Seasoned Salt

Hi. We are the Shaffers and we have a seasoned salt addiction. Truth? We put it on EVERYTHING that isn't dessert. Meat? Seasoned salt. Veggies? Seasoned salt. Mac and cheese? Seasoned salt. Eggs? Seasoned salt. Coffee? Okay, we draw the line there.

My friend Amy makes her own seasoned salt and she would give us some of it as a gift for different occasions, but I think we may have cleaned out her entire stash. Multiple times. She said she had never met anyone who went through as much of the stuff as we did.

So finally, she just gave me the recipe and let me make my own. I struggled with it a bit, because I was trying to cut the recipe in thirds, and you ALL know how I feel about math. And some of the ingredients were in ounces and others were in teaspoons and tablespoons - so finally I just sort of made my own version of the thing. We thought it turned out pretty well! {But if you really like one of the ingredients and you want to add even more, you can, because it will be YOUR house recipe!}

Seasoned Salt

* 3 pounds kosher salt
* 2/3 cup black pepper
* 2 Tablespoons ginger
* 3 Tablespoons paprika
* 1 Tablespoon chili powder
* 2 Tablespoons garlic powder
* 1/3 teaspoon turmeric
* 1/3 teaspoon sage

Mix all ingredients together and store in airtight container. Use on all your favorite recipes that call for salt and pepper!

A Few Tips:

* We found the kosher salt in a big box in the spice aisle. The actual grains of salt are a little thicker than table salt but not as thick as sea salt.

* We used restaurant black pepper, which is a little coarser than regular black pepper for a table shaker.

* If you like some kick to your cooking, you can add more chili powder. Increasing that or the paprika will also give the seasoned salt a bit more color.

* We store part of the salt in an old seasoned salt container we had from a time when we bought it at the store. It allows me to sprinkle or use a measuring spoon when I'm cooking.

* It does call for THREE POUNDS OF SALT, you know, so not all of it fit in our seasoned salt container. I stored the backup portion of our recipe in an airtight container in the cabinet, and I'll use that to refill the regular container when it runs low. The rest of it, because YES, there is a rest of it, I put in a gallon storage bag and stuck it in the freezer.

* This is also a great gift idea if you're looking for something to share with co-workers, friends, or neighbors. I seriously loved it when Amy gifted this to us, and the cost isn't bad at all, so making a gift in bulk like this is easy to do.

* As I mentioned earlier, this works well on absolutely anything that isn't a sweet dish. Ryan sprinkles it on everything he grills, from meat to veggies to our quesadilla shells. We put it in with crock pot meals, in our veggies, in our scrambled eggs, literally everything.

* I like to make it myself, not only because we use it so much, but because I know exactly what is in it - no preservatives - and we can customize it to our own tastes!