The Five Spices

I've come to realize lately that every meal I cook, I use almost the same spices. Sure, there are certain meals that call for thyme or rosemary or sweeter dishes that call for cinnamon or nutmeg, but more often than not, I have about five go to spices in my cabinet. I thought it would be fun to share, and see if anyone else has a couple staple spices I haven't tried yet.

First things first - who doesn't need some good peppercorn for grinding and course sea salt! Those don't count in my five. These, however, do.

One. Lawry's Garlic Salt with Parsely

Two. Emeril's Essence

Three. Jane's Crazy Salt

Four. Sun of Italy Italian Spice Mix

Five. Tony Chachere's (yes, I know - two cajun spices in my top 5, but I couldn't lie.)

We also love to cook with spices from our garden (when in season) - basil, oregano, mint, dill and parsley.

When it comes to other spices, I'm not picky about brand-names. We use a lot of cumin, roasted red pepper flakes, chili powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, onion powder, dry mustard and paprika. We like to pick up our staples at the Amish Cupboard in Stuart's Draft - who has great deals on bulk spices, but for my go-to spices, the name brands are the best. Totally worth the extra $$ for the taste!

Happy Spicing!