The pantry lifestyle (Repost)

As I've put together pantries through the years, thought about them, studied other people's pantries, etc... I have come to the conclusion that there is a pantry personality.  I know in my case it was inherited but some seem to have caught it as one finds themselves with a cold after spending time with a sneezing friend.  Either way, it's not a bad gene to have been birthed or caught.

One develops a stocking up way of thinking and after many successes and failures, comes to know what works for their family and... what does not.  A person with the pantry gene finds it hard to pay full price for a can of tomatoes or deboned chicken breasts for they are always on the hunt for the stock up sales, knowing these two items have a rotational sale calendar.

Their purchases are made when that certain price shows up in the grocery store newspaper section.  Other items are more elusive in their stock up prices so an extra can or two or jar or two or sack or two... whatever... find their way in our grocery carts when we have a little extra grocery money to work with... such as the large size of mild olive oil.

Sometimes it requires a lot extra with the co-op orders for those fortunate enough to have one in their community.  One may be eating out of their pantry as they fork over that $100 (or more) check but the return is much like a garden where one plants a seed and ends up with dozens of zucchini.... when the 25 lb. and 50 lb. bags of grains arrive, along with all natural raw sugar, honey, and other basic ingredients... one feels much like the pioneer women of old as they pour enough oats for the entire season in their waiting buckets.

The pantry lifestyle manifests itself in the way we love to cook as we tend to shop the pantry to see what is available and in the cookbooks we peruse.  While I love glossy cookbooks and I do enjoy getting caught up in the occasional long recipe... I find myself stopping most often at the recipe which is simple and based on ingredients I normally keep on hand.  I love to find new recipes which use pantry favorites.

I have found ethnic cookbooks with real and not Americanized recipes to be treasure troves of simple and inexpensive ideas.  So are cookbooks with stories by those closest to the dirt... farm men and women, Amish and Mennonite ladies (especially their mother's and grandmother's passed down recipes), regional cookbooks, whole foods cookbooks, etc.  

There are many new-ish cookbooks out today inspired by the return to locally grown non-processed foods... such as those by Jamie Oliver... albeit their recipes may not all be inexpensive but the simplest among them are (not to mention they provide great ideas from which one can piggy back and steal borrow).

I must admit my pantry has changed through the years just with the various stages of our life.  Since most of my cooking is done for hubby and I these days, you will find more bean (and other legume) dishes on the table. Christopher does not like most beans although I believe it is the texture of most he does not like because he is crazy about hummus and tolerates a few black beans in burritos and tacos.  :)

Since we are having many more vegetarian meals, the pantry lifestyle has come to include a small garden.  It definitely is time to bring back the Victory Garden and the enemy is the rising cost of food everything... and plastic tomatoes in winter.  Our small backyard garden provides seasonal fresh veggies and much needed exercise.  Each year I am surprised by how much even a small garden can produce. 

Thanks to my son and daughter (and their friends), I have been introduced to a variety of ethnic foods and spices which make my heart sing and often my pocketbook, too, for many tend to be fully vegetarian or use small amounts of meat.  I often smile when using cardamon, coriander, garam masala, and even simple garlic or ginger for these were foreign to my mother's kitchen (garlic powder and ground ginger, yes... real garlic or ginger, no).

Of course, having that pantry gene colors every area of my life and when you combine it with the inherited (and now refined through the years) thrift gene... well, it is an adventure waiting to happen... and skills we all need more of in this season of food shortages and increasing costs.  There is always something new to learn or long unused skills to dust off and bring back.

I have learned not to put off basic skills until I may need them later (baking bread, gardening, canning, and all kinds of important "from scratch" skills) for we become better at everything we do the more we actually do it.  At least I learn better from hands on experience.

Have you ever been handed down a recipe from a mother or grandmother and wondered why it does not taste the same when you make it?   After years and years of cooking, I have come to realize a large part of a recipe is not shown on a card or typed in an e-mail... it is the experience in making the dish.

