Let’s face it—when it comes to cooking potatoes, we’re all really after one thing: crispiness.
It’s this mouthwatering quality that makes you crave hash browns in the morning and renders it impossible to eat just onefry. Sure, there’s a time and place for mashed and au gratin, but in the potato world, crispyis king.
Potatoes have the unique ability to deliver both creamy and crispy textures in one bite, but they won’t get there on their own—you have to cook them just right. That’s why we (and our Allrecipes users) swear by this trick from Chef John for making the most texturally decadent potatoes to ever come out of your oven.
Chicken almost always tops the list of the most-searched recipes on Allrecipes, and for good reason. Chicken is a popular and versatile ingredient that lends itself to all kinds of savory recipes and cooking methods. We’ll share our best tips for buying, storing, freezing, thawing, prepping, and cooking chicken and answer your frequently asked questions.
Learn five ways to soften butter to room temperature, and why it’s important that you do it the right way. Get the quick and easy kitchen tips here.
— Read on www.allrecipes.com/article/how-to-soften-butter/
A pantry is a room or cupboard where beverages, food, (sometimes) dishes, household cleaning products, linens, or provisions are stored within a home or office. Food and beverage pantries serve in an ancillary capacity to the kitchen.
What is Pantry Prep?
I’ve talked about Meal Prep and Recipe Prep. To my mind, that just leaves Pantry Prep. What is Pantry Prep? Pantry Prep, to me, is going through the items currently found in your pantry and making sure you have what you need to make your family’s favorite meals.
The Importance of Your Pantry
Stop right now and think about your pantry. Do you know what is in your pantry? If you had to, could you grab what you needed from your pantry to make a satisfying meal? If you had unexpected guests drop by close to mealtime, could you extend your planned meal to cover these guests? Maybe it’s