Cinnamon, Spice & All Things Nice, Plus A Food Gal Giveaway
What’s inside?
Why do I love cinnamon? Let me count the ways.
Perhaps it all started as a kid, when my Dad and I would indulge on weekend mornings with cinnamon raisin toast slathered with butter. Truth be told, he often ate it for a late-night snack, too. Crisp, and heady with that warm, sweet, fragrant spice, who could blame him?
When I got older, and started my endless weekend baking bouts, Snickerdoodles were a favorite to make. Of course, rolling them in cinnamon-sugar was the best part.
And when I got older still, there was nothing so intoxicating as a Moroccan chicken scented heavily with cinnamon all over its beautiful bronze skin.
As a result, jars of cinnamon are always on hand in my pantry.
But nothing prepared me quite for the beauty of this container of cinnamon, which I received as a sample.
“Prosperity Cinnamon” is a lovely cinnamon bark box hand-carved with the Asian character for “prosperity.” Inside is 3 ounces of ground Vietnamese sweet cinnamon that is so fragrant, you’ll want to use it the minute you open it up.
It’s one of the many items included in the 2014 World Vision Gift Catalog.
The $85 price tag of the cinnamon box might seem high. But giving the gift to yourself or someone you love helps this humanitarian organization provide services around the world to children and families in need.
So, this gift-giving season, consider a gift that provides in more ways than one.
Open sesame — to find fragrant Vietnamese cinnamon.
CONTEST: One lucky Food Gal reader will win a free “Prosperity Cinnamon” box courtesy of World Vision. Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST Oct. 18. Winner will be announced Oct. 20.
How to win?
You’ve already read why I love cinnamon. Tell me what your favorite spice is — and why. Best answer wins the prize.
That is such a beautiful container and creative, but $85? Eeek. I feel like it should be more around $50-$65. Unless the cinnamon was hand-picked by monkeys and grounded by nuns. LOL.
I didn’t grow up with the scent of much spices in my family because my mom was pretty basic with her dishes. I think five-spice or star anise was the only spice I could detect, and as a child I didn’t like the strong aggressive flavor. Growing up, I’ve discovered new spices and I would have to say my favorite is cardamom because of its distinctive sweet but also almost tart flavor. It’s also a taste that lingers, whether you want it to or not, in the palate for quite awhile.
Cinnamon for me too. I remember when I was little, I stayed with my grandparents while my parents worked. My grandmother had to make a southern breakfast for my grandfather every morning. But, for me she would sometimes make cinnamon toast. I’ll make it occasionally now, and I can remember sitting with my grandfather while he had breakfast and drank the blackest coffee (which my grandmother would dilute for me 🙂 ). I guess that’s why I’m a dark coffee addict too.
I love when fall is here and I can start making all the pumpkin and spicy desserts.
Cardamom is a a close second. I love it’s sweetness and in my job as a pastry chef, I love combining it with orange for ice cream and a coffee cake I created.
Cinnamon is my favorite spice – it’s smells great and taste great! I use it almost every day to add it to my oatmeal!
I love cinnamon. I also like Allspice and cloves. I often use all three in the same recipe. I think cinnamon, though, is my favorite because I can use it in so many things!
I love cardamom because it reminds of my Norwegian grandmother and her warm kitchen. Mamo taught me to make a most delicious holiday bread using fragrant cardamom that I still, 50 years later, make each year during the holidays.
This is a great question. I am so tempted to go for the luxurious spices like cardamom or saffron. However, I have to go with something that just reminds me of home and my family. Therefore, I am choosing the modest yet wonderful cumin. It is typically a supporting character in many great dishes. To me, however, it is the first memory/sensory/ olfactory association I can conjure up when thinking of my childhood and food. I can just remember my dad dusting up some steaks (not the best cuts but whatever) with salt, pepper, and a dash of cumin and pan frying them when I was younger. The smell just permeated throughout the whole house and once I inhaled that scent I knew dinner was ready and it was going to be good. From this day forward, anytime I smell cumin lingering in the air, I feel the comfort and happiness brought upon by my family.
Cinnamon is my all time favorite spice. Don’t recall when exactly I the passion for this spice began since I did not grow up with it (my mom actually despised it). But now use cinnamon in both savory as well as sweet dishes. My current faves are Snickerdoodles blondes and a homemade Chai tea mix.
as you might suspect, cinnamon is one of my true loves. i appreciate that it can be used in both sweet and savory dishes and the very smell of it just comforts me.