Penzeys Spices

This is a blog originating from my mother.  A few years ago she discovered a spice catalog (stores too, but none very close to us)  and it became her "thing".  (See, I come by these quirky obsessions genetically!). It's Penzeys Spices and in addition to having all the spices you can find in the grocery store they also have spice blends, salad dressing mixes, herbs and seasonings.  Thanks to my mother, we have a cupboard full of Penzeys.  Evan uses them to season steaks (he has his own method which uses about 4 different bottles), Ellie uses them to season her baked potato, I use them for veggies and to make homemade salad dressing.  They're really very versatile.  My current favorite is Fox Point.  I put it on everything! 
As I've said before, I'm not the best chef.  I can follow a recipe but that's about it.   I like to use different spice blends because they're pretty idiot-proof.  They allow me to steam broccoli, toss it with butter, margarine or olive oil and sprinkle on a spice and Voila!  I have a totally different dish just by changing the spice blend.  And it's fast.  Just grab a bottle and sprinkle.  (They even have a sandwich sprinkle that you can add to a lunch meat sandwich, or mix with bread crumbs and coat fish, pork or chicken.) 

For the last few days I've been adding different spiced to sauteed kale for Vince and I at lunch.  It's so fast to just saute the kale and add some seasoning.  I don't have to try to add a bunch of different ingredients.  I'm still having fun experimenting with all the different blends I have to find which one I like the best.  (I'm leaning toward Old World, or Turkish Seasoning.)  

There are actually 4 stores in Ohio - Cincinnati, Columbus and two in Cleveland.  I've actually been to the Columbus store when we lived there.  It was kind of cool, but I prefer to look through the catalog.  The store it just a bunch of tiny bottles with labels that pretty much all look the same.  It was easier for me to browse the catalog.  You can look for a store near you here, or order a catalog here or browse their catalog online here.