Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Herbs, Spices, and Condiments- Oh My!

I take great joy in my kitchen. It's not state of the art, it's not huge, and it's not fancy but it suits me just fine. With Thanksgiving just a week away I've been spending all my spare time in my favourite room of the house pouring over cookbooks, reorganizing shelves, and purging what I don't use anymore (C'mon, we all have that one kitchen gadget we bought and never used...).

Last night, on whim, I decided to organize my spice cabinet. Yes, that's right, my spices have their own cabinet. It wasn't working very well, however; in order to find one spice I had to go through countless bottles wasting time and energy. I couldn't find my spices and I ended up with duplicates. I have four bottles of white vinegar! Clearly something had to be done. After a day of planning (and failed attempts to sleep) I was up for the challenge.

First thing was to empty my spice cabinet. Um...yeah. That was a mess. Then I had to throw out the stale and/or unused ones. I took a picture of what was left.

Spices, Before Organizing


I found plastic bins at the grocery store (3 for $0.94!) and got two sets. I split them by cuisine since that seems to be the easiest way for me to remember where something is. Also, I can now just grab a whole tray and pull it down without having to sort through countless bottles. My bigger items (like the vinegar and soy sauce) I've put in a drawer.

Newly Organized Condiment (and Tea) Drawer

Newly Organized Spice Cabinet

Now I have everything within reach while I am cooking. A happy cook makes for good meals, dontcha think?

Until next time,
<3

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