Spicing it up

I went out of town (out of state, actually) to visit my parents over the holiday--hence the lack of posts. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Since both my husband and I have birthdays that fall between now and Christmas, when we visit for Thanksgiving, we often head home with our birthday presents in hand, and this year it was no different. Earlier this year, my best source (Mom) put in an order at a spice company, where you can buy spices in bulk for a lot cheaper than you can even at the local national chainstore, (I don't know if it's cheaper than some of the stuff that you can get for $.50/bottle--like onion powder/garlic powder--but for spices like cinnamon, etc., it's better quality for better prices, and I bought some onion and garlic powder in my part of the order, because what I heard about the quality impressed me) the key being that you buy in large quantities. I bought some of the stuff that I know I will use regularly --it might surprise you, but curry is a regular thing for me, it's probably my favorite spice--and we picked up our order during our visit to save shipping costs. When my parents brought out the spices, they showed us our birthday present--a bunch of quality spices in great very large plastic bottles (complete with lids that have alternate openings so that you can sprinkle or pour) and labeled clearly so that I won't mess it up. We are very excited! On the list:

Cayenne Pepper--40 heat
Poultry Seasoning
Cayenne--90 heat
Cilantro
Cloves
Allspice
Chili blend
Pizza Mix/blend

Having just bought a small bottle of allspice recently, I know that it is costly. To have all these spices in the amount in the gift bottles is wonderful.

I think (what a surprise! :) that food storage gifts would be a wonderful idea for Christmas. Wendy, over at iPrepared, has a whole list of ideas in her home storage Christmas gifts post that has a lot of fantastic ideas for gift-giving. It's hard to get everything you need into storage, but when you give gifts that help people with their preparedness needs, everyone gets closer to that goal...

Well, I know that I have mentioned spices in the past, but I love how getting these spices into my storage supplies both a want and a need. I probably need the spices in order to make food more appealing and edible for everyone eating. But if it came down to choosing between say, rice, and cinnamon, I would probably consider the rice a need and the cinnamon a want. Great that--thanks to the parents--- I don't have to choose when it comes to these particular spices now.... :)