Garam Masala - An explanation

A couple of days ago, I posted an Indian-inspired recipe that contained garam masala. Just in case you're not familiar:

Garam masala is a spice blend commonly used in Indian cooking. There are many variants of garam masala, but I found a fairly standard version on this Indian cuisine page.

In the event that you don't feel like making your own, and there's not a good Indian grocery near you, you can buy garam masala by the bag or jar (you can even buy a 5 lb bag if you're making a heck of a lot of Indian food) at Whole Spice. They ship UPS ground, which isn't exactly cheap, but having a good supply of the stuff is well worth it.