This one is in honor of Stanza over at CookingOnSundays, who couldn't make it today, but the people must be fed! True to Stanza fashion, this one is a soup made from stuff I had sitting in the freezer in the garage (I don't have a closet) for too long, and that is the way it should be made, but with no onions! Any time you are looking for something in one of your many food storage options and you find there is just too much stuff you have to move out of the way, it is time to make some variant of what I erroneously call Jambalaya. Every year, we plant a garden in the back yard, and impatiently wait for all the little sprouts to sprout, and then spend a portion of each day urging the cats to keep the gophers out, and yelling at the cats that the garden is not a litter box. Then we complain that there are snails and we need to get the chickens to eat them, which ends with us flapping our arms as we chase the chickens out because they are kicking up the sprouts and eating our lettuce. Somehow, a couple months ...

A blend of my own devising, the Five Pillars of Greatness are like the Army in my war on the Allium menace; first in and last out. I use it in some form in over half of the main dishes I prepare. I don't keep it as a blend, I just reserve a section of the spice cabinet for the unground components, and mix and grind them on demand. I vary the relative quantities, but here is a general starting point:   Cardamon: 1 part (brightness and good cheer) Pink peppercorns: 6 parts (central aroma and top note) Cumin 4 parts (richness and breadth) Cubeb: 4 parts (depth and complexity) Pequin peppers: 5 parts (fire and brimstone) One recipe I'll post here because it is both simple and extremely specialized. This one is only good for Taco Bell tacos or similar fast food. Add 1 tbsp of Five Pillars to three packets of Taco Bell fire packets. The resulting napalm is tasty enough on tacos to make sure those grons never come back!

These are one of my favorite sources of heat, and single handedly provide the fiery bite of my Five Pillars of Greatness blend. They are tiny dried red peppers with a smoky, short lived, but potent heat. They are small enough that you can often use them whole in soups and sauces which makes them much more convenient than most peppers, which often require de-stemming, de-seeding, baking, peeling, chopping, etc. I've tried just about every pepper out there, and this is one of only a few I keep on hand at all times. If you don't have pequins and have to substitute, I'd use De Arbol, which are available in most stores. You can buy Pequin peppers here on amazon in a the quantity of your choice.