Sugar and Spice and a Bunch of Other Stuff

One of the best Christmas presents I got last year was from my sister-in-law, Andrea.  She got us the box of spices called Spicy Wedding from a place called Penzeys.  I'd never heard of it before.  I have to say, I LOVE the stuff!!  My favorites are the Chinese Cassia Cinnamon and the Pasta Sprinkle.  I use the cinnamon in everything, and I put the Pasta Sprinkle in hamburger when I'm cooking Italian food. 



I'd looked at the online store before, and there was all sorts of things I'd have liked to try.  On her most recent trip to Ohio, Andrea got me some vanilla extract and some poppy seeds.  Both of those were equally wonderful.  Imagine my surprise to learn there's a Penzey store in Indanapolis.  This weekend, I went to Indianapolis for my niece's 4th birthday party.  My mother-in-law went with me, and we left early enough to do some shopping, Penzey store included.

This place is AMAZING.  There are things in that store I'd never even heard of!  And I went a little crazy getting things to try.  But I do try to incorporate a lot of different kinds of spices into my cooking.  I always see the people of Food Network using spices and think that I could do that too.

The store itself is pretty cool.  They have jars full of all their spices so you can sniff them and see what you think.  The extracts all smell wonderful.  Next time you're in the Castleton area, make the trip down 82nd Street to Penzeys.  I already have a whole list of things I'd like to try, extracts included.  One of them is also the Sunny Paris.  I don't know what is in it, but it smelled like nothing I'd never smelled.  It was also like $9 for a small jar...I focused on cheaper spices this time.