend.
Here’s my current go to – try it, tweak it, make it yours.
Urban’s Jerk Blend
1 Tablespoon granulated Onion
1 Tablespoon granulated Garlic
2-4 teaspoons Hatch Hot Red Chile
2 teaspoons Sea Salt
2 teaspoons ground Black Pepper
2 teaspoons Lemon Thyme
2 teaspoons Mexican Cane Sugar
1 teaspoon ground Allspice
1 teaspoon dried Parsley
1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground Clove
1/4 teaspoon ground Cumin
If using whole spices for the pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and cumin, process in a spice grinder to a roughly uniform powder.
Combine all ingredients and run through a single mesh strainer until you have a homogenous blend.
Bottle in clean glass and store in a cool, dry spot out of direct sun.
Chinese five spice powder – Got it in your spice cabinet? Odds are good that you do, but they’re also good that you haven’t used it for anything other than that one Chinese recipe you tried way back when and bought the stuff for – Am I right or am I right? I’m here today to fix that, and to tell you why you should -Five Spice is good for way more than just Chinese cooking.
Classic Five Spice, although more is OK
So, what exactly is five spice? That depends, frankly, on where in China you ask the question. This blend is relatively ubiquitous in Chinese cooking, and culinary regions from all points on the compass points lay claim to its origin. There is, however, some general agreement about the intention of that ancient founder – To provide the culinary equivalent of Unified Field Theory – one powder to rule them all – Five spice touches on sweet, sour, bitter, heat, and salty – A blend for all things, if you will.
Now, that said, five spice is as unique as any other legendary thing. What that means is that every home cook, restaurant chef, and spice purveyor has their tried and true personal blend, and each and every one of those is the best, no questions asked. Truth be told, they’re all correct, because when you make it yours, its exactly what you want it to be – That’s the beauty of discovery and refinement. The end result of today’s exercise should be just that for y’all.
The big question, of course, is this – What are the Five Spices? Turns out, the title is a bit misleading. Take a look at the ingredients on the commercial stuff out there and you’ll find anywhere between five and ten ingredients – Interesting, yeah? That’s because ‘Five Spice’ speaks to the five flavors the blend contains – Sweet, sour, bitter, heat, and salty – Cover those, and the number of ingredients used to achieve it is open for interpretation.
The generally recognized standard however, is star anise, clove, Chinese cinnamon (Cassia), Szechuan pepper, and fennel seed, but again, you might also find regular cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, licorice, anise, turmeric, black pepper, sea salt, and mandarin orange peel as well. There’s nothing wrong with all that, frankly, though as with all things in discovery, it’s best to go to the classic roots first, and then branch out to make it yours.
For us here in the U.S., the blend has an exotic feel to it that can be a real treat for breaking up the ol’ routine. The combination of what Chinese culinary tradition refers to as hot (cinnamon and Szechuan pepper), and cold (fennel and clove), tastes does a really cool double duty with meats, especially fatty stuff – It highlights richness as it cuts through the fat – A neat trick, that.
If you have Asian grocers in your area, check them out and see if they make their own blends – If not, they’ll likely have a favorite that they sell – Diving into those is like touring the regions and towns folks come from – You’ll get a different swing on things from each one.
So, what exactly would you use this stuff on when you whip it out? The quick answer is that five spice is tailor made for proteins – Beef, pork, and poultry will all shine, (and frankly, you can’t make great char sui pork without it), as will tofu, and beans. For dang near anything you’re going to grill, barbecue, or smoke, it makes a fantastic rub. Five spice does great in flour, starch, or bread crumb coatings for fried foods, too. And frankly, there’s nothing in there that wouldn’t go great with savory eggs and veggies. And believe it or not, it’s great for baking too – Add it to a savory scone, pancake, or waffle recipe, for instance.
A note of caution for using five spice on things other than fatty meats – The blend can overpower a recipe really quickly, so a little bit goes a long way. The blend does best when it has some time to work, so employing it in marinades and rubs works best.
