Deb v Pantry

When Fall is just around the corner I seem to be infused with massive bursts of energy.

And also here at Chez Knit we are attempting to be more, how shall I say it…..

More deliberate about our eating. More intentional.

I intentionally ate potato chips today. They were taunting me and so I ate them.

Very intentionally.

But perhaps that isn’t exactly what I meant in that fist sentence up there that has now been swallowed up by thoughts of potato chips.

But I digress.

I have always been a cook. I grew up in a household where my mom cooked. And her mom cooked. And her sister cooked.

We cook. And we are good at it. Not as good as The Chef but then we didn’t go to school for it.

When the progeny were growing up I cooked dinner just about every night. Husband starting out as an entrepreneur means you don’t go out to diner a lot. And besides I liked to cook. And because the household was busy I cooked in a sort of “Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade” style. That meant that we had a lot of casseroles and things that had a can of something as part of the ingredient list.

And by no means am I saying that this is wrong. I am not Alice Waters thank goodness. But over the last several years I have gradually weaned myself away from using things from cans if I can make it from scratch. That doesn’t mean that I don’t it just means that if I can think a head a bit and have homemade chicken stock in the freezer then I can use that.

Where is this all leading Deb or are you just rambling down the path of blog posting because you really don’t have anything to say.

I have a point Your Honor!

Well then get to it.

What does my Fall burst of rearranging/reorganizing/getting ready for hibernation connect with our eating more simply and intentionally.

It means that today I reorganized the pantry. And since we all know that I am maybe just a tad competitive and anal retentive and uberorganized…….

Stop laughing!

The pantry needed reorganizing and I wasn’t going to let it get the better of me. It was me v the pantry and I was going to WIN!

That meant that I had to take everything out of the pantry. Clean all the shelves. Go through everything. Put some things in mason jars for easier storage. Get out the p-touch label maker and label more things (not that things aren’t already labeled). And then rearrange.

{{{{{{{{Shivers of joy}}}}}}}}}

Why did I have 4 packages of lemon jello? I am so confused about that. And then there was the small can of tiny shrimp that expired in 2004. Can you guess where that went?

But now everything is all finished and I feel so much better.

I moved all of the canned goods that I do keep in stock down to the lowest shelf and all the flours and sugars and beans and pasta and that sort of stuff to an upper shelf because I actually use them more.

All the home canned stuff is together. All the canning equipment is cleaned and put away. All the baking materials are together. Everyone is happy and living in harmony.

And I am beat.

It has to be wine o’clock somewhere.