I've been thinking of this as Christopher wants some cooking lessons before moving into his own apartment (with friends) come August.  How do I get him to understand the importance of browning the meat before making the soup or how bread feels when it has been kneaded enough or when to take the skillet off the electric burner and just let the omelet set a few minutes or what a cake looks like in the oven when it is done?  All skills needing practice.

Actually, I have enjoyed learning the old skills in this modern world.  I started making bread when we lived in Married Student Housing at the University long long ago... and continued from there (wishing I had learned even more through the years!)

Rather than letting ourselves get all upset about today's fiscal realities, we can do what the women of old did as they rolled up their sleeves and decided they would not only survive but do so with a certain amount of... panache.

I was just reminding my husband recently, there is a reason the kitchens of the 30s and 40s were so bright and colorful... the women needed the cheerful surroundings in the midst of war and Depression... my kitchen fits in just fine as does my 2011 Victory Garden.  :)

Pantry Talk - Thoughts on how I stock up Part 4

When I first started researching deepening the pantry it was from the emergency preparedness standpoint. This was long ago and the only place I could find info was basically in Mormon and survivalists books and magazines (and later online). While the information was good up to a point, I found most not to be practical.

Then I started reading more about homesteaders and how they "stocked up". That was where the best recommendations came from because these people lived from their pantry. (To be fair, the Mormon sites available online have become excellent, too.)

I figured the difference with the homesteaders was a "pantry lifestyle". The information received was practical and it worked... not just buying wheat and powdered milk or freeze dried food and stuffing it in a closet until TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it).

That's why I love blogs like Down to Earth and others on the sidebar. I read real stories and see real gardens and recipes and other "how to" articles... with pictures. :)

Although I don't have a deep pantry now, I will write from experience so pretend it is before my husband could no longer work... actually, we still live the pantry lifestyle but on a much limited basis... which proves anyone can keep a pantry!

We almost always bought for the pantry and then shopped the pantry for what we needed for that day (or week). The pantry way of thinking changes the way we shop for food and eventually changes the way we look at all our purchases.

As an example... say I have $75.00 to spend at the grocery store this week. I check the store fliers and see that split chicken breasts are 99 cents a pound, my favorite canned tomatoes are buy one get one free, and shredded mozzarella cheese is half price. I stock up on chicken, tomatoes, and shredded cheese as much as I can based on the essentials I also need. I do not usually buy any of these items full price.

For instance, I may have to buy two gallons of milk but not butter because I have plenty in the freezer (purchased on sale and frozen). I need oranges and lemons for recipes and I know I'll be needing to set back cash for tomatoes and melons at the farmer's market. I really want to stock up on the chicken so I decide to make all my bread that week and not purchase any... so most of my grocery budget can go to stocking up.

Another week I'll go through the fliers and not see anything at all I need for the pantry (although that didn't happen often) so I'll take extra money to the farmer's market and buy one or two quart container of honey to bring home and pour into recycled jelly jars. It becomes a seasonal priority since we can only purchase local honey from the honey man at the farmer's market between June and September.

Or... since I have money left over from the grocery budget that week... it will go in an envelope to save for the next co-op order for bulk items like oatmeal, lentils, or wheat (I started grinding wheat for health reasons in the 90s), etc.

During the holidays, I will purchase one or two bags of chocolate chips, sugar, or coconut each week when they are on sale. Then I'll notice a "stock up price" which is very low and I may purchase ten packages of chocolate chips or five bags of flour because it is quite cheap... always making certain the money budgeted for food or stock up (which includes TP, toiletry items, etc.) either gets spent then or gets set aside for the farmer's market, next week's specials, or the next co-op order. That is part of the secret of deepening the pantry... not spending stock up money on something else.

There may be a month where we have a huge bill for a car repair and we shop only for essentials at the grocery store and eat from the pantry. Or... we lose a job, or someone gets sick and can't work for a month, or there is a local or national emergency and we don't have to leave home... a hurricane watch, a winter storm watch, or the doctors are warning people to stay home due to a flu pandemic (don't laugh... they're talking more about doing that where I live since it was hit by the H1N1 virus during the spring).

