These are not only mom-approved, but mom-created!
Seasoning mixes and spice blends from JoJo’s Seasonings
When the pandemic brought JoJo Davis’ Atlanta catering business to a crawl, she took advantage of the time to create a line of seasoning mixes and spice blends. Mom of six, Davis didn’t just make a few items and call it a day. She created eight varieties of seasoning mixes, including yam seasoning, a mix of sugar and spices that makes candied sweet potatoes as simple as peeling and slicing some sweet potatoes, opening the bag and boiling everything together. Her seven spice blends also show a lot of creativity. Montreal steak seasoning is usually a blend of garlic, pepper and salt, but Davis includes dehydrated red and green bell peppers. Her garlic onion lemon pepper is far more than a simple mix of lemon and pepper, and her barbecue rub pays homage to her St. Louis roots. There’s also a Hannah J collection for kids.
$12.99-$15.99 per 1-pound package of seasoned mixes, $6.99-8.99 per 5.7-ounce container of spice blends. Available at jojosseasoning.com.
Credit: KIERAN MANGELS
Credit: KIERAN MANGELS
Peanut and almond butters from Saratoga Peanut Butter Co.
Leave it to a mom to come up with a better peanut butter — and not just one peanut butter, but peanut and almond butters in a dozen fun flavors. Saratoga Peanut Butter is based in Saratoga Springs, New York, and was founded by Jessica Arceri, mom of Abe, who inspired her to create banana raisin peanut butter. Banana raisin peanut butter? Yes, please. One of her newest blends is a spicy garlic peanut butter. It’s not one we’d spread on toast, but it’s exactly what you need to add to a stir-fry noodle dish like pad Thai, making an easy way to get all those rich flavors in one spoonful. For toast, we’re crushing on an almond-peanut butter blend with dried cranberries and sunflower and flax seeds. No need to embellish this one, although we have been known to top it with a few sliced strawberries. And, one of our testers who tried their blend of white chocolate and peanut butter rated it the most inspired combination ever.
$6.50-$12.50 per 16-ounce jar. Available at yopeanut.com. Flat-rate shipping on orders over $20 is $5; free shipping is offered for orders over $49.
Credit: Jillian Guyette
Credit: Jillian Guyette
Tahini and date syrups from Soom
Fia Executive Chef Daniel Porubiansky (who’s worked in some of Atlanta’s finest restaurants, with Anne Quatrano, Clifford Harrison and Gunter Seeger) introduced me to Soom when he shared his recipe for Fia’s hummus. Philadelphia-based Soom is the brainchild of three sisters and moms — Amy, Shelby and Jackie Zitelman — who started the company in 2013. Soom has its tahini made in Israel, where Jackie lives, and ships it to the U.S. for distribution. We tried the Pantry Sampler, which is how we were introduced to silan, a syrup made from dates. Any fan of dates needs this on their pantry shelf, to sweeten a glass of tea, but also for smoothies, overnight oats and baking. Hummus may be the primary way to use plain tahini, but it turns out that it makes luscious carrot cake (it was a mother-in-law’s cake that inspired the start of the company, and the recipe is on their website), a creamy dressing for coleslaw, delicious white chicken chili and, yes, tahini hollandaise for that weekend eggs Benedict. Three-ingredient truffles, made from chocolate tahini, coconut flour and a pinch of salt? Count us in.
$26.99 for the Pantry Sampler, with a 12.3-ounce container of silan (date syrup), 11-ounce jar of plain tahini and a 12-ounce jar of chocolate tahini. Available at Star Provisions and at soomfoods.com.
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