Spices, the Variety of Life

Yesterday, I purchased several spices at EarthFare. Normally, I'd wait until my next Wal-Mart visit (which won't be anytime soon), but they were selling 77g bottles for ~$1.25, so I went ahead and purchased some. The way I see it, I'll be using these through grad school anyway, so I may as well buy them now. I don't have space on my shelves for spices (too many books and hair products), so I've taken to lining spices and other condiments up on my windowsill. So far, I have:

• Extra virgin olive oil
  
• Sugar
  
• Salt
  
• Ground Black Pepper
  
• Ground Cinnamon
  
• Lemon juice
  
• Ghee
  
• Decaf instant coffee (cafe con leche!)
  
• Ground clove
  
• Nutmeg
  
• Oregano
  
• Mrs. Dash (regular and garlic blends)
  
• Bay leaves
  
• Parsley
  
• Basil
  
• Ground ginger
  
• Cayenne pepper
  
• Rosemary
  

The last six ones are brand new.

I tried to avoid purchasing these for as long as possible—I figured Mrs. Dash would work pretty well for anything that wouldn't be fine with just salt or garlic. But then I kept running into neat recipes that required various basic spices, especially bay, parsley, and basil. I realized that if I want to make a lot of good meals, I should go ahead and just get these. If anything, they'll last me well into grad school, no?

Anyway, I'm very excited about these! I just made some vegetable broth that tasted quite good, and allowed me to finally finish off the few very depressing celery stalks in my fridge that were no longer fit to be eaten raw. I am so excited—there are many recipes I can't wait to try!