The gist of all this is that while five spice is a necessity for many Chinese dishes, it’s great to think outside the box and try it with other stuff as well – It’s easy enough to add a dab to a sample of something you’re cooking – A great way to expand your horizons. This is a blend that, while fundamentally simple, belies that label with a truly fascinating and complex palette of flavors.
Here’s a basic recipe to get you started – Again, use it as a springboard to tailor your own custom blend. As with all herbs and spices, freshness and quality are critical. Harkening back to that bottle you’ve got in your cabinet, chances are good it’s old, and maybe not the best stuff you could find, right? So, go to a known, high quality purveyor like World Spice, Penzey’s, or Penderey’s and buy your stuff there – They really truly don’t cost more than the junk in most stores, and the quality is far superior. Finally, it’s always a good idea to buy whole spices when available as well – They’ll stay fresher longer.
Allow a dry, cast iron skillet to heat through over medium heat.
Add Szechuan pepper, star anise, cloves, and fennel seed to the pan. Toast the spices until they’re notably fragrant, about 3 to 5 minutes. Keep the spices moving constantly to avoid scorching.
Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
Add the toasted spices and cassia to a spice grinder, blender, mortar and pestle, or whatever you use to grind spices. Pulse the blend to a uniform rough powder.
Store in a clean glass container with an air tight lid – Keep in mind that all spices like a cool, dark, dry environment for storage. Spices are good for about 6 months, properly stored.
Here’s a couple of rubs to get you started.
5 Spice Java Dry Rub
2 teaspoons 5 Spice Powder
1 teaspoon fresh ground Coffee
1 teaspoon Dark Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
5 Spice Wet Rub
1 Tablespoon Avocado Oil
Juice & Zest from 1 small Lemon
1 Tablespoon 5 Spice
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
If you’ve ever lived in the southern part of the U.S.A., then you’ve likely experienced the tradition of eating black-eyed peas, (AKA, Hoppin’ John), on New Year’s Day – Doing so is believed to be not only a harbinger of prosperity in the new year, but a pretty decent hangover cure as well. Other anointed foods for New Years include pork, corned beef and cabbage, whole fish, and even ring shaped eats.
Here at UrbanMonique, we went to bed quite early on New Year’s Eve, but we still like to hedge our bets. As such, we decided it was a perfect night for M’s stunningly delicious split pea soup. That decision was made all the easier by the fact that we had leftover ham from Christmas, (including a gorgeous bone), and some amazing pea stock we froze back in the summer after harvesting snap peas from the garden. Split pea soup kinda gets a bad rap for the same reason Brussels sprouts do – Lackluster cooking, or overcooking, leads to less than stellar results – We’re here to shatter that reputation.
Ham glam shot
I hail from New England, where split pea soup has always been quite popular. Legend has it this dish was introduced to the region by southward migrating Québécois, but the ubiquity of split peas throughout many cultures may dispel that. Cultivars of Pisum sativum have been favored by humans for millennia – Romans and Greeks were growing them as far back as 500 B.C.E. – Given their propensity for far flung travel and conquest, it’s a safe bet they got them from somebody else. And in any age before modern food preservation, it’s a sure thing that drying peas was standard practice, as it still is today.
Harkening back to my comment about lackluster versions of split pea soup, it’s no surprise, frankly, when we recall the old rhyme, ‘peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.’ Lets face it, if that was good eating, we’d all still be doing it. Starting out with high quality, fresh ingredients will quickly dispel that nightmarish vision. Your journey toward that end must start with the peas themselves. Many of us have a bag of the little green guys in our pantry, straight from the store – It’s just as likely that said bag of peas has been in your pantry since the Pleistocene era too, right? If so, that’s a problem right off the bat. Dried peas, beans, etc will last a very long time, if stored properly, but left in the original plastic bag and tossed onto a shelf in the pantry doesn’t qualify as ‘proper’. The main adversary for split peas is oxygen, and that’s the case for pretty much all legumes, pulses, etc. The solution is a decent quality, air tight container – With those in use, you can easily get 3 to 5 years of storage, and if you add an oxygen absorber, like Oxy-Sorb, which is specifically made for the purpose, you ou’ll easily extend your shelf life to 10 years or more. Oxy-Sorb is great stuff, cheap, and readily available, by the way – A 100 pack costs about ten bucks, delivered from numerous online sources, and big chain grocery stores sell it as well – Same goes for decent quality food storage vessels, (and frankly, you’d be hard pressed to do better than quart, half gallon, or gallon mason jars for that job.)
