My favorite homemade sauce is my Habanero sauce, and lately I've been making it with Chocolate Habanero chilies, which I grow myself. I also grow regular Habanero chilies. The chocolate ones I have to grow from seeds, which are difficult to sprout, but I can find regular Habanero plants at local nurseries. I always grill the chilies before making the sauce, giving it a smoky flavor. When I do not have chilies in my yard, I use my chili sauce. I also make mild chili sauces using dried chilies such as Guajillo, Ancho, and Poblano.

I'm not a huge fan of salt, and I often omit it when others deem it to be essential. The spice I would not want to be without would probably be garlic. If I did not have chili sauce, then it would be chili pepper.

I make a lot of other condiments/dressings that you might consider sauces, including Bleu Cheese, Ranch, Avgolemono, etc. For many dishes, I make a velouté sauce, as I generally avoid milk. I also make a lot of bean dishes that I use as condiments.

None of what I have mentioned gets stored in the pantry - they all stay in the fridge.

I don't can, so I make sauces to purpose. I do have some commercial sauces in my pantry for when I don't have the time or inclination to bother. For quickie enchiladas (leftovers, usually) rather than a presentation dish, Trader Joe's enchilada sauce is actually pretty good, though I might goose it if I'm not serving it to the old folks. I always have ketchup (Simply Heinz only), a few mustards, a jar of TJ's mayonnaise, Pace piquante. Those all are used most often in sandwiches. Like the Pace on a cheese sandwich. If I'm actually cooking, however, I'd make my own pepper sauce, or tomato sauce, or barbecue sauce, or mayonnaise, or salsa fresca...or whatever.

The spices and dried herbs I wouldn't be without form way too long a list. When I was living abroad on meager wages even for where I was living, and taking advantage of all the subsidized foods, I still ended up with thirty jars of herbs and spices by the time I'd been there a few months. I didn't go to the movies (old American films with subtitles and a really bad sound system because the locals were just reading the subtitles, never mind what it did to the music). I did a lot of cooking while listening to the radio, and usually the $3 I had to spare went to a new spice. The same basic (subsidized) ingredients can be a whole world of different foods if you change up the spices!

For a few days of camping, however, I could make do with a couple of blends, like a garlic pepper and Fines Herbes.

Even though I can't have it I love a cream, butter and brandy sauce with mushrooms. Fav spice would be thyme, well, the one I use the most. For flavour it would be a cumin/garlic blend.

The spice I use most? Cinnamon. I was going to say garlic, but that's not really a spice.

As for sauces, well, I'm "famous" for Annie's Salsa, and my family loves the stuff but I seldom eat it. I can spaghetti sauce, enchilada sauce, a couple of different salsas, a peach and habanero hot sauce, a hot pepper/ mustard "butter", plum sauce and various fruit based sauces like rhubarb, sweet cherry and blueberry, as well as Chase's chile sauce. The sauce most used is the blueberry sauce for pancakes and french toast and the one everyone raves over (besides the salsa) is the Habanero Gold jelly that I use as a grill glaze or to top a savory cheesecake. The chile sauce is a staple cooking item, I add it to a lot of things.

Annie

My favorite sauce is a sweet and spicy pineapple barbecue sauce. Spice? Definetly either paprika or chili powder!

When I was well, and able to travel (I'm getting there again) I had advice from another cooking forum to put spices in SMTWTFS pill containers. To save $$. Not to have to buy them in Europe. So - cumin, cumin, thyme, thyme, black pepper, black pepper, sea salt, sea salt.

The only "homemade" sauce we keep is Boca Boys Barbecue Sauce which is nothing more than equal parts of Kraft Original and Sweet Baby Ray's Honey BBQ sauce with the juice of two oranges.

As far as spices go, there's always a jar of Boca Boys Jamaican Jerk Rub in the pantry:

• 4 tablespoons Ground allspice
• 4 tablespoons Dried thyme
• 4 tablespoons Ground Scotch Bonnet Pepper Click here to buy them... cheap!
• 2 tablespoons Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons Ground sage
• 1 tablespoon Ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon Ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons Garlic powder
• 4 tablespoons Brown Sugar
• 1 cup dried Chives

Favorite sauce when my kids were younger was a home made queso sauce with some Pace picante sauce stirred in. DSII still makes it quite often. We go through a lot of Thai sweet chili sauce and even more Chi Chi's salsa. (Chi Chi's salsa has replaced the former favorite, Pace.) My favorite home made sauce is the frond from sautéed boneless chicken breasts plus cream, butter, black pepper & either tarragon or capers, depending on which sounds better at the moment.

Favorite herb is garlic; favorite spice is Vietnamese cinnamon.

I can't think of any sauces I buy, other than plain canned tomato sauce. I often make marinara sauce, white sauce & salad dressings - do those count? Does salsa fresca? I haven't in a very long time, but I used to make an orange/cumin peanut sauce for cold noodles that we loved.

As for a spice, if I had to choose just one it would have to be black pepper - fresh ground. I put that on just about EVERYTHING.

I make my own spice blends, but 2 I buy & try to always keep on hand are Crazy Mixed-Up Salt (fantastic for roast beef) & Spike (awesome on fish).

I grow fresh herbs as well: rosemary, Italian parsley, marjoram, oregano, garlic chives, winter savory, basil, lemon grass & spearmint, & use them freely. Until last week, I had a little bay tree & used a lot of fresh bay leaves too. (Hubby cut the tree down by mistake, but I salvaged branches full of leaves & have enough to last quite awhile, until I find a new tree.)

And I love tarragon & smoked paprika = )

ETA: donna_loomis's post below reminded me I also keep Frontier Co-op's curry powder on hand as well - so great for roast chicken, chicken salad & squash soup.

Favorite spice is chipotle powder. I use it more than any other.

Homemade sauces would include:

--Marinara

--Remoulade

--Various salad dressings

--Mango salsa

--Dipping sauce for potstickers

Chinese Pink Sauce!!! I love it. I'm always thinking of something different to put it on. First discovered at our favorite Chinese restaurant and used it on the mar far chicken. When the owners retired and I didn't know what their homemade sauce was called, I thought it was lost to me forever. Then, a couple of years ago I stumbled, quite by accident, on something that sounded like my favorite sauce. Tried the recipe and it was spot on. There is always some in my fridge now. Sweet and hot (lots of powdered mustard).

I consider myself a flavor addict. By this, I mean that I like strong flavors, what some might consider overpowering. I love curry, powdered horseradish, you get the idea. But the one seasoning I hope I never have to give up is salt. Might not be good for me, but a little bit of salt makes just about every savory dish a bit better, IMO.

Seagrass, I'm glad you are feeling better, I hope you're 100% recovered soon and back to travelling.

Carol, I just planted my herbs for this summer. I have rosemary, sage, thyme, chocolate mint, oregano and chives that overwinter, and I bought a pot of basil and one of curry plant and planted them, but they're big enough to use right now. From seeds I just planted lemon basil, sweet basil, parsley, cilantro, marjoram, tarragon, dill, lavender, lovage, feverfew and nasturtium. I use a lot of fresh herbs, but don't have a "favorite", I like 'em all!

Unfortunately, I can't grow bay leaf here. I use it regularly in all the broth I can and in soups.

Annie