h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ah. I don't keep my spices in my pantry, or my tea collection. I just suspected that my pantry might be smaller than most everyone else's.

Just got a call from Realtor Annie. We have go for 3 pm today.

In fact I don't keep my tea in the cellar either. I just don't have a pantry. Umm, come to think I have one, quite big one - I keep there the firewood on it's way indoors.

I wish a had an indoor place to store firewood! Right now my wood is in a big milk crate near the fire -- that's in addition to the wood packed into the little wrought-iron rack off which the poker and other fire tools hang.

I better go over to the shed and finish cleaning the last stuff out.

I have a lovely, brand-new, 3' x 8' pantry cabinet that is now stuffed to the gills with groceries. Let's just call it my Costco Shrine.

*Ponders options for naming d'E's University.*

As MR can attest, my pantry is gigantic. It's currently given over to:

Top shelf--Chemical solvents & cleaners, pads of paper, empty Mason jars, jugs of water.

Second shelf--Light bulbs, root vegetables, potatoes, onions.

Third Shelf--Canned goods, bags of Splenda, homemade jams & chutneys, baking supplies, tea.

Fourth Shelf--More baking supplies, jars of homemade jam, oats and other dry goods.

Fifth shelf--Large-ish appliances (crock pot, blender, food processor), liquor (kirsch, rum, wines), and extra cleaning supplies.

The fire extinguisher is on the floor.

shouldn't the root vegetables be on a lower shelf? heat rises and all... of course, if they never last that long to begin with, you have little to worry about

What's in my pantry? Enough food for a siege. I'm at work so don't know precisely. Lots of canned fruits and vegetables; soups and broths; dried beans; mixes (mostly rice); staples like flour, oils, vinegars, etc.; cat food; dog food; baking supplies like coconut, chocolate chips, dried fruits, etc.; things like barbecue sauce, steak sauce, salad dressings, salsa; popcorn. I have more than my share of ingredients for oriental dishes. Also canned tuna, salmon, and clams.

I didn't can a single jar of anything this summer. So, my freezer is full of peaches, tomatoes, squash and assorted berries and vegetable combos.

My pantry is a remodelled broom closet. Lord C. fitted it with two pull out shelving units that are each about 12 inches wide and six feet tall. They contain five shelves each. Front group: top shelf f has dried mushrooms, noodles, sun-dried tomatoes, and masa on it--second is canned beans of several varieties, rotel chilis and tomatoes, tomatillos, refried beans, tomato sauce and whole canned tomatoes. The third shelf has green beans--at least a case of them (we went to Sam's) and the fourth shelf is all kinds of canned soups and broths. The bottom shelf is pickles, mayo, syrup,worchestire sauce, vinegars.

The back unit contains storage bags, the food saver, browning bags, foil, plastic wrap, a few cleaning supplies, and dog and cat food.

The door has shelves on it as well. We store light bulbs, boxed rices, etc., jello, popcorn, and dry cereal on them.

There are two shelves at the other end containing soda, paper towels, vinegars and oils.

Under the shelves is a wire rack for onions, potatoes and plastic bags.

The cabinet beside the stove contains, coffee, tea, bread, and spices.

The lazy susan has small appliances on the bottom tier and glass jars containing dried beans, pasta and more dried mushrooms. We also have some odds and ends of canned goods on it--tuna, salmon, bean sprouts and water chestnuts, baby corn, and niblets.

This may all sound excessive to you all, but we live 25 miles away from a large grocery store so we try to keep things on hand.

About the discussion of peas: we prefer canned peas too--preferably the LeSeur variety. Green Giant has a line of Niblets corn that is really good too--especially the white shoe peg and the new sweet variety--not quite a good as fresh, but better than the roasting ears we get this time of year.

I'd have to go home to check and I'm at work drawaing nice graphs on excel.

Reading Lady C's posting I came to think that maybe it would be a smart idea to sort out what I actually have here. Surely everything is good enough for eating since I moved in only this year. But I can't find a jar of honey...

[GDZ]

Am I the only one who laagers beer in their pantry?

There is quite a lot of stuff in my pantry but all that belongs to me is the rice and beer. I like rice and beer.

Lady C has Worchester sauce in America!
Wow it is indeed a small world, I love that on fried eggs sometimes, don't ask me why.
.
As to tinned veg, I quite like tinned carrots as they sometimes tast better than fresh boiled carrots. To be honest I don't have much room in my kitchen so don't have a wide variety of stuff.

Of course we have worcestershire sauce in America! Heavans, my crab cakes would not be the same without it. I use it on pork chops, too.

The best thing in my store-cupboard is Vacuum-packed Puy lentils. They can be used straight from the pack, which avoids all the faffing about with pans of water.

What's the oldest item in your store-cupboard?
You know the kind of thing I mean? The item which was bought, because it seemed like a good idea at the time, but you've somehow never got around to using.

Lovely to see MR here

And *stirrypot dance for Witty's new kitchen/house. How wonderful to be back in time for Christmas!

Is the deal done yet, Lil?

Oldest item in the cupboard is a toss up between several jars of ancient dried spices and the can of jellied cranbury sauce we always forget to open and serve on Thanksgiving.

It is wonderful to be back in my house. I need a couple of weeks to get the boxes unpacked. Then I will take pictures and post the link for you all to see.

Yep, it is always the dried spices that get left isn't it...unless you do a lot of cooking you need to use them for recipies but often not often, if that makes sense.
Some that do get used often though are things like cinamon and nutmeg as I often add them to milk or coffee for a differant taste, I even use vanilla sometimes too. It sounded silly adding things like those to coffee, until I saw you could buy coffee flavoured with them after I started making my own up.

I've got two cupboards, which contain, from memory:

Cornflakes
Caramel Horlicks
Chocolate Horlicks
Ground black pepper
Chinese five spice
Soy sauce
Tinned Heinz soup
Potatoes
Lots of Robinson's Special R squash
Teadirect (fairly traded teabags)
Granulated sugar
Caster sugar
Self-raising flour
Vanilla extract
Apples
Blackcurrant jam
Golden syrup

My Worcestershire sauce is on a shelf in my fridge.

Root vegetables never last that long in my house, Sporky. You should know that by now. The rutabega, turnip and I, we are good friends.

all of my spices are in heavy use. the dry mustard, dill, cinnamon, all spice, garlic powder, onion powder, dried basil, red pepper flakes, oregano, italian seasoning and chipotle all get regular use. almond, orange and vanilla extra are also big hits.

hmm... i think the one that gets the least use would have to be a toss up between the bell's turkey seasoning and ground anise which i rarely if ever use (because i hate the flavor and yet... some things just don't taste right without it).

i rarely use my vanilla bean, cinnamon sticks or cloves - they're just too darn expensive; it's a special occasion when i'll crack any of them open.