As with all great soups and stews, great split pea soup depends on carefully chosen components and a specific process of assembly. It is a simple dish, but nonetheless, there are definitive steps that need to be followed. As always, this begins with the essentials, (other than peas, of course) – That’s good ham with a nice, big bone, fresh aromatics, stock, and seasoning. As for the latter, all too often what’s used for split pea soup is what’s suggested on the plastic bag they come in, AKA, water. While water sure works, stock is so much better, and is key to great soup.
Homemade, great leftovers – All you need to get started.
Vegetable or chicken stock will work great, and if you’ve been keeping up with class, then you’ve taken opportunities to make and freeze stock along the way. As mentioned previously, back in July we had a bumper crop of snap peas, and took steps to harvest and preserve those – In so doing, the inspiration for pea stock hit me and we made some – It was and is incredible stuff – a lovely translucent green, with a scent redolent of fresh peas, even when defrosted some six months later – There’s a testimonial to why we freeze, dry, can, or otherwise preserve great home grown food, if ever there was one, (That doesn’t mean you need to have matched us overachievers – Use what you’ve got – Homemade preferred, but store bought is just fine.)
And while we’re talking homemade, if and when you get a nice bone, never, ever throw it out. Sure, your critters will love ’em, but your house made stocks and broths will love ’em even more. As for aromatics – It’s a safe bet that in too many home kitchens, the carrots, onion, garlic, celery and the like might be a bit long in the tooth by the time you get around to using them – In a word, don’t do that. The French have it right when they go to the market almost daily – If it’s worth making and eating, it’s worth fresh ingredients – Don’t buy the big bags of bulk carrots, onions, etc – Go to the market frequently, and poke, prod, smell, and look when you shop – Reject the rubbery, the off colored, or too soft, and carefully pick fresh stuff – That is one of the real joys of shopping, so take advantage.
And finally, there’s seasoning. I’ve said this before and will again – If you’re buying herbs and spices from the grocery store, you’re missing out. If you’re using spices from a cute little revolving wheel thingy, and the spices came with that, and you got it when you got married, you’re fired. Herbs and spices have very bit as much a shelf life as other foods, and less so than some – they’re good for 6 months or so, if they’ve been prepared and stored properly. If your wheel o’ spices is out where sunlight hits it on a regular basis, your stuff is toast and needs to be replaced. If it’s not from a high quality source, like World Spice, Penzeys, Pendereys, to name just a few, you’ve no guarantee that what your buying is up to snuff – And finally, never use my sainted Father’s wine buying plan when it comes to spice – The more you get for less dough is not a successful strategy.
So, with all that, here’s the scoop.
M’s Heavenly Split Pea Soup
4 Cups Vegetable or Chicken Stock
2 Cups Water
2 Cups (about 1/2 pound), Ham
1 nice big Ham Bone
1 Pound dried Split Peas
2 large Carrots
3 stalks Celery
2 Tablespoons chopped Shallot
3 cloves Garlic
1 Lemon
1-2 Tablespoons Parsely
1 teaspoon Lemon Thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground Pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red Chile
1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt
2 Tablespoons Avocado Oil.
In a stock pot over medium high heat, combine water, stock and the ham bone. When the stock begins to boil, reduce heat until its barely maintaining a simmer. Allow the stock and bone to simmer for 60 minutes.