It becomes a lifestyle that begins to affect all purchasing decisions... like stocking up on school supplies now while the stores have them as loss leaders (as well as crayons and pretty pencils for Christmas stockings)... or checking the end of season sales for clearance seasonal clothing.

I also use this way of shopping for Christmas and birthdays... always looking for an item a family member would love... often at a garage sale or thrift shop in its' original box... or a beautiful teacup and saucer for 99 cents from Goodwill... or a nice mug for 49 cents... to add to a Christmas basket with homemade food and drink.

At one time when Christopher was young and Stephanie still at home, I took extra money to the amusement park each summer knowing their gift shop had unique items both of them would enjoy in their Christmas stockings... one normally doesn't think of Christmas when it is 90 degrees in the shade. :)

It becomes "a way of seeing" (to borrow from an Edith Schaeffer book title).

So... how does this apply to special diets? Mostly by what we choose to store and knowing what foods one should and should not eat. A family who does not tolerate wheat products won't stock up on wheat or wheat flour. In my pantry, canned tomatoes are a priority but my daughter can't cook with tomatoes due to food sensitivities in the family.

As a diabetic, I must make certain I have high fiber and diabetic friendly items... oatmeal, lentils, beans, whole wheat, brown rice (stored in the freezer), good quality pastas... including those with whole grains added, canned veggies which are lower in carbs (more tomatoes and green beans... less corn), Splenda for my coffee, etc.

Baking at home becomes a priority for diabetics so they can lower sugar and increase fiber but it is healthier for everyone... thus, items for baking is a priority even for many families. (Believe me, when we went without an income for a year... two different years... the guys loved having a homemade bakery snack... it had a great affect on morale.)

Sigh... I really must do some housework. Believe it or not, there are more pantry ponderings that I'll write about next... :)

Picture: Cookbook and apples poster; allposters.com

Pantry Talk - Thoughts on how I stock up Part 3

I don't think I've written very much about really, really deepening the pantry. Probably because I know most people don't have the space or financial ability to do so... or just don't want to spend the time it takes, for this is where it becomes essential to be organized.

However, having said that... it is also where you can save the most money and it becomes truly an "insurance plan you can eat" if necessary. I've been there, when we were able to have a deep pantry and it was so welcome during our first year with no income.

When one has a deep pantry, any money that does come in for food is able to go to milk, veggies, fruit, etc. Not to mention paying the utility bills.

This is also where I wasted money in the past but I always learned great lessons in what we would eat from the pantry, what we ended up not liking, where future pantry money should be prioritized, etc.

I can't keep a deep pantry now but those lessons learned "back then" are what I use now to make certain the small pantry has the most essential ingredients in it. While I almost always use up pantry items now, it is a priority to restock it when we have the ability.

What we have in our pantries will depend on our present circumstance a great deal... someone who cooks completely from scratch will store mostly basics while another who uses more convenience foods will make certain they are on the shelves. Most of us will have a combination of both... leaning more toward one or the other.

In my much smaller pantry, I keep basics such as the items needed for baking, soups, stews, pastas, casseroles, etc. Where I used keep about six months of most items and that is no longer possible, it is still fairly easy to stock one year's worth of such things as spices, salt, baking soda and powder, extracts, etc.

Basically one keeps the same things in their deepened pantry as they do on a much smaller scale... only more. How much more depends on your finances, your ability of space, and how much time you are willing to invest into planning and organizing.

I can tell you this... I used to save enough money by the small amount of work I had to put into the pantry that my "per hour wage" would have been significant. :)

It is essential when keeping a very deep pantry to keep it organized or you'll end up throwing things away. Believe me, time goes by much faster then you think so you must write the dates on items and find a way to store them so the latest purchased will go to the "back" of the shelves (so to speak, it may be the bottom box of canned goods or the "extra" corner of the cabinet). Just as location, location, location is key in real estate, so rotate, rotate, rotate is what a deep pantry is all about.

The best article I ever read about "stocking up" was during the 1990s (when people were talking about Y2k) about a homesteading family in Michigan's Upper Pennsylvania who had to stock up each year out of necessity.

