Savory Spice Week: Day 3

This fall, our daughter is in two activities Soccer and a Dance/Gymnastics class.  This went quite against prior rules and Brent thinks possibly all prospects for our sanity.  I, crazily, wanted her to get to try them both and burn off some energy.  By coincidence, practices have ended up Monday and Tuesday evenings, which is resulting in a tired girl and short evenings.  Tuesday is the shortest time at home as Dance/Gym starts at 6:15 about 15 minutes away.  Therefore, yesterday was particularly in need of a quick "Savory" solution.  I was inspired by a comment from our friend and photographer Heather on Monday's blog to make roasted potatoes as part of a quick breakfast for dinner concept. Today's challenge: Wash Park All-Purpose Seasoning.

 Our recipe begins with "Once Upon A Time, Long, Long ago", when I was dating Brent my now mother-in-law made these tasty herbed potatoes.  I've been riffing on that theme ever since with a constantly changing blend of herbs and spices, basically whatever was at hand.  Each batch has been different although I have some favorite additions. With Heather's roasted potato idea in mind,  I thought I'd see if the Wash Park All-Purpose Seasoning might work as an alternative to grabbing 1/2 a dozen bottles on the fly. Here's my happy helper to get us started and demo how this is so easy a five year old can do it!

Ingredients:

1 lb - small red potatoes cut into roughly one inch pieces. (Mine were from the garden club basket so very fresh)

1 to 2 tsp - Wash Park All-Purpose Seasoning (Or to taste - see below)

1 T - Olive Oil

(Note - are you loving how few ingredients most of these recipes have had this week? Me too!)

Instructions. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Mix ingredients on jelly roll pan (aka a cookie sheet with edges).  Put the pan into the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until edges are browned, stirring occasionally.

The pan going into the oven.

 Sadly, no after picture as a certain three year old was mid-melt down when they were finished.  After taste-testing I have a few things to mention.  First, the ingredients in this blend are: black pepper, sugar, garlic, salt, red and green bell peppers, shallots, parsley, chervil and spices. I probably should have noted the order as the end result was a bit more peppery than is ideal for our family.  If you like a bit more kick then two teaspoons, as I used today would work, if not, I'd dial it back a little starting with maybe 1 tsp and working up, if necessary.  

Secondly, one of the benefits of having the sugar in the mix is that I got better color/browning of the potatoes than usual in this amount of time. Overall, I think it worked.  It was quick and Brent and I enjoyed them, while the kids declared them spicy.  It did occur to me that I have probably gotten used to using, ahem, "less fresh" spices so may have thought I needed a larger quantity than was actually true with truly fresh ingredients.  Just something to consider for the future if you too might have been using older ingredients! 

As this blend calls itself "All-Purpose" (don't get me started on crazy things this tempted me to try--- the name apparently comes from the spice blend being versatile and the park it is named over being used for many things as well).  I, more rationally, decided to try it in the scrambled eggs we were having as well.  I did learn some moderation by the time I was making the eggs. I added just 1/8 of a teaspoon to 7 eggs and 1/4c. of milk.  This was, to me, a bit under doing it, but subtle enough that my kids made no mention of it at all and gobbled them up.  I, however, sprinkled just a bit more on top and was quite please by the mix of tastes that took my normally salt & peppered eggs up a notch.  In short, I think this is blend is good for a quick dash of flavor for a variety of things, so long as you are cognizant that the first ingredient is pepper and adjust accordingly. 

Savory Spice Week Day 1 -- Long's Peak Spiced Pork Loin

Savory Spice Week Day 2 -- Summit County Seasoning

For those of you that live nearby, you can find the shop and all its wares at 4400 N. Western Ave, Oklahoma City, OK.  If you happen to live elsewhere and want to buy some spices from my brother you can reach him at awblakley (at) gmail.com or the store's phone number will soon be open at 405 - 525 -9119. 

Disclaimer - I am not an owner or employee of the shop and am not compensated in any way by SavorySpiceOKC ...other than the free samples that are available to anyone.  I was not asked to write this review and all opinions are my own.