Two Pantries

My transfer at work finally went through, so I'm moving what feels like half a state away, to Papa Smurf's house. This means that I have to find room for all my own food and kitchen gadgets. Since the most elaborate thing he cooks is rice, that isn't much of a stretch.

My biggest issue is the spice cabinet. There are a lot of spices already in it, most of them ancient. I went through it once during the Pantry Project, and I did it again to make enough room for my own. It's a good thing I like dill! Massive amounts of spices and herbs. And it's not like there's one of every kind that Schilling makes. There's two or three. I won't have to buy ground pepper EVER again. The greatest problem is the little shelf organizer thingy on the bottom shelf of the cabinet. It takes up more space than it creates, but I can't get it out. I'm going to have to take off the cabinet door or smash the thing into a few pieces. Writer and Techie Smurf have a great method for organizing their spices. They use an old dresser to hold many of their kitchen items. The top two drawers are for spices. They made labels for all of them and put them on the lids. You open a drawer, and have all the names for the spices staring back at you. I don't like the pre-filled spice organizers you find at stores like Bed Bath & Beyond. Everyone uses different spices, and the ones with pre-printed labels mean you can't put something else in it. Obviously, the reason the cabinet looks like this is because my mom didn't know what she had when she was at the store, and kept buying more of the same thing "just in case". I'm going to make a typed, alphabetized list of all the herbs and spices and tape it to the inside of the door, so I don't make the same mistake.

The other problem is the Glacier. No sooner do I get the pantry and fridge under control, than I realize the freezers (yes, plural) are a disaster. I can't blame Costco entirely; a store never forces you to buy its product. Once I've gone through the freezers, defrosted, and inventoried them, my recipes won't be as interesting for a while, but my grocery bill will get a whole lot cheaper. I am determined to get down to a reasonable amount of frozen food before Passover.

I'm actually not bringing that much food with me. It's mostly baking supplies and tea, plus all the brown rice, chocolate, and walnuts I still have from the Pantry Project. I have been very careful to buy only what I need since this blog began. Using up the eggs is my biggest worry. I hate to throw out food.

And Molly finally finished her part of the Pantry Project. I haven't bought cat food in over six months! She put on a pound. I guess I was eager to get rid of the bags. Time to put the kitty on a diet. No more between-meal snacks.