I spent a long time looking for the article in my files this morning and couldn't find it but I did finally locate it online.... here. This is a great article to show how one family "thinks through" what they need in their pantry.

Of course, this doesn't include anything we grow or purchase to do our own home canning and freezing. Rural people in past generations (and many now) would not understand why we would even consider not having a pantry. :)

More pantry thoughts and links later... the buzzer is sounding on the clothes dryer and the timer in the kitchen will soon tell me my loaf of bread is baked. Although the aroma coming from the general area of the kitchen precedes the timer.

Hope this post makes sense, it truly is "off the top of my head". Well, except all that time looking up the article.

Pantry Talk - Thoughts on how I stock up Part 2

Okay, you want to start a pantry but what do you do first? Other then starting a list like we chatted about yesterday? Decide what is most important to you. Do you want to begin putting back extra basic items for cooking or baking? Do you want to start a hospitality pantry... keeping extra items for last minute guests?

Perhaps a "cold and flu" pantry which contains canned chicken noodle soup, a few boxes of organic chicken stock if you prefer, packets of oyster crackers should nausea hit, perhaps extra tissues and cold-flu medicine... each will prefer their own.

Find a place to put your items. Mine is simply shelves in the garage and I keep paper and toiletry items in the shower we never used in the tiny bathroom (Manuela's brilliant idea... see link below). There are all kinds of creative ideas online for finding storage space if you want to deepen the pantry.

Then start purchasing one extra of a few items each week. I like to make certain I have basic cooking and baking items like butter (which is so cheap here right now, I wonder how the dairy farmers are surviving)... I place three one pound packages in a gallon Zip Loc bag and then put in the freezer, baking supplies, milk, oil (I prefer mild olive oil for baking but I've long ago had to switch to canola), etc.

Of course, coffee and tea are important in this household. For more specifics, I've written volumes in past Pantry Talks... the link to all of them (should anyone be interested) is on the sidebar.

If I have no extra money at all, I'll purchase only a couple of the most important items. That which I don't want to run out of if I can help it. Should I go to the grocery store and find an unexpected sale, that may change my priority. For instance, I now have five or six bags of my favorite King Arthur flour because I hit a great sale a few months ago.

By the way, did you know unbleached King Arthur flour has enough gluten that it makes a good loaf of bread... should you not have room to store both unbleached and bread flour? Since I have limited shelf space, I stopped buying separate bread flour when I found out about that fact.

Just this past week, on my birthday, we stopped by Target for Sasha's kibble (on sale) and one coffee. We noticed our favorite Viva paper towels were on an amazing sale... put the coffee back... and bought the paper towels.

When finances allow, I go through all the stores sales fliers and check for their loss leaders. Sometimes I'll purchase one or two of the most important items I find on sale. Other times, when I can spare the cash, I use these great sales to really deepen the pantry.

For instance, when I find a buy-one-get-one-free sale on my favorite canned tomatoes, I'll use $20.00 of my grocery money just for the tomatoes. I use them quite often and they are a priority when deepening the pantry is possible. This is how one can start to deepen their pantry even more. I'll write more about it next time.

There are some items I will only purchase on deep discount... like ice cream, sugar free Sierra Mist, Christopher's favorite Nutra Grain or granola bars, etc. (and I watch for coupons to combine with sales).

I also watch for seasonal deep discounted items. For instance, in the fall one can often find canned veggies at their cheapest, especially stores which have their own brand of canned goods. The new crop is being processed and the stores need the shelf space for them.

I used to purchase green beans at 4 for $1.00 around September. Last year they were 3 for $1.00 but still a good price when one's son mainly eats canned green beans for his veggies. You may want to write a reminder on your calendar around the time you want to start looking for seasonal sales.

There are some items available only at certain times of the year. I can only find cranberries during the Holidays so I buy them then, drop three bags at a time in a gallon size Zip Loc bag, and have them for recipes through the year. I even made room for about six bags of cranberries (in two gallon size Zip Loc bags) in my freezer when I didn't have a deep freeze.

