Today I want to share with you a great find! Isn’t that what friends do?
Several months ago a friend introduced me to Penzeys Spice – thank you Jared!
If you can be in love with a bottle of vanilla extract, I am in love!
Penzeys carries an amazing line of dried herbs, spices, extracts and seasonings. The store smells glorious when you walk in. The selection is so amazing I had a horrible time trying to narrow down my purchases. I wanted to try everything.
Unfortunately, Oregon only has one Penzeys but fortunately it is located in Portland. Unfortunately, it is on the other side of town but fortunately for my budget it is on the other side of town!
I had to make a trip to the other side of town a few weeks ago so it was a great excuse to do a little shopping at Penzeys.
Look at what I brought home with me!
My friend had raved about their double strength vanilla extract. If you are like me and double the amount of vanilla you put in a recipe you are going to love it. I picked up a bottle of lemon extract too because I do love lemon!
Another friend, Meg, had raved about their baking spice so a bottle of that went in my basket too. Baking spice can be added to your cookies, muffins, banana bread, coffee cakes etc. Just add up the spices your recipe calls for and use that amount of baking spice instead. It is a combination of cinnamon, anise, allspice, mace and cardamon and smells heavenly.
We tried a few other things too. Tessa is loving their Sandwich Sprinkle on her turkey sandwiches.
I was excited to find the Middle-Eastern blend called Zatar. I had made up my own version for Parsley Chicken but now I have the real thing!
Penzeys carries a variety of different types of cinnamon. I opted for the Vietnamese Cinnamon – the strongest and richest cinnamon around.
Since Tessa is an avid hot chocolate drinker we decided to try their hot chocolate mix and some vanilla sugar to sprinkle on top!
A jar of Italian Seasoning and Greek Seasoning made it into the basket too. I have no idea what I’m going to do with the Greek Seasoning but it smelled wonderful! Any ideas for me?
Check out the Penzey website to find the store closest to you. If you are not lucky enough to have one near you they have a great mail order catalog that you can request off their website. It is full of lots of great recipes to use along with their products.
Do you have a great find to share? Let me know!
Leigh Anne
Try out your Greek Spice in this easy Greek Lemon Rice Soup recipe from cooks.com — I know how you love lemon!
GREEK LEMON-RICE SOUP
3 c. chicken broth
2 to 3 oz. uncooked regular rice
2 eggs
3 tbsp. lemon juice
Dash of salt
Dash of white pepper
In 2-quart saucepan, bring broth to a boil. Reduce heat, add rice, cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 20 minutes. In small bowl, beat eggs and lemon juice. Stirring constantly, add 1 cup of hot soup, a little at a time. Stir mixture into soup in pan and heat. Do not boil! Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately. Serves 4.
NOTE: 2 oz. rice makes thinner soup; 3 oz. rice makes thick soup. Weight instead of measurement gives the option of using medium grain rice.
Comments
Sep 25, 1:12 AM
Maya said:
This is a GREAT recipe! Very easy and simple. I first had this soup at a greek restaurant and they recently stopped making it. I had a taste for it, and this recipe was just right. No meat needed, however you can add a can of chicken breast by Swanson to give it a kick!
I have a friend who loves Penzy’s spice store. We have one here in Phoenix.
She swears by their spices. I have not made it to the store, but she promised
to take me on a field trip. I can’t wait.
I love me some Penzy’s. We have a store here and I just received a coupon and I’m going to go next weekend when my mom is in town. It’s always on our list of places to stop. Enjoy your new spices!
I can’t wait to go during our trip to Portland in December!
LeighAnne, I am in need of a little help. My Beehive’s are very interested in cooking. I love to cook and bake, but have never taught anyone else. Do you have any tried and true recipes that are good beginner recipes that you could send my way? Thanks for the help!
I wrote on FB, but if your advertisers are keeping track of the comments you receive, I don’t want you to be shorted by even one! As I said in that post, that Greek seasoning would make a Greek salad dressing so much easier than getting out the several jars it would take to make it normally. Because I try to cut down on oil whenever I can, I make the Canyon Ranch “Jet Fuel” dressing and vary it with different flavor combinations. Think what fun I could have with some of the specialty spices from Penzey’s.
Jet Fuel Dressing ala Canyon Ranch
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
1 T. sugar or Splenda
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 T. dijon mustard
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1 cup water
This makes 2 cups.
You can vary it by adding oregano, basil and tarragon for Italian dressing; curry powder and ginger for Asian; ground cumin for Mexican; or fresh tarragon. But think of what you might be able to do with Penzey’s combination spices. I can hardly wait to get my catalog.
