Travel safely, Seagrass, and give that good dog an extra pat or two from me, I hope travel isn't too difficult for him/her.

Seasonings? Salt, pepper, garlic and onion are necessary for me and in a pinch I'll go for garlic and onion powder. An herb blend goes a long way for me, something like Mural of Flavors is good on chicken, pork or beef, and probably seafood too. I've also used it to make herb butter for garlic bread. Oh, and Montreal Steak Seasoning, I just love the stuff on things from burgers to pot roast.

I bake, so I'd have to have vanilla, as well as cinnamon and nutmeg, but I don't know how much baking you'll be doing in those rentals. Definitely olive oil, I've never had a rental that had that.

Enjoy your trip, relax and be glad you aren't anywhere there is 5 feet of snow that needs shoveling!

Annie

My go-tos are salt & pepper (of course!), tarragon, rosemary, oregano, thyme, marjoram, cayenne, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, and a few things that are, IMPO, best fresh: lemons &/or limes, garlic & parsley. Bay leaves are so good in simmered dishes like soups, stews.

Chili powder can be good, tho I prefer to use whole cumin seed, ground red chiles & oregano w/ fresh garlic & onions when I make taco meat.I do not much care for the taste of dried garlic.

I love mild curry powder for lentil soup & curry chicken salad & I love Spike unsalted seasoning for fish - esp. salmon broiled w/ butter & olive oil. Don't forget butter, onions, celery, mushrooms, tomatoes & peppers can all be considered seasoning too - & likely available at local stores = )

I've done a lot of cooking in rentals. And while I almost never use "spice blends" they can be invaluable for travel cooking. Penzey's has several...a steak seasoning, an Italian spice blend and an herbes de province sort of blend.
Add salt, pepper, olive oil and a couple of vinegars and you are good to go.

Oh and i would also take baking soda, baking powder ( got to make pancakes!) and a small zip lock of yeast!

Ooh I forgot about mustard - dijon is great for salad dressings & marinades.

Thank you all. You've made me think a lot. I've gone through my cupboards. So far I have McCormick grinders with sea salt and black peppercorns, a snack baggie with bay leaves. Some garlic powder.

Penzy's: Cajun seasoning, BBQ of the Americas and Fines Herbs, Chili Con Carne and Cumin. Madras curry powder. And a Tuscan sea salt seasoning blend we use a lot - it has rosemary & oregano with red pepper, black pepper, garlic & tomato.

I've never tried Mural of Flavor. Maybe we'll run across a Penzy's in our travels. We don't have one anywhere near here. I like to smell the spice blends before I buy them. I go to Penzy's when I visit my mother in Columbus.

No baking for me!! But I'll add cinnamon to my bag. I'll bring balsamic and olive oil, maybe red wine vinegar, too. I have all of those here - why buy them there? I don't have any unopened mustard so I'll pick some up once we get to our first rental. We'll be hopping around visiting family and friends for about a week before we stay in St. Augustine. I was happy to see there is an Asian grocery and I'm sure we'll be customers.

Spices are so expensive and I have these in my cupboard so I want to bring along some essentials. I will buy fresh rosemary, thyme, basil. Our rentals are only a few hours from each other so the fresh herbs should survive at least 2 places.

I'm getting tired just thinking about it, but our temps here are frigid. This will be the first time we've gone south for the winter.

Happy New Year!

seagrass

If your spices are nearing the end of their life....you might consider leaving them home and looking for an interesting spice store.
Have a wonderful time!

Lindac - lol. It's turned to a major purge of my cupboards. Old spices, spices I never use (impulse buys, Penzy's free samples, gifts). Ugh. Not what I want to be doing.

Seagrass, that always happens when I decide to go through my spices. All those free samples from Penzey's? I get them, my Mother gets them, Elery gets them, Ashley and Amanda get them. They all end up coming to me, and if it's something I don't care for, like their Fajita Seasoning, well, I'm overstocked, LOL. Fortunately, if they are unopened the local food pantry is ecstatic to get them, so I always encourage everyone to claim them and keep them unopened. We do have one that is kind of local, it's in Grand Rapids, so I stop there periodically.

I find things in the cabinets, though, that I don't even remember when or why I got them. It's still not as bad as my Mother, who had a container of rosemary that she guessed was at least 10 years old. It smelled of dust, LOL. I just picked up a small rosemary plant at Meijer for $2.99, she's getting it tomorrow when she comes for "Christmas" dinner!

Have fun, finding all the fun shops and different groceries is part of the fun of going new places.

Annie

Annie - my favorite thing to do when we travel is going to markets and gardens. I'm not up to speed physically and have a lot of trepidation about this journey. But I can't stay here by myself.

One year, we wintered in Florida. For the first time, we could buy Temple oranges, and so we bought a hand juicer or reamer to make fresh orange juice daily. So delicious. I miss Temple oranges out here on the west coast.

Annie, great reminder on the food pantry as a destination for unopened herbs and spices. They are expensive, as we all know, and a treat for people trying to cook for their families on very limited budgets. I always add a few containers of poultry spice, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla to the holiday food pantry collection we do at work (though most of my food pantry contributions are financial).

On the want list at our food pantry is always cinnamon and chili powder.
What Penzeys free samples? I never have gotten any!

lindac - I order online and wait until I need enough spices to get free shipping if over wow, down to $20. Anyway, it's common for them to include free samples with my order but I tend not to use them. Can't remember a spice mix I fell in love with that they sent me for free. And the samples are always mixes. I love their cinnamon sugar - it has vanilla in it. I eat buttered toast with cinnamon sugar. Preferably dipped in hot chocolate. A childhood habit.

LindaC, I signed up for their emails and regularly get "coupons" that I can use at their stores or on line. In the past several months I've gotten cocoa, Vietnamese cinnamon, roasted garlic along with the spice mixes. I've gotten Fajita Seasoning, Pizza Seasoning, Muskego Chicken Seasoning, Peri Peri, Adobo Seasoning. Some I use, some I don't, but they send the code and I use it if I'm ordering spices or going shopping. The food pantry is happy to get them and it costs me nothing but a little extra time, so it's all good.

Seagrass, don't overdo it, just relax and enjoy the warmth for a while, and go to the markets and gardens only when you feel like it. Consider it rehab....

Annie