Old Bay Seasoning

Every once in a while, "Old Bay Seasoning" comes up as an ingredient in a recipe. I'd never heard of such a thing until very recently, so I learned about it here, here, and here. What an odd and unique seasoning, with an interesting history. Does anyone have (non-seafood) uses for this? This Washington Post article gave me some ideas--like bloody marys and tempeh 'crab' cakes--but I'd be curious if other readers are familiar with this product.

Speaking of crabcake-like things, I really want some of these Tempeh, Avocado, Tomato, and Dill Croquettes right now.

And speaking of dill, I was looking at dill at Jon's last night when an older woman just walked up to me and started asking me questions in Russian. Not "Do you speak Russian?" which might be my first move. Nope, she jumped in in medias res, only adding, a bit later, "I don't speak English." Alas, I had no idea what she wanted to know. Nevertheless, we were able to communicate quite clearly without words that the dill at Jon's last night was substandard.

I don't know why I love it so much when I get interpellated as Eastern European. Perhaps it's the idea that I might be more interesting than I think I am, or some kind of impossibly tenuous connection to my distant heritage.

Old Bay Seasoning

(from about.com)

Ingredients

1 TB ground dried bay leaves

2 tsp celery salt (I used a combo of celery seed and salt)

1.5 tsp dry mustard

1.5 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp celery seeds

1/2 tsp ground white pepper

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp ground cardamom

1/8 tsp ground allspice