An hour or so of simmering will properly marry the flavors of pork Bone and stock
Rough chop ham, cut carrots into half-rounds about 1/4″ thick, chop celery, dice shallot and mince garlic.
Aromatics, the heartbeat of great soup
Zest lemon, cut in half.
Place peas in a single mesh strainer and rinse under cold running water, checking for non-food detritus.
Rinse and inspect pease before deployment!
In a soup pot over medium heat, add oil and heat through. Add carrot, celery, and shallot. Sauté until the shallot begins to turn translucent.
Always sauté your aromatics first!
Remove Bone from stock and allow to cool, then give it to your dawg.
Add stock, water, ham, and split peas to soup pot with aromatics over medium heat. Stir to incorporate. When the soup starts to boil, reduce heat to barely maintain a slow simmer. Simmer soup for 1-2 hours, until the split peas are where you like them – just slightly al dente is the sweet spot.
Great split pea soup should look like what it’s made from, not mush!
Add parsley, lemon thyme, a tablespoon of lemon zest, pepper, Chile, and salt. Stir to incorporate and taste, adjust seasoning as desired. Allow the soup to simmer for another 10 minutes.
Add the herbs and spices last so they don’t lose their floral qualities
Serve nice and hot, garnished with a little more fresh lemon zest and shot or two of hot sauce if you like such things. A dollop of fresh sour cream doesn’t suck, either.
M’s Heavenly Split Pea Soup
Serve with crusty bread and a glass of decent Zinfandel, and you’re in hog heaven.
If you’re thinking Caribbean and spicy, then truth be told, you’re thinking about Jamaican jerk seasoning. While probably every island claims some variation on the theme, this is arguably the root of that wonderful recipe tree. The combination of chile heat, with a spice mélange often only associated with deserts makes for an unforgettable taste treat.
There are dry and wet variants of the style; the wet marinades and an oven bake, like the one we’ll do here, add a greater depth of flavor to your dish. Dry rubs are great too, and especially lend themselves well to grilling. You can use either variety on chicken, beef, pork and fish. For my mind, chicken is the quintessential jerk dish, so that’s what we’ll do here.
Though it may seem like there are a lot of ingredients, don’t get intimidated; this is a pretty fast process and well worth the effort. You should plan on allowing at least 3 hours for marinating, though you certainly can let things sit overnight and should whenever you have the chance.
Note the great range of potential heat indicated in the recipe – I think you need at least two habaneros to get the heart correct for this stuff, but some folks like or require far more to float their boat. If you’re a neophyte, start conservative – While habaneros aren’t the hottest thing out there, they’re plenty potent enough to really sear you if you’re not ready to handle them.
Jenuine Jamaican Jerk Chicken
+/- 3 pound whole chicken
2 Fresh Limes
3-6 Fresh Green Onions, rough chopped
2-4 cloves Fresh Garlic, rough chopped
2-? Fresh Habanero Chiles, rough chopped
¼ Cup Malt Vinegar
¼ Cup Dark Rum
1 Tablespoon Allspice
1 teaspoon Black Pepper
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Ginger
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1 teaspoon dark brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Thyme
½ Cup Tomato Ketchup
2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
Add rum and a couple of tablespoons of water to a sauté pan over medium-high heat and simmer until the alcohol is burned off.
If any of your spices are whole, combine them and run them through a spice grinder until evenly blended.
Pour rum into a blender along with the vinegar, onions, garlic, habaneras, allspice, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, sugar, and thyme. Squeeze the juice from both limes in as well.
Blend thoroughly until you have a nice, smooth consistency.
Take 2 Tablespoons of the seasoning blend and transfer to a small glass bowl. Add the ketchup and soy sauce and blend thoroughly. Cover and set aside until you’re ready to serve.
Cut up chickens into appropriate cooking size, (Quarters or better as you please).
