Pumpkin Pie Spice

It's so much cheaper to mix up your own pumpkin pie spice than to purchase it!  Plus you can customize the ratio of spices in the mix to your own preferences.  I've only bought pumpkin pie spice once in my life and it was when I was about 16 and very new to cooking.  It sat in the pantry for a long time because I didn't like the flavor, it had too much cloves or nutmeg or something.  This version has lots of allspice because I adore allspice!  

   

Note that you can use this in pretty much any recipe that calls for cinnamon.  So far I have used it in pancakes, pumpkin bread, apple pie jam, apple dump cake, and several other things.  The one thing I haven't used it for is pumpkin pie, but we aren't big pumpkin pie fans in this house!  Also, the blend stores very well.  Just put it in a glass jar and keep it in a cabinet.

 

Pumpkin Pie Spice

 

3 T cinnamon

1 T ginger

2 t allspice

1 t nutmeg

1/2 t cloves

Yield: 1/2 cup

Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix

Like many people, my husband and I are fond of ranch dressing and ranch flavored things.  Sophisticated?  Definitely not.  Tasty?  Definitely yes!  I have a homemade ranch dressing that we both love, but sometimes recipes call for dry ranch powder, so I decided to make some myself.  After looking at many recipes online, I settled on the one from Brown Eyed Baker because it looked good and I've had success with the few recipes of hers I've made before.  As usual, I tweaked the recipe a bit, but it turned out great and what's pictured below is actually the last of the batch I made.  Time to make it again!

I should note that I only actually made this mix into salad dressing once because I was out of other dressings.  It was good- better than store bought dressing- but not as good as the homemade fresh kind.  The rest of the mix has gone into recipes that call for the dry kind.  Because I only made it into salad dressing once and it was spur of the moment, I didn't measure anything.  If you want to turn this into liquid salad dressing, I suggest stirring together milk and mayo until it has the right consistency, then stirring in the dressing mix until it tastes right.  Soon I will update this with more specific measurements.

Homemade Ranch Dressing Mix

1 C buttermilk powder

2 Tbsp dried parsley

1 Tbsp salt

1 Tbsp dried chives

2 1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
 

Process everything in food processor, and store in a jar in refrigerator for 3 months.  3 tablespoons of the mix is equivalent to 1 packet of purchased ranch dressing mix.

Homemade Taco Seasoning

If you've never mixed up your own taco seasoning, you should really give it a try!  I have been making it myself since I came across this recipe on AllRecipes a couple of years ago.  If you have tacos a lot, you will save yourself quite a bit of money, especially if you buy spices in bulk.  This mix also tastes better than packaged seasoning and doesn't have any weird ingredients.  And if you need any more convincing, it doesn't take any more time to cook taco meat with this than the packaged kind.  If you mix up a big batch of the seasoning, all you have to do when you're cooking the meat is measure out the taco seasoning, sprinkle on a little flour, add water, and cook and stir.  Easy peasy!  Oh, and great served on homemade tortillas.

This base recipe is pretty mild heat wise, though that will depend on your chili powder and other ingredients to some extent.  It shouldn't be too hot for kids or people who don't like spicy.  If you want it hotter, just add more cayenne!  You can also leave out the salt (though I already cut down on the salt by 1/3 in the recipe I posted) or change any other ingredients.  Maybe even add a smidge of cocoa powder.  There are lots of options.  Oh, and you can use this for things other than meat- I'll bet it would be good in chili or sprinkled on popcorn or french fries.  In a couple weeks I plan to make roasted cashews sprinkled with this taco seasoning.  Yum!

Seasoning all mixed up:

  

and cooked with ground turkey:

Homemade Taco Seasoning

4 T chili powder
3 1/2 T paprika
3 T cumin
2 T onion powder
2 T garlic powder
4 t salt
1/4 t cayenne pepper

Place ingredients in a glass jar, put on the lid, and shake to mix.  To make taco meat, brown 1 lb ground beef or turkey in a large skillet.  Drain off fat.  Sprinkle on 2 T taco seasoning and 1 scant T flour (about 3/4 T).  Stir well until meat is coated, then add 3/4 C water and cook, stirring, until liquid has thickened, about 2 minutes.  Serve however you would regularly serve taco meat.

