I just wanted to remind you that the deadline for posting your entries (and notifying me of them) for The Spice is Right VII: Seasons of Love is October 15, 2006.

The full reminder:

This month’s challenge is: Seasons of Love

Each culture has its own common spice blends, like the Chinese five spice mix or the Moroccan ras al hanout. But familes (or households) tend to have spice mixes they use often, too. For example, when I was growing up, my mother very commonly used a blend of sweet Hungarian paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Now, Dave and I are in the process of developing our own family flavor bases (he insists on adding pomegranate molasses, thick Chinese soy sauce, chipotle, and/or mustard oil to almost everything we make!) and commonly used spice mixes, which I will post more about before this challenge reaches its deadline.

At one recent wedding I went to, Rose and Josh gave out small jars of their favorite household spice mix (thyme and oregano) as favors to all the guests. At another wedding I attended a few weeks ago, the couple gave out a variety of spice mixes for guests to take home and try out. I thought these were wonderfully personal gifts that in a sense drew all the wedding guests into the couple’s new family.

I come from a fairly stereotypical Jewish family, in some ways. Food is love. And so it seems to me that to share the spice blends commonly used in a particular home is to share the unique flavor of that family’s love.

For this month’s theme, I would like us to share that with each other. Please describe one of your commonly used family or household spice mixes and give a recipe which uses it.

Email me your name, a link to the post, and any unposted photographs you would like me to use in the round-up at habeasbruleeATgmailDOTcom by midnight on October 15, 2006.

Full details are available here.

(Aren’t the hot peppers we’ve been seeing at the greenmarkets just gorgeous?)

Posted by Danielle in Food Blog Events on October 1st, 2006 | | Permalink