Place chicken in a glass dish or bowl, (Gallon ziplocks will do if you don’t have a decent sized glass dish), and pour the jerk marinade in. Thoroughly coat the chicken on all sides with the marinade, massaging it in so it covers completely. Cover the container and refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to overnight.
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Remove chicken from marinade but leave a nice coating on each piece. Cook to an internal temperature of 165° F, remove from oven and allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes.
Serve with rice and black beans, Johnny cake, a fresh mango salsa, or a nice cole slaw, with plenty of ice cold Red Stripe!
Bill Penzey is a genuinely good guy, and he runs a genuinely good company, Penzeys Spices.
Penzeys deserves your business
Now, I’m the kind of person who demands great quality from the companies I do business with, and when it comes to herbs and spices, I simply won’t screw around – And neither should you. There are three outfits I love and buy from regularly – Penzeys, World Spice, and Butcher & Packer.
Personally, my criterion for being a regular goes beyond the quality of the goods – It also encompasses the quality of the company and the people who run it. All three of the companies I referenced herein are good ones that treat their people well.
And in these truly turbulent times, there’s one of the three who stands head and shoulders above the rest, for taking a stand – A stand for what’s right, and very pointedly, a stand against what’s wrong.
That outfit is Bill Penzeys, and as you’ll see below, he’s not afraid to address big ticket issues, or to call out those who need to be called out. Believe you me, he’s taken some heat for it – His company has been targeted by the right for boycotting, and it’s had some impact on them. Fortunately, as he notes below, there are more good folks who’ve come to support him than there are boycotters, but a bunch more won’t hurt any.
if you find yourself of a like mind, and in need of some great herbs and spices, head over to their site, (or see if they’ve got a store near you, and head on in there). Buy some stuff from them, and if you like it, (which you will), repeat said process regularly. Read what he says here, and subscribe to his newsletter. Show good people and businesses that others of like mind hear, agree, and support their efforts – It’s what good people do in trying times.
Bill writes,
Monday is Captain Boycott’s Birthday. Celebrate with
Free Shipping with just $20 in spending instead of $30
$1 Pie Spice & Garlic—$2 Sandwich & Italian Herb—
What if we no longer turned a blind eye to those corporations that lobby and buy politicians to bulldoze the public good for their own gain? In Florida and across the nation, young people are leading the way. What if we said enough is enough and followed their lead?
Captain Boycott’s birthday is this Monday, March 12. History has its lessons and it’s looking more and more like we are on the way to relearning one of them. But it’s a good one. In the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and in the incredible bravery of its students since, there is real hope that the corporations that lobby and buy politicians, and the politicians that are willing to be purchased, will no longer be able to escape the consequences of their actions.
Older generations have, for some reason, been more comfortable looking the other way as the same industries time and again have used unlimited political spending and lobbying to make windfall profits off the destruction of the public good. These kids are having none of this. What they’ve already achieved is huge, but if history is any indicator, it’s in where all this is going next that the real hope for lasting change lives.
The lesson of Captain Boycott’s day, and why his name is a word we all know, is that the advantages of wealth and privilege are not limitless. In the times where those who already have so much use their advantages not to help those less privileged, but to take ever more for themselves, inevitably a tipping point gets reached. At some point the people come together and say enough is enough. In the actions of the students challenging the NRA, and the nation’s support of the students, there are all the signs that we are once again arriving at this tipping point.
Now is the time to support this new generation and join with them in taking on those corporations that are anything but good citizens, and the politicians who willingly accept their payments. Please let them know you admire their strength to walk out this coming Wednesday the 14th at 10:00am for 17 minutes in remembrance of those lives taken one month before. And if possible, march with them March 24 in Washington and in cities across the country. Now’s the time to turn the tide. Help them seize the opportunity.
What comes next may well be what future historians will call “exciting times.” The Marjory Stoneman Douglas students have already exposed just how precarious the NRA’s power is, and just how vulnerable the politicians are who’ve accepted the NRA’s money. But this might just be the tip of the iceberg. In the wake of the Citizens United ruling that made unlimited corporate spending in politics legal, we’ve given a free pass to the corporations doing that spending. What if this is the end of that free pass?
