I always toast dried peppers, sometimes grown, sometimes bought, add cumin, black pepper mustard seed and coriander. Then adjust for the food. Brown sugar and ginger for BBQ, ground ginger for pork etc. It is never the same, but that is what makes it interesting.

Thanks everyone - Ancho it will be. I am a little confused on the chili / chile part. Both this spice packet and the bottle of plain old McCormicks chili powder have the ingredient chili peppers with 'i', plus garlic, cumin, oregano and paprika listed seperate. The recipe that I use this in is "for the Love of Cooking's" beef and bean enchiladas which is excellent. I don't put the peppers (anaheim and jalapeno) she calls for in the meat portion though. Controlling the heat in the peppers is so iffy and if there's too much heat it's ruined for me. I do put in the red pepper flakes but those I know how to control. Beth

A friend gave me a boxed set of four Penzeys spice mixes--the Tuscan Sunset, Sunny Spain, Mural of Flavor, and Bavarian. I must say I didn't like the Sunny Spain--too heavy on the lemon peel for my taste and also had some kind of chemical aftertaste, so I dunno, maybe I got a bad jar. I mixed it with some garlic salt seasoning someone gave me in order to use it up. I loved the Tuscan Sunset and of course the Mural of Flavor. I still have the Bavarian seasoning. It's not bad, but mostly a meat/pork or potatoes thing, neither of which we eat very much. Maybe I should give that to my mom, since that's about all my dad does eat, other than bread! I used to use the Penzeys pasta blend as my go-to Italian mix but right now I'm just using McCormick that we got at the grocery store. And I forgot about Penzeys sandwich sprinkle. That was my go-to "dash" seasoning until I started getting Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb. Funny, I seemed to use the sandwich sprinkle on everything BUT sandwiches! I don't order from Penzeys as much anymore, they have switched to a new small glass jar, which is great for the environment since it is recyclable, but it doesn't fit in my spice rack! So I save the old plastic jars and just buy the bulk spices to fill them up again. I might be willing to do another order one of these days though, when I start running out of my favorites. Oh Jessy I forgot to mention that Tajin seasoning you gave me, it is the bomb! It's my secret chili weapon! Would probably be good in Thai and Indian too, to give it a kick. And I do use and love the Aleppo pepper. I like Aleppo and cayenne for my chili heat. I can't get into the chipotle, it's taking me forever to use up my little jar. Same with the hot hungarian paprika, it is too acrid for my taste. A friend gifted me with some mild paprika direct from her trip to Hungary, that is great! Who'd a thunk it, paprika with flavor! I'm going to have to look into some of the jarred curries for Thai and Indian. A friend gave me a jar of thai red curry paste, it's not suppoed to be firey hot, we'll see. I'm trying to pare down my condiment shelf in the fridge, it is over the top! I have some cilantro chutney I got but it is super hot so it is taking me forever to use that up too, since I just use a tiny dab in things. Same goes for the jar of black bean sauce. And I seem to have an inordinate amount of caramel sauce, but that's another story . . .

A Cajun Life blackening rub has Ingredients: Paprika, Salt, Granulated Garlic, Granulated Onion, Sugar, Spices Captain Redbeard's Cajun Blackening Seasoning has Garlic, Onion, Paprika, Black Pepper, Thyme, Cumin, Salt, Cayenne Peppers and Spices So, the issue with "spices" is that they're too small in proportion for it to be required to be disclosed. Often there is some MSG or other glutamate in the "spices". These have less green herb than many others, and are regional, so I'd hope geared toward an authentic flavor rather than generic American. Perhaps start with those asa a guide, and the recipes you've been looking at, and try to make up your own personal blend.