Many homemakers already know that the best time to stock up on baking items is during the Holidays. I'll start buying extra as soon as they go on sale and purchase a little at a time throughout the season. Sometimes all I can afford is a couple bags of chocolate chips or an extra bottle of vanilla... but it adds up if I am consistent.

Oh, someone had asked what vanilla I use? It's Watkins that I wrote about before that I like and I used to purchase the large bottle of it once in awhile (I no longer can do that). Although I find even store brands are good as long as they are real and (ugh) not imitation. I would leave vanilla out rather than use the imitation.

Another seasonal item I purchase is honey from the "honey man" at the farmer's market toward the middle or end of the summer. I like to purchase a couple of the two quart sizes and pour them into recycled jelly jars... which is what I had a picture of in Part 1. I couldn't afford to purchase any honey at all last year so we used up all our supply for the first time I could remember. Normally I have some left before purchasing more each summer.

I mention our reduced ability to make purchases from time to time only to remind people... if I can keep a pantry... you can. :)

More later... now, you must read about Manuela's shower pantry... wait until you read this.

Picture: Three Hens With Coop; allposters.com

Pantry Talk - Thoughts on how I stock up Part 1

As I've mentioned many times before, both my mother and my mother-in-law had a pantry so my husband and I took to this lifestyle naturally. (It is not surprising that both mothers came from rural families and each went through the Great Depression.)

My mother-in-law kept a very deep pantry and had a garden... she never learned to drive so she liked having "plenty" at home. :)

I've also written that I used to be an administrator of an emergency preparedness website where I met many precious people (Hi, Carrot Top... glad to "see" you in the comments!). I learned so much from the research I had to do for that position.

Everything I write now is based on past experiences as well as present, even though I can no longer keep a very deep pantry... I know how to stock one as I did when I had more income and a bigger house... so I will continue to share from all the experiences.

Here is how I choose the priorities for pantry purchases...

• Basics for cooking and baking I always use
• Items included in my favorite recipes
• What is especially inexpensive due to seasonal sales
• Items included in recipes I want to try soon
• Items I want to keep on hand for hospitality purposes
• Items I'll need for specific holidays, birthdays, and other event

I use my grocery list as the basis of what I stock up first. Mine is a basic list I typed and printed, which has changed over the years. I know the ingredients listed there (as well as toiletry and household products) are what I use the most and must have priority for space and budgeting.

As I have a good supply of basics, I'll add those extras I like to have in the pantry for baking and cooking. For instance, even though I like a good olive oil and I believe it to be very healthy, my priority will be canola oil as I can use it for everything. Then, when I have extra money to spend stocking up, I'll purchase items like olive oil which are important but not essential.

Further down on the priority list would be items like dried cherries and currents, chopped pecans, good quality chocolate chips, my favorite organic chicken stock, etc. Those items I can live without but I do enjoy having on hand when possible.

The first way I stock the pantry is simply purchasing extra of what I use the most. It is the easiest way to begin a pantry. It is also how I purchase items when my budget is really tight as it is now. I even ran out of coffee recently... yikes.

I decide what priorities I need to stock up on first and when I purchase one item, I also purchase at least one or two extra for the pantry... continuing to purchase extras over time until I have "put back" what I can given space and funds available.

When I had a larger house and income, I enjoyed keeping about three months worth of most basics (and six months of bulk items) in my pantry... which was an extra room in our semi-finished basement.

Priority is given to items like flour, sugars, honey (I'm out now but I hope to purchase some from "the honey guy" at the farmer's market soon), other basic baking items, pastas, canned tomatoes, canned veggies and fruit, butter and meat and veggies to freeze, vegetable and olive oil... etc.

I keep a "stock up" list which includes everything I want to keep in the pantry or freezer... even if I can't. I've revised it over the years and it's essential to those times when I have a little extra to spend in stocking up. I add to it when I find something new on the grocery shelves or in a recipe that I'd like to keep in the pantry.

I also have a "pantry grocery list" on the side of the frig for those items I'm either out of or nearly out that I need to purchase soon at the grocery store. I transfer what I can purchase next to the regular grocery list.

More soon (hopefully!)...