Saturday Pantry Suggestions

My inherited yellow antique chimney cabinet is the most commented on item in my home!

Gosh, it feels like I've been away on Saturdays just forever!  So I thought I'd post today what I planned to share at the beginning of January, which is my pantry Show and Tell.

As I have written, I use January as my time to prepare a clean slate in my home.  This always includes organizing the kitchen shelves.   My "deeper" pantry shelves are in the garage, just as I walk out the door from the family room.  They will receive attention when it gets a little warmer!

In the meantime, I organized my warm and cozy kitchen and even did a little tweaking of the walls, which I will show later in the week.  I have a rather small kitchen and not many cabinets so I have to use them wisely and I do tend to organize them again at the beginning of each season with my Little Bit at a Time way of working.

I have some unusual items in my pantry that my husband brings home from the food pantry!  But it is fun trying to incorporate them into my menus. 

I keep the kosher salt, Lawry's seasoned salt, and Mrs. Dash on this shelf instead of in the spice pantry.

These are the shelves I use the most and I do try to keep them organized as much as possible.  They start getting jumbled when I try to put too many things in them.

This is the left hand side of those cabinets.  Between Christmas and "the flu", I pulled everything out of my shelves and checked the dates.  Time goes quickly and I was quite surprised to find a few boxes far past their use by date.

I can write more about that at another time but while I will use canned goods far past their date (if the can is not swollen or the food smell funny... never taste it to see if it is good!) but boxed items don't last as long past their date.  With the exception of things like whole oats and the quinoa above!

Oh, and pasta... dried pasta has an exceptionally long shelf life.  I don't know if it shows but I do tape up the pasta boxes when I don't use all of it after opening.

I tape often used recipes to the inside of my kitchen cabinets, too.  :)

I love my yellow cabinet.  Stephanie gets it when I go to that big kitchen in the Sky.  She staked a claim and has let her brother know about it already as well as telling her father if he ever tries to refinish away the beautiful chippy yellow and red... well, I shiver to think of the consequences.

The top shelf holds mostly the "sweet" spices, that being those used in baking.  As you can see, it also has such things as peppercorns, just because there is room on that shelf.  The glass Ball jar holds homemade vanilla.

The second shelf holds the "savory" spices, extracts (because they fit better there), and my bulk and homegrown herbs-spices.

The third shelf holds a hodge podge of pantry items.  Notice that Peter Pan peanut butter?  It is in this cabinet as it is an important part of a cookie recipe.  That's usually why you will find something in this cabinet that could go into the other... I want to keep it back for a recipe!

This basket has been great for holding bags of leftover "chocolate" chips, etc.

What you can't see (much) on the bottom shelf behind the big packages... all my baking items like sprinkles, cupcake and candy papers, etc. as well as a few cake mixes.

I hope you liked my Show and Tell!   I'll show the red shelves where I keep the bulk items again soon.