Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara logo

A Bit More Shopping

We had so much fun on our little shopping trip last weekend.  Even though the day before we left home, a Penzey’s order arrived, we went to the Penzey’s store because we had never been to one in real life.  All my Penzey’s shopping had been done online.

It was fun to go inside and smell all the spices but I doubt I’d go back.  It’s so easy to order online and when we’re in Overland Park/Kansas City, we go so seldom that there’s just so much to do and we have to make the best use of our time.  They  have all the spices out in little glass jars and you can open them and smell them.  Everything was about what one would expect, until we got to the Vietnamese Cinnamon!  Oh, my!  I have never smelled any cinnamon anything like that.  I’m hooked and that will be the only cinnamon we use from now on.  I couldn’t wait to get home and make cinnamon rolls.  I wish you could smell them! Look at all that yummy cinnamon.

Vince could eat them straight out of the pan but I love the icing.  One end of the pan gets less icing than the other so he can have his with just a little icing . . that’s how he likes them; and I can have mine with lots of icing!

The Tasteful Olive was next door to Penzeys.  We’ve always been big fans of balsamic vinegar but I had never tasted balsamic vinegar like they had there.

They have little tiny cups and all of the vinegars and olive oils can be tasted.  I didn’t taste many of the olive oils . . just didn’t get real fired up about drinking garlic flavored olive oil but the vinegars . . oh, my!  When we first walked in and Vince explained to me that we did all the tasting, I thought . . I’m not drinking vinegar!  The first one I tasted kinda took my breath but by the time we’d tasted a few of them, I was wanting a glass instead of that tiny little cup.  We ended up buying a bottle of traditional balsamic, cinnamon pear balsamic and peach balsamic, along with  a couple of olive oils.

For dessert this week, we’ve been having just a tad of vanilla ice cream with a drizzle of one of the flavored balsamics over it.  Yum!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. We are so lucky to have a Penzey’s now, right here in Colorado Springs. When you want to try Indian cooking, their sweet curry is the best!

    • Those cinnamon rolls look delicious!! Is that recipe one that you would be willing to share?? Hope so. Thanks….

  3. Sounds like you had a fun day! I love shopping at Penzey’s. I like to see the spices in the little sample jars. The blends smell great and I enjoy looking at the recipe pictures and take along recipe cards at each display. The recipes change often and give good inspiration for dinner ideas. The sales people are nice and full of knowledge too. It is kind of like a “local quilt shop,” only has spices instead of fabric!

  4. Hey, no tractor supply store……I can see why you loved your shopping trip….it was all about Judy shopping!!! And cinnamon rolls…..they are all about the goo…..life is better with goo!!

  5. Doesn’t Penzey’s smell AMAZING??? I can usually talk my 6yo into accompanying me to the fabric store if I promise a trip to the “good smelling store” afterwards!

  7. Saigon Cinnamon is all we use. It has the most wonderful smell and everything tastes soooo much better. I would love to try all those different vinegars. I will have to check out the website.

    • Is Saigon cinnamon exactly the same as Vietnamese cinnamon? I wonder! I’ve never smelled anything like that Vietnamese cinnamon. When Vince smelled it in the store, he said “Can you make cinnamon rolls with this?” The guy standing behind us said “I’m coming to your house!”

  9. Judy, there are at least 3 houses for sale in our neighborhood. I want some cinnamon rolls. They look so goooood. I just know that you would share with me and I am sure that you could get a good deal on any of these houses. But wait until after the ice storm that we are suppose to get today. I cannot believe how cold it is.

    • You know I would share! You’d probably have to be real quick though — with my niece and her husband and four kids and mom and dad, things don’t last too long when I’m cooking there.

      If one of those houses for sale used to be purple, I’d buy it today! 🙂

      • Judy your purple house comment made me laugh-my favorite book as a child was Mr.Pines Purple House! I think this book is why I love colour,! crafting and painting too

  10. I read on someone elses blog about that cinnamon. I am going to check at the Mennonite store the next time I go and see if they have it. I thought PEnzey was going to be a knock off of Penneys. I’ve never heard of them. Boy was I wrong. Bye, I’m going to their web site now.

    -7 and -20 wind chill
    Patti

  11. Would you be willing to share your cinnamon bun recipe? I love cinnamon buns but have never made them myself. I grew up on Pillsbury cinnamon buns, but they have made changes since I was a kid. I would love to start making them myself. Yours look so good, I would hate to experiment on my own :-).

  13. Judy, your site is so much fun, and your cinnamon rolls look DELISH! Just like my grandmas, which were the best ever.

    I wanted to tell you – there are vinegars made just for drinking, made with fruit and sugar! I’ll send you a bottle to try, if you like! 🙂

    Deb

  15. Judy, vietnamese cinnamon is the only cinnamon I use. It’s out of this world! I buy mine via King Arthur Flour.

    Next time you make cinnamon rolls, toss a cup of pecans in your food processor and chop them up pretty fine. Roll them up with the cinnamon, it’s absolutely fantastic that way.

  16. I was a lucky one and was able to have one of these wonderful cinnamon rolls. They were delicious! Thanks for sending them in with Vince for us all to enjoy! It was a wonderful treat – Everyone raved about them – the cinnamon was great!

  17. Will be down in OP in May and will have to check out the Tasteful Olive shop next to Prenzy’s. We usually stop there. Will be down for the machine quilting convention. Will have a quilt there so will be interested in seeing if it gets anything. Not holding my breath though. grin.

  18. When I started reading and saw that you went to Penzey’s I was hoping that you went to the oil store. We make those stops once a month on the second Tuesday of the month after attending the Kansas City Quilt Guild. Also included is the Culinary Institute which serve lunch on Tuesday’s only. Check it out on their web site and maybe you will hit that someday on one of your trips to KC. We have attended several classes at The Tasteful Olive and I am hooked on the raspberry vinegar in melted chips, caramel topping and whipping cream drizzled over fresh fruit. Did you make it into Harper’s? Have you tried the California pepper? Those rolls look yum!!!

  19. Judy, Was there a big difference in the taste of the cinnamon? I’ve been debating whether or not to get the Vietnamese cinnamon. We are huge cinnamon fans here and I make a pretty good roll, too. I have a raspberry cinnamon roll that is to die for.

Discover more from Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading