Season the Season
Scents and flavors are integral parts of holiday ambiance and festive meals, and spices play a big role in both. We spoke with a few regional spice stores to learn how you can infuse your home with even more holiday spirit, and what spices you might want to add to your kitchen lineup.
SPICE HARBOR, Harbor Springs Sarah Moglovkin, Owner 116 East Main Street (231) 526-4050 spice-harbor.com
MOST POPULAR SPICE “Alden Mill House Miracle Blend is always the No. 1-selling spice, no matter what the time of year! People come from all over to buy it. It’s an all-purpose seasoning salt blend developed by my father-in-law, who started the Alden Mill House company.”
MOST UNUSUAL SPICE “A spice called za’atar; it’s a Lebanese blend of thyme, sumac, sesame seeds and sea salt. I got the idea from local author Maureen Abood, who wrote “Rose Water and Orange Blossoms,” a cookbook of Lebanese recipes, and one of my other customers uses it when she makes goat cheese balls; she rolls them in it. It’s very flavorful and different, both sweet and woodsy.”
THE SPICE THAT SAYS “CHRISTMAS!” “Definitely cloves. Whole cloves are one of the main ingredients in hot mulled cider and wine, so to me, that’s one of the regular aromas of Christmastime. You can also cover an orange in cloves by just pushing them into the rind; you can make pretty patterns and then hang the orange up and it smells amazing.”
QUICK SPICED RECIPE IDEA “Our Alden Mill House dip blends are great, and they’re so fast. I like the dill dip and the Bob’s Zippy Dip, which is like a Latin flavor with a little extra zing. You can add them to sour cream, vegan sour cream, cream cheese or yogurt.”
HER FAVORITE SPICE “Still the Miracle Blend! It’s just so good on everything: eggs, veggies, meat. If there’s anything savory that calls for salt in a recipe, I use Miracle Blend instead.”
SPICE & TEA MERCHANTS, Traverse City Kat Williams, Assistant Manager 145 East Front Street, (231) 947-7423, spicemerchants.biz
MOST POPULAR SPICE “Cinnamon. I think because it’s used in a lot of baking. We carry several different kinds: Ceylon stick cinnamon; Vietnamese, which is sweeter; Chinese cinnamon; and korintje, which is best used in coffee or to make cinnamon toast.”
MOST UNUSUAL SPICE “Ha! Well, we have one called Devil’s Dust, which is a mix of dried cherries, Demerara sugar, minced onion, garlic, sea salt, chili powder, red pepper flakes and ghost pepper powder. You use it mostly on meat, like hamburgers, steaks or meatloaf. It’s sweet, but with a bite.”
THE SPICE THAT SAYS “CHRISTMAS!” “Definitely pumpkin pie spice. I think that says autumn and winter, the whole seasonal thing. It’s cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and pumpkin powder; you can use it in pies, of course, or to make pumpkin bread, and a lot of people shake it right into hot cocoa.”
QUICK SPICED
RECIPE IDEA “We have great spice blends to stir in with olive or canola
oil for bread dipping. I like our Tuscan blend, our Garlic Pasta blend,
which can be used in so many different ways, and our Italian Romano
blend. Then all you need is bread!”
HER
FAVORITE SPICE “The Smoked Tomato blend. It’s got tomato powder,
hickory salt, garlic, and onion, and residents in in residents in lake
in lake ann with net worth Glen it’s just great in lasagna and dips.
with net worth Glen Arbor: with with net net worth worth It also goes really well with cheese, so it’s good in
macaroni and cheese, too.”
SUTTONS BAY TRADING CO. Karen Pontius, Owner 310 North Joseph Street (231) 271-7423 suttonsbaytrading.com
MOST POPULAR SPICE “This time of year, it’s our whole mulling spice, which has allspice, cloves, cinnamon and anise. It’s wonderful to add to mulled wine or cider, and you can also put it in a pan on the stove with some water to scent your house.”
MOST UNUSUAL SPICE “Ras el hanout, which is a Moroccan spice mix used frequently across north Africa. The name means ‘top of the shop,’ kind of like we mean ‘top shelf.’ It’s a combo of sea salt, tumeric, dried chiles and 17 other spices; you can use it in stews or vegetables, in rice and on roasted meats.”
THE SPICE THAT SAYS “CHRISTMAS!” “Saigon cinnamon! It’s actually from the Saigon region in Vietnam and has a higher volatile oil content, which I like because that makes it stronger. You won’t find it in a regular grocery store. I use it on everything, especially sticky buns and cinnamon spiced rolls.”
QUICK SPICE RECIPE IDEA “If you use our Cheese and Garlic Sprinkle, which has a Parmesan cheese base, and cook it right into bread rolls, it really kicks them up a notch! It makes them more of a spicy dinner roll. They’re really good.”