The $5 Costco Staple I Buy Once a Year Every September (It’s So Much Cheaper!)

I wasn’t quite ready to give up my perfect BLT sandwiches or ridiculously delicious no-bake desserts, until now. (The transition to fall is tough when the thermometers outside still say it’s summer.) If you need motivation to move on, step inside Costco, where it’s been autumn for weeks already. 

I’ve been a member for over a decade, so the warehouse is where I go to stock up on household basics. I also love shopping at Costco at the start of every new season because I know that it has exactly what I need to live and cook in the moment. The start of fall means pumpkin spice lattes, essential apple recipes, and cozy dinners simmering on the back of the stovetop. 

To make sure I’m ready for the rush of fall dishes to come, I’m picking up a hefty bottle of Kirkland Signature Organic Ground Cinnamon this month, and I think you should too. 

Ground cinnamon is an essential ingredient in many of your favorite fall foods, like pumpkin pie and breakfast breads. It comes from the bark of the cinnamon (Cinnamomum) tree and is sold rolled into cinnamon sticks or as a ground spice. Cinnamon has a warm, woodsy, sometimes spicy flavor that is inextricably linked to autumn. 

Every fall, I reach into my spice cabinet multiple times a day for that bottle of ground cinnamon, so every year I refresh my stock. The power of spices is in their aroma, and over time ground spices need to be replaced to make sure you’re cooking with only the most flavorful ingredients. 

I used to wait until before the holiday baking season to refresh spices like cinnamon, but recently I realized that I actually start cooking with them months earlier. You’ll notice a difference in the flavors when you start the fall season with a fresh bottle of ground cinnamon. 

Spices can be expensive, so it’s understandable that you may be wary of tossing jars that seem perfectly fine or investing in a “Costco-sized” container of a single spice. The good news is that a 10.7-ounce bottle of Kirkland Signature Organic Ground Cinnamon costs just $4.99. At my local grocery store in the Tampa, Florida area, I’d pay exactly the same amount for a 1.9-ounce bottle.

There are countless recipes containing cinnamon — especially in the morning. Start your day with a slice of cinnamon toast, serve cinnamon waffles, or make cinnamon roll monkey bread for a crowd. The spice is a natural partner to apples, so try apple-cinnamon French toast casserole, German apple pancake, or stuffed apple pie scones. Don’t forget that pumpkin recipes love a sprinkling of cinnamon too. 

Cinnamon is an unlikely ingredient in some classic savory dishes too, like lasagna, and around the house as a natural mosquito deterrent. You can also use ground cinnamon to make homemade spice mixes including apple pie spice and pumpkin pie spice.

Find it in stores: Kirkland Signature Organic Ground Saigon Cinnamon, $4.99 for 10.7 ounces 

What fall staples are you buying at Costco? Tell us about it in the comments below.

This post originally appeared on The Kitchn. See it there: The $5 Costco Staple I Buy Once a Year Every September (It’s So Much Cheaper!)