What if this is a wake-up call to all those planning this very type of spending in the upcoming midterm elections that, just like the NRA, you too will no longer be allowed to escape the responsibility for your actions? Just like in Captain Boycott’s time, those who have mistaken wealth and connections for power could well be in for a shock at just how fast what they had perceived as power evaporates, and the wealth with it too, when the people decide enough is enough and that the corruption has to go.
So we are celebrating and drawing attention to the Captain’s birthday with Free Shipping with just $20 in spending rather than the usual $30, and really good prices on four great Spices. Of course we too have been facing our own boycott for nearly a year and a half now. It’s had its impact, but it’s going the wrong direction, and that makes it a lot less effective than the original boycott, and the ones that I suspect all the corporations funding the Republican Party will soon be facing.
At the heart of it, we are being boycotted for calling out those promoting inequality. The good thing is that, in America, being for equality still brings in more people than it sends away. Of course it is only through your word of mouth that new people are replacing those who have at least temporarily left. We are greatly appreciative of that. With this in mind, each of the four Spices we are featuring at just a buck or two are great to pick up for yourself, but each also makes a great introduction to Penzeys for anyone you think would appreciate what we do. So please, pick up a few extras to share.
Our Granulated Garlic is a joy. No bitterness, just light, bright Garlic pleasure. Good stuff. And at just $1, rather than the usual $3.45, now’s the time to pick up a few extra for the Garlic lovers in your life. There’s rumors too that Garlic drives away NRA spokespeople, but I wouldn’t know anything about that. To see our Garlic click this link: https://www.penzeys.com/online-catalog/granulated-garlic-powder/c-24/p-1000/pd-s
Italian Herb earned its place among history’s great Spice blends a long time ago. And with just how good our Oregano, Basil, Marjoram, Rosemary and Thyme are, they make this blend a gift for the ages. Salads, pasta, chicken, fish, steak, burgers and pizza so easily take on the flavor of greatness with just a couple of shakes. So Simple. So Tasty. And just $2. For Italian Herb click this link: https://www.penzeys.com/online-catalog/italian-herb-mix/c-24/p-183/pd-s
Sandwich Sprinkle is making lunch memorable across this great country. As Americans, we really do love sandwiches, and Sandwich Sprinkle makes every sandwich even more lovable. And Versatile. There are those who call it Salad Sprinkle and it makes for tasty Garlic bread/croutons, too. Don’t miss this chance to give it a try for only 2 bucks. To learn more about Sandwich Sprinkle click this link: https://www.penzeys.com/online-catalog/sandwich-sprinkle/c-24/p-594/pd-s
And please don’t forget Pi day, March 14 (3.14), is a day to celebrate math, science, and all those who spend their lives working to bring us the honest information we need to understand the real world around us. And a good time for Pie, too. Pie Spice is a Cinnamon-rich blend great for Pie, but equally at home in cookies, cakes, French toast, hot or cold cereal, and even sprinkled over a cup of coffee. And at just $1 per jar, rather than the usual $3.95, it is a great introduction to everything we are about. Please pass out a few.
No coupons or codes are needed for any of these great prices either in our stores or online at penzeys.com. Just remember that the free shipping with just $20 in spending expires at midnight Pacific time on Monday March 12, so as they say, “act now.”
Thanks for your support,
Bill Penzey
bill@penzeys.com
And as always, please like our page and, even more importantly, share this post with those you think would appreciate it. We don’t have free shipping with just $20 spending that often, and it really does help for those placing a first order to give us a try. — Thanks again.
And I just have to say the art of these new up-and-coming post-millennial Penzeys brings me happiness. Love that is not passive at all but with horns and a mischievous grin. And those eyebrows! This is the Love with the strength to change the world.
UrbanMonique 