Spicy Field Trip

I get all of my spices from a place called Penzey’s. My mom and I discovered it almost 10 years ago and now and it has been my go-to for all things spiced and herbed ever since. I love them. I love the company. I love the people who run it. I love their products. It’s just a company that I’ve fallen in love with hook, line and sinker. There aren’t many of those, so when I find them I have to give them their proper recognition.

And I have been waiting for them to open a store closer to us for a while. They opened one a couple of years ago outside of Denver, but it’s in a part of town that we never frequent, so I’ve just never been able to make the special trip. But they just opened one very close to a part of town I’m in pretty much whenever we go to Denver, so we decided to head up there yesterday and check it out. I was so excited I could hardly sit still. I got all silly and did a little happy dance when we reached the store’s front door.

I had envisioned spending quite a large chunk of time in the store, just looking and smelling and perusing. But the dang place was so well organized that I got a little basket and walked from display to display and found exactly what I was looking for. I think we were in there for maybe 20 minutes. And that’s only because my husband and the children were going around smelling everything. It was still a lovely experience and I am so glad I went, but it just wasn’t quite the luxury experience for which I had hoped.

But now I have some new spices with which to experiment. I’ve been really getting into Indian flavors lately, experimenting with different curries. And I am trying to figure out how to bring out the more subtle of the Asian flavors so that everything doesn’t just taste like soy sauce. Mostly I’m just trying to shake up our family menu a bit. Re-challenge myself in the kitchen and find some new staples.