36 Essential Seasonings for your Pandemic Pantry

                                 

    With all this pandemic craziness and shortages people are cooking more at home. Sadly for real long term food storage spices loose their umph after a short while and are just not as tasty. Salt will last forever it just gets rock hard sometimes.

    Food just isn't good tasting without salt and other good seasonings. I was cleaning up a spice rack and refilling some with new ingredients I had on my shelves to send to my niece. There were 24 bottles on there. I looked up a list of what some place thought was essential spices to have on hand. They had 25 but I added a few more that I like to have around. Now if your of Hispanic, Indian or some other heritage your spice rack will look a whole lot different than this list!

   Spices are so expensive now days. How many can you grow where you live? I put a star by the ones you may be able to grow if your weather is suitable. If you can grow some extra it may be good to trade with someone else or sell in your area. There are recipes online to make your own combinations if you don't have something on the shelf when you run out in the middle of a recipe for things like pumpkin spice mix, apple pie mix, even steak seasonings you may like. I like to mix my own sometimes to the way I like the taste of things in my cooking. Yes I know vanilla isn't exactly a spice rack thing. I make my own of that also.

  
Love
Ranchmama

36 Essential Seasonings

____ Allspice
____ Apple Pie Spice ( cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ginger)
____ Basil*
____ Bay Leaves
____ Cayenne*
____ Chili Powder*
____ Cinnamon--Ground and Stick
____ Cloves
____ Coriander Seed*
____ Cream of tartar
____ Cumin
____ Curry Powder
____ Dill Weed*
____ Garlic Powder*
____ Ginger--Ground*
____ Horseradish*
____ Italian Seasoning
____ Mustard Seed*
____ Nutmeg--Ground
____ Onion Powder*
____ Orange Peel
____ Oregano*
____ Paprika*
____ Poppy Seed*
____ Poultry Seasoning
____ Pumpkin Pie
____ Peppercorns Black (Whole use a pepper grinder to grind your own.)
____ Red Pepper Flakes*
____ Rosemary*
____ Saffron
____ Sage*
____ Tarragon*
____ Thyme*
____ White Pepper
____ Vanilla Extract 
____ Vanilla Beans

It's winter !

 

 
    As you can see it is once again time to bundle up ourselves and our plants. I don't have very many really pretty or spectacular Houseplants. All I did in the spring was take some outside under the east porch. Hubby watered them and otherwise they were not loved as well as they should have been.
   It's hard to believe a man that grew up taking care of acres and acres of 5000 or 10,000 tomato plants can't tell when things need water outside or how to water something in a pot without knocking off all a bunch of branches on the small Jade plants!

   I would like you to meet Methuselah and her daughter baby Methuselah

 
It's really hard to tell but mama is 3 - 4 times bigger than baby !

     My daughter said she can see at least 4 different plants in the mama and I need to repot. I told her this is the only way to contain it! I got a start from the Meeker Ok tag agency. They had a 6 foot long planter in there full of this wild and crazy aloe plant! So every now and then one falls off or I want to share I put it in a pot and it grows like crazy !
    Have you priced houseplants?! If you can find them even a tiny one is not cheap at all starting at $5 for a 2 inch potted succulent that at this time isn't doing too well.  I have been lucky enough to get some starts of the 2.5' tall mother in law plant and some jade and spider plants and a couple of others. I have been focused on trying to find really super good food recipes and rearranging my kitchen and trying to get new appliances in and installed to give plants much thought.
   This year I spread a plastic table cover over the kitchen table and one by one went over each one prettying them up and re-potting some to share with someone. The little half circle plant stand I normally keep by the front door just because it's easy and handy to water I moved into Jon's room. I had to put something under the legs to protect the wood floor and make sure every one of them had something to catch the water under them. That room has more natural light than by the door. Now I just have to remember to go in there an take care of them!
    I always have projects. It keeps my brain satisfied and sometimes it's a good thing. Today I finished up a wall hanging spice rack that I cleaned and emptied all 24 bottles and when dry filled up a few with some extra seasonings I had. I made two sheets of stickers with a design and name of spices on them and then a sheet of blank ones. I will send them to my single starting over on her own niece in Ark. She is absolutely starting from nothing. Not even pot holders ! She walked away from a dangerous man finally and is in recovery start over mode. Me and my brother try to send her needful things every now and then. He sent her a stereo and cd's to enjoy and she showed me pictures and was soo happy. She said "I'm listening to Jazz !"  now I'm sending this spice rack and some extra spices and a jar of cinnamon and sugar, garlic salt, and Paula Deens house seasoning I found recipes for. I also have a bunch of vitamins I'm going to fit in. 

    The last box I sent a flat rate large USPS box. I stuffed that thing so full! I asked if she noticed how stuffed it was. She said it was sooo full.... "There wasn't room for a mouse fart!" I laughed so hard. I had not heard that one before. I sent her some things to finish out her  basic medical kit, sewing items, a couple of tools and my Copperhead cream and some pot holders so she won't be burning her hands any longer just loads of little needful things. She has lupus, arthritis plus lots of damage from being beaten up so she hurts a lot. She used the copperhead and she said she didn't realize how much she had been holding her breath! Two days latter she ran out of cream and was hurting to the point of tears. I'm sending her a great big 16 oz bottle. I had her pick out some homeopathic remedies for her arthritis to try but that will probably have to go in another package.
    Today I think I have washed my last load of dishes in this 25 yo dishwasher. I am supposed to get the new Maytag installed Monday at 1 p. If the old dishwasher comes out all in one piece I am giving it to the daughter of a friend of mine. I asked if she knew anyone that wanted to take a chance on a good running dishwasher with some age on it and she said would ask around. Turns out her daughter is brave and will pick it up when this one is out. The new one is stainless on the inside and out. The door on it is much heavier than my old one. I sometimes catch the door with my foot and flip it up when I'm doing several things at once. I don't thing this one will do that. The door is about like a cement block in weight I swear! I had picked out 3 in Lowe's. They had one already sold and one not on the floor yet and the other one only had a filter instead of a food grinder. Finally I told the guy you know what I want. I don't want a food filter to clean out, I want stainless on the inside what do you have in stock I can take home. Only the Maytag had the food grinder and was in stock. I said fine load it up. It had a 50 decimal sound rating I have no clue how good that is or how noisy. All I know it works. The reviews were good but even on the higher end brands it was hit or miss on quality. I bought a 3 year extended warranty to make sure it didn't break down. I spent over $900.00. You know how that goes. If I didn't it would break down just after the warranty went out. LOL
   Well have to go finish packing up this project for my niece. I have a mess everywhere I look and I am sure it will be barely presentable by 1 p on Monday.

Love
Ranchmama