We love Foxpoint seasoning on eggs, steamed vegetables, or and it makes a great dip. BLTs are always better with a little sandwich sprinkle; well any sandwich is!
I also buy curry, basil, oregano, poppy seeds, pasta sprinkle, vanilla beans, and vanilla from them. Love Penzeys!
I also go to the Penzy’s in Portland….I agree it can be expensive but if you buy the 4 oz bags of whatever spice you are interested in it is much, much cheaper. I use 1/2 pint canning jars to store it and make my own labels. I get so much more spice this way that I usually have enough to make a second jar of each spice and send to my son in Louisiana. It’s also much easier to get a spoon in a jar like that than traditional spice jars. Be careful with that cinnamon! It is much stronger than anything you have been buying at the regular grocery. Oh and their little free magazine is great too.
I live in Chicago, where we have great MiddleEastern shops so I am familiar with Zatar.. here is the BEST recipe. You will be giving out little baggies of Zatar after this, like it is a controlled substance:
Drizzle Olive Oil on platter
Sprinkle Zatar on oil
Layer 1 container of crumbled Feta
drizzle more oil and more zatar
Layer Chopped Tomatoes
drizzle more oil and zatar
Layer chopped green onions
More oil and zatar
Serve with sturdy tortilla chips
Yummy.
Best dip ever.
I love Penzey’s! My grandma is obsessed. Unfortunately, I didn’t find out about them until after we moved from Portland so I was never able to go visit their store.
We adore Penzy’s – every visit back to the midwest to see my husband’s family we visit – or we make them bring goodies out with them!
Our usuals are English Prime Rib Rub, Star Anise, Mural of Flavor Seasoning, their Hungarian Paprika is great, we use one of their cinnamons that is OUT of this world, but I can’t think of the name of it off the top of my head. The Galena street rub is good too! Their Horseradish Dip one is good too for a good sandwich spread or mixed in to make a homemade seafood dip/sauce.
How did I not know about this place? I use so much vanilla I buy the big Costco bottles or pampered chef. I was just on 82nd last week. You’ll have to tell me how close it is to the freeway exit.
we, too, love The Penzeys. I must suggest to you one of our favorites, the Shallot Pepper. We also get our ancho chili pepper in bulk there because if you make any Bobby Flay grilling rubs then you know that you use up one of those little jars from the grocery in a single recipe!
I have never heard of them. (East coasters for ya, lol!) Now I am intrigued! Will be looking them up, thanks for all the yummy recipes!!!
Leigh Anne
I had discovered Your Home Based Mom by accident a few weeks back and am really enjoying it! Paula Deen has a recipe that sounded good, using Greek seasoning. I have not made it yet and need to pick up the Greek seasoning first.
Paula Deen
Three Bean Salad
Recipe courtesy Paula Deen, 2007
Ingredients
* 1 (16-ounce) can dark red kidney beans, drained
* 1 (14.5-ounce) can cut green beans, drained
* 1 (14.5-ounce) can cut golden wax beans, drained
* 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
* 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
* 2 tablespoons minced red onion
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
* 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
* 2 tablespoons Greek seasoning
Directions
In a medium bowl, combine first 6 ingredients.
In a small bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, mustard, and Greek seasoning. Pour over bean mixture; cover and chill 4 hours, stirring occasionally.
I look forward to the emails from your site……….thanks!
My family loves to use greek seasoning on hamburgers, baked chicken, and even in spaghetti. Just sprinkle it on your ground beef when you brown it. We absolutely love greek seasoning. You will become addicted to it!
Been ordering from Penzeys for years. Love their catalog too. I am absolutely envious that you have a store in town!!!! Envious, but happy for you!
This post caused me to go to their website, found their most recent brand new location about 20 minutes away in Littleton, CO. Spent money. I also had a really nice conversation with the manager who will be checking out your blog tonight when she gets home…
Vanilla Bean Paste, I don’t use pure vanilla anymore!
http://www.amazon.com/Nielden-massey-Vanillas-Bourbon-Vanilla-Paste/dp/B000VBSIRU/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=gourmet-food&qid=1254009743&sr=8-6
I love a well-stocked spice cupboard! I like Penzey’s too. Another great website for fresh spices at good prices (didn’t mean to rhyme!) is San Francisco Herb Co. (www.sfherb.com).
Hey, my sister lived on the east coast for 8 years and uses these spices. I am so excited to know that they have a store here in the Portland area. Yippee. I swear, your blog has turned me onto the best things. Keep it comin’!
I am loving PENZEYS spice recipe. Thank you.
