Love is in the Air - An Oaktown Spice Recipe Challenge

Hello Valentine’s Day, we all know you are right around the corner!  

What better way to take the pressure off and recognize a month devoted to the celebration of love, than with a recipe challenge using a four-spice blend inspired by the language of love?
 

The Love is in the Air Recipe Challenge

Following is the challenge, it’s pretty simple:

(1) Run straight to the Oaktown Spice Shop and pick up some Quatre Epices.
(2) Use this amazing spice blend to create a recipe.  
(3) Email your recipe to Social Feast (feastingsocial@gmail.com) by the February 29 deadline.

(4) Each recipe submission will be announced with a quick post on the Social Feast Facebook.
(5) Check the Social Feast Facebook to ‘like’ your recipe and find out what other challengers are submitting. 
(6) Wait until Monday, March 12, when the winners will be announced.
(7) Two prizes will be awarded, for the most delicious and most original recipes.  Prizes will be custom spice kits from the fabulous Oaktown Spice Shop!

Quatre Epices is French for "four spices" - super straightforward - and it is used in both French and Arabic cooking, for savory and sweet dishes.   Oaktown’s variation is a traditional blend with a fantastic, high-quality white pepper base that is augmented with clove, nutmeg and ginger.  FYI, there are variations out there with an allspice base instead of pepper, and they are typically used for sweet baked items, but please use the Oaktown Spice blend for this challenge.
 
Traditional applications include use in soups, stews and tagines, charcuterie, spice breads, cookies and cakes. All it takes is one whiff to be inspired - my mind was immediately racing with ideas, like creating a cocktail simple syrup, flavoring a gelato, or baking a sweet/hot spice bread.  So enough writing, it’s time to take the challenge!