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I’ll admit it: I have an unhealthy obsession with queso. At any get-together where it’s a part of the spread, don’t expect me to be social. Instead I’ll be hovering over the bowl like a madman, wild-eyed and orange-faced. But can you really blame me? If you think about it, queso is kind of the perfect food. It certainly has all the basic tenets: warmth, cheesiness, spiciness—what else do you need in life? Given the opportunity, I will put that golden gooey deliciousness on everything. In fact, I'll even put queso on my queso. Which is just more queso, but that’s the point.

Summer was made for sauce. Think about it: sweet and smoky (aka swoky) barbecue sauce running down your chin with every succulent bite of a glazey grilled chicken leg. Or a tart and tangy strawberry vinaigrette to toss your farmers market finds with. And naturally, drizzling a little too much warm, buttery caramel sauce over your already melting ice cream. Because summer.

Many of the seasonings I’ve created over the years have been based on the flavors of classic sauces. Buffalo Wing Dry Sauce, Mexican Mole, and Parmesan Pesto are just a few examples. Because we’ve successfully reverse-engineered sauces into seasonings, it has been my long-held belief that a majority (if not all) of our dry seasonings could be used as the base for quick and easy, flavorful sauces. This means your spice cabinets at home are full of even more possibilities than you may have ever realized!

“I found ground cumin in my cabinet that’s a year old… Can I still use it?” We get varying degrees of the “will spices go bad?” question all the time. Not always with cumin of course, and the time ranges from a year to a decade (side note: does anyone have a bottle from when we opened in 2004? Let us know!). But trust me, I’ve answered spice fans’ emails and phone calls about how to get the most out of their seasonings since I’ve worked in the Savory Spice Test Kitchen.

Across the world, these two ingredients are often referred to singularly as coriander but in North America, we distinguish the fresh, flat-leafed herb of the plant by calling it cilantro (which is actually just the Spanish translation of coriander). If a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, then does the same go for coriander? As it turns out, the seeds and leaves of C. sativum have vastly different flavor profiles and culinary uses.

Macaroni and cheese is all about comfort. It’s familiar, creamy, salty, satisfying, and is always there when you need it. Whether you make it from scratch or from a trusted brand's box, what matters is that you feel your worries melt away with each rich, gooey bite.

I eat chili all year long, no matter the weather. It’s such a simple, easily customizable, satisfying meal. But when October hits, chili season kicks in hard for me. For as long as I can remember, it has been the traditional pre-trick-or-treating meal of choice at my house. I throw everything in a pot as soon as I’m home from work, let it simmer away while I get my daughter’s ghoulish makeup/last minute costume updates/wild hairdo ready to go and we all enjoy a hot, filling bowl before heading out to collect candy. This isn’t a scientific fact, but I also think it helps mitigate the inevitable sugar rush that comes later in the evening. (Pictured above: South End Brewski Chili)

When you look at your home spice collection, what do you see? Before I started working on the marketing team at Savory Spice, I would have said I was looking at a lot of seasonings (duh)— from allspice to chili powder to bbq rubs. But now, I see two very different sets of products: “straight spices” and “blends.” You’ve likely never used those terms before—I sure hadn’t. But now I hear them dozens of times a day. So what exactly do they mean, and why is the distinction important?

Whenever someone asks me what I do and I explain my job as one of the Test Kitchen managers at Savory Spice, I’m asked the following three questions: what is the coolest thing I’ve ever cooked (it’s impossible to pick favorites, but cured egg yolks were a pretty fun experiment), do I need taste testers (sometimes!), and what is my favorite seasoning? I’ve got the answer to that last question on lock: Park Hill Maple & Spice for the cold months and Coastal Cali Fennel Pollen Rub for the summer.