In a moment of bravery I give you our before pantry:
Look at this. Can you see how there are things balanced on top of jars? Ready and waiting to fall over and smash on our ceramic tile floors, preferably when I'm in bare feet and surrounded by adorable beagles who will cut their tiny paws? Bags of bulk purchases flopped on top of other jars? Everything thrown in there all willy nilly with no reasoning?
Yeah I needed to do something about this and stat!
The first step was to make a big pot of coffee and the next was to haul everything out of the pantry. You'd think this is everything but no big items are all stacked on our dining room table (of which I forgot to take a photo of but I think you get the point).
I guess it has to get worse before it gets better right?
Fun facts about what I discovered once everything was taken out and I'd scrubbed out the cupboards:
- we have five kinds of salt (table, kosher, sea, pink Himalayan and Sel Gris from Brittany)
- I had bought at three different times three different silver sprinkles for baking and they are all unopened
- We have three boxes of couscous (Israeli, whole wheat and regular) and I can't remember the last time I made couscous
- a huge jar of popping corn (our hot air popper caught fire in our rental and went in the garbage so I obviously paid a mover to move that corn to this house almost two years ago)
- we have cardamon pods, seeds and ground cardamon
You can shake your head. I did.
Yes that is a Jiffy brand corn meal muffin mix. I might make most everything from scratch these days (even taco seasoning) but Jiffy cannot be beat for quick corn bread or even cornmeal pancakes. I have a friend who brings me boxes of it from south of the border in Buffalo where it's 3 boxes for a dollar at the Dollar Store. I know this is all that is wrong with cheap food but I can't help myself. It's one of my few weaknesses left. I also use it to make a childhood favourite breakfast - Johnny Cake. Which is really just warm cornbread topped with butter and syrup. It's awesome.
I'm sad to report a ton of stuff went in the garbage and compost. Expired things, the popping corn, all the little half used packages of sodium filled packaged taco seasoning.
2 hours later and here is the after:
The top shelf is all spices in matching tiny jam jars, the next three shelves are all my nuts, dried fruits, baking supplies, pastas, grains, beans and all the little jars of fancy jams and things we got as Christmas gifts. The fourth shelf is more baking supplies (including the FOUR bags of icing sugar I unearthed - apparently I'm planning on making a lot of icing in the future?) and finally the bottom shelf is all my oils, vinegars, Asian sauces and some jarred goods.
And here is the open shelving where we keep all the big stuff, flour, pastas, quinoa and lentils.
We'll discuss the state of all the crap that I've got hanging on the side of fridge at another date....but in the meantime here is a closeup:
On the top left you'll see all my Indian spices from one of my favourite Toronto companies Arvinda's who make wonderful spice blends with local Stratford, Ontario garlic. I use their blends making soups, curries and even as rubs on grilled meat and vegetables. They also offer some excellent cooking classes. I took one offered at the LCBO (that's our liquor store dear American readers) it was so informative and delicious and we learned about pairing drinks to spicy food. I can't recommend them enough.
Anyway it's a bit like pantry porn isn't it? You can't tell but all the spice jars are labeled on top too. I just wanted to sit in front of it all afternoon and look at it's beauty. Instead since I could clearly see all that I have at my finger tips I made some of my homemade granola with dried cherries and almonds.
Now I'm going to sit back and admire this pantry some more until next weekend when I'll clean out our fridge AKA where condiments go to die.
Will you be taking the pantry challenge? Do you have a secret closet or cupboard of shame in your house? Please share in the comments - misery loves company after all!
I thought you also gave me some when you brought me your famous spice rub? That's only been about a year ;) it's still good right?
To be honest I have been hoarding this last box as it was the last. God bless America and it's bargain baking mixes!