Having a well stocked pantry is something that is inbred in me. My parents always had shelves and shelves of food stored away at all times. I think I might just have a panic attack if I didn't know I had enough food for at least a month stored away in my pantry.
Unfortunately for me it is also used for storage of paper recycling, glass recycling, small kitchen appliances, and miscellaneous things that we can't find proper homes for.
So for the sake of full disclosure I am going to reveal my pantry just before I dug in and cleaned and inventoried it.
Are you ready?
I apologize ahead of time to all you neat freaks out there cause this may just give you nightmares...
Yup! That is what it looked like before...full discloure sucks!
After!
Now here is a little peek at what is on all those shelves. Somethings are 'must haves' others are 'just in case' and some are 'just because maybe I might possibly need it in case I make something exotic one day'
Here is the jam/jelly section...we've got grape, blackberry, apricot, peach, plum and apple butter.
Here is my dwindling supply of fruit sauces. Apricot, peach, plum and my last few applesauce. Beyond that with the white caps is some of our honey supply from hubby's wonderful bees.
Here is where is store grains and such that I don't use in big quantities like spelt, quinoa, rye flour, bulgar, couscous, and vital wheat gluten for bread.
Here is the shelf with baking supplies, sugars, flour, and of course chocolate. I store my home ground whole wheat flour in the freezer. Oh yeah the green thing is a bay branch that keeps any critters from invading the flour...and is handy for soups and stews!
I'm a vegetarian so beans make up an important part of the family diet. I usually keep many kinds on hand...Pinto, red, white, lentils of all colors, black beans, split peas. The only beans you will not find in my pantry are lima beans...yuck...no...double yuck!
Here is a shelf with the popcorn bucket, my wire basket filled with green and white teas...oh how I love my tea. We also keep chips here, if you ever want to try a good baked chip try any of the 'Kettle' brand chips, yummy! I also have a couple of candles I bought from the neighbor kids when they were having a fund raiser...same with the enormous green pears!
This is a good example of some 'must haves'...olive oil, mustard, peanut butter, olives, diced green chilies, artichoke hearts, Tabasco, and organic cranberry sauce in case I get a craving!
Just next door hiding behind the homemade pasta sauce is my kid's beloved ketchup. I have tried all brands and this is till our fave...gotta love Heinz Ketchup! I would like to try to make my own this year...anyone have a good recipe for ketchup?
Canned tomatoes...I didn't get around to canning any myself last year so we are having to endure the store bought ones for now. Underneath is the bread mixer, small pressure cooker, and steam canner.
Crock pot, ice cream maker, wheat grinder, and juicer.
Now for today's question to ponder.
What would be your top 10 things that you just have to have in your pantry/cupboards for cooking? What are your top 10 for baking?
I will be back tomorrow with my lists and to share some of yours.
I will also let you in on some of the surprising and some would say shocking things that have nothing to do with food I unearthed in the pantry!