Yield: Enough taco seasoning for about 8 lbs of meat.

Garlic Bread Seasoning

This recipe is my version of the recipe from Our Best Bites, one of my favorite cooking blogs. As usual, I tweaked it a bit to suit our preferences. The dude thought it had too much oregano and I noticed it was missing rosemary, which to my rosemary loving tastebuds was a grievous flaw that could not go uncorrected. Every couple of months I make up a new batch and store it in a little shaker jar in the fridge. The name is kind of misleading because I sprinkle it on pizza, pasta, breadsticks, and anything else that seems like it could use a boost. Only rarely is it actually used for garlic bread! It does make great garlic bread though :o) Even if you usually turn your nose up at Kraft parmesan in a can- the first time I bought it was for this recipe- please give it a shot! Also I could see this being a great little gift to give around Christmas if you put it in a cute jar.


Garlic Bread Seasoning

4 T powdered parmesan cheese (the kind in the can)
1 T garlic powder
1 t salt
1 t dried basil
1 t dried parsley
1/2 t dried oregano
1/2 t dried rosemary
1/2 t black pepper

Place everything in an 8 oz jar and shake to mix. Store in the fridge. Sprinkle on pizza, pasta, breadsticks, or make garlic bread with it.

To make garlic bread, buy a long loaf of French bred and mix 1 1/2 T of the seasoning with 1/3 C softened butter. Use a serrated knife to make a cut from above almost all the way through the bread every 3/4 inch down the length of the loaf. Spread the garlic butter on one side of each slice, press the slices together, then wrap the whole thing in aluminum foil. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until bread is heated through and lightly crisp on the outside. Sorry, no picture, but I'll add one next time I make it!

Spiced Orange Tea Mix

There are many versions of this drink mix. Sometimes it's called Friendship Tea or Russian Tea but I'm more to the point and prefer Spiced Orange Tea. I first saw a version of it on the back of a Tang canister but I've also seen it in cook books and online. Whatever you want to call it, it's wonderful! I was hooked the first time I made it a few years ago and I've made it every winter since because it's so good and always puts me in a good mood. Mostly it tastes citrusy but you can taste the spices and tea too. It's pretty unique and definitely worth trying if you've never had it before. If ya don't like it, you can always give it to a friend or bring it to work to share with your coworkers. And if you DO like it, you can make a double batch, package it in cute little canning jars, and give it away as little gifts at Christmas!

Usually I wait to mix it up until we have snow on the ground (which will probably be about 2 weeks from now!), but my husband has a bad sore throat today and this tea is soothing. And anyway, we've been having gorgeous fall weather here in Fairbanks the past few days. Brilliant blue skies, not too chilly, lovely turning leaves. Usually we seem to rush from summer to winter over the period of a couple days so I'm enjoying the beautiful autumn. Everyone seems to be enjoying the weather. We were at the very last day of the farmer's market this past Saturday and little kids were running around having a ton of fun playing in the leaves. We watched one little girl dumping leaves on her mom's head over and over. She was so cute and it was hilarious :D Then today a young boy in our neighborhood stopped me and asked if he wanted me to rake the leaves in our yard. He said he made $25 so far and was just so pleased with himself! Love it! And Spiced Orange Tea is perfect for this kind of weather :)

Okay, enough yammering. Here's the recipe:


Spiced Orange Tea Mix

1 1/2 C sugar

1 C Tang

1/2 C instant tea powder

1 .23 oz packet lemonade Kool-Aid mix

1 t cinnamon

1/4 t allspice

Place all ingredients into a jar, put on the lid, and shake to mix. To serve, mix desired amount (about .5-1 T) with hot water in a mug and stir to dissolve. Store in an airtight jar or else the mix will clump up and be sure to shake up the jar each time you want some tea because it tends to settle.

Yield: 3 cups, about 50-100 mugs depending on how strong you like it.

Here's a mug of the tea that I mixed up for my husband. The mug features a panel from an Alaskan comic strip called Tundra. The artist is named Chad Carpenter and he sells books, calendars, shirts, and obviously mugs. We see him at the Tanana Valley State Fair every year and usually buy a calendar or another book and my parents (who do not live in Alaska) have received Tundra gifts on more than one occasion. Here's the Tundra website if you would like to have a couple laughs.