Spice Mix Party! Guest Post by: Rachel

August 9, 2012 By 4 Comments
Today’s guest is my cousin Rachel! I was really excited when she told me what her topic for today was going to be! MIXES! I love making mixes up to have on hand, but they also make great homemade gifts! Thanks Rachel for being my guest on the blog today! ~Robyn
 
 

I’m so excited to share about the fun Spice Party some friends and I had recently. My motivation for doing the Spice Party was three-fold.  1) Put together some nice chemical- and toxin-free spice mixes and condensed soup.  2) Doing projects from Pinterest makes me feel so accomplished. 3) Great excuse to get together with friends.

So let me begin by giving credit where credit is due.  Oh Pinterest… how I love you!  Side note: Does anyone else feel twinges of mild irritation when their friends don’t pin enough and fill up your feed with wonderful things to look at?  Just me?  Oh. Okay.  We found most of our recipes on Pinterest — the following pins:  Condensed Soup & Dry Spice Mixes. There were a few minor modifications made.  I’ll note those below.  Italian Dressing was here.
 
Pre-Party:  We decided the number of people who would be attending.  Then my friend, Elise, made the most amazing excel spreadsheet that calculated the total quantities of spices we needed to purchase.  We hit up local stores that carry bulk spices and bought our ingredients.
 
Items we found helpful to have on hand (you’ll need other kitchen utensils too.  These were just a few that I thought, wow! I’m so glad we have that…):
 
  • Large bowls
  • Stock Pots
  • Funnels
  • Several sets of measuring utensils
  • Kleenex (for the friend cutting onions)

We had a kid friendly Spice Party.  They didn’t help per say… but we potlucked dinner, fed them, and sent them upstairs to play.  And then did our best to keep the babies out of trouble.  Yes… that would be a slice of cheese pizza keeping sweet Kadence out of trouble.

 
The soup is definitely what you want to start first.  It takes the longest to cook and needs time to cool as well.  The thing I love about this recipe for “Cream of Something Soup” is that she breaks down so many different options when it comes to building this recipe.  We decided to make two different types of Cream of Mushroom Soup.  The first pot had all rice milk and the second pot had half rice milk and half organic milk.

 

 
 
 
 
One of our modifications to the soup recipe was to add a bit of arrowroot powder (dissolved in cold water) to each pot.  We felt it needed a bit of thickening.  We added approximately one-eighth cup arrowroot powder, diluted in 1/2 cup water to each pot.  You could definitely use cornstarch if you don’t have any arrowroot powder just sitting on your pantry shelf. :)
 
 
You will definitely want to taste test it — add salt to your liking.
 
We had mason jars and plastic containers to divvy the soup up in.  However… we realized pretty quickly that the soup was way too hot to package that night.  We decided to cover the pots and leave them sit to cool overnight.  And I’m so glad we did, because it had set up really nicely and was the exact texture and consistency as canned cream of mushroom soup.
 
I portioned mine in the same quantity as you would get from a can of soup.  1 1/2 cups = one can. I used quart sized freezer bags and dropped them right into my freezer.
 
Onto the spice mixes…
 
Taco Seasoning
1/2 c. chili powder
1/4 c. onion powder
1/8 c. ground cumin
1 T. garlic powder
1 T. paprika
1 T. sea salt
 
Onion Soup Mix
2/3 c. dried, minced onion
3 t. parsley flakes
2 t. onion powder
2 t. turmeric
1 t. celery salt
1 t. sea salt
1 t. sugar
1/2 t. ground pepper
 
Use 4 tablespoons in a recipe in place of 1 packet of onion soup mix.  Store this in a dry, cool place. 
 
Ranch
5 T. dried minced onions
7 t. parsley flakes
4 t. salt
1 t. garlic powder
1 T. dill (our modification)
1 T. basil (our modification)
For dressing: Mix 2 tablespoons dry mix with 1 cup mayonnaise and 1 cup buttermilk or sour cream.
For dip:  Mix 2 tablespoons dry mix with 2 cups sour cream.
Mix up a few hours before serving, so the flavors all blend.

Italian Dressing Mix:  Click HERE

 
 

In the end… we ended up with quite a decent quantity of spices. And everyone got more than two mason jars of soup — I would say we left with the equivalent of 5-6 “cans” of soup.  Because we bought our spices locally, we didn’t really save by doing anything in bulk.  You may be able to find some savings by ordering online.  We realized it a bit too late, but Aldi carries spices for 99 cents each.  Next time! :)

And look what my friend Jess did with her mason jars.  They turned out so cute.
 
 
All in all, it was a fun night with friends.  Wouldn’t this be a great thing to do in early December for Christmas gifts?  Just think of all the awesome packaging ideas that you could do with the spices.  Um… I think I hear Pinterest calling me. :)

Rachel

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Comments

  1. Anastasia Ricks says:
    August 9, 2012 at 8:41 pm

    This is an amazing idea! With the price of things these days this would make, making homemade such a snap! I’ve given you an award. Come visit my blog at http://lifeofblocks.blogspot.com/

    Reply
  2. Barbara Hiatt says:
    August 9, 2012 at 10:33 pm

    Love this idea, you’re right it is perfect for holiday gifts!!! Thanks for linking up at the CHQ Blog Hop! See you there again next week!
    Barbara @ Chase the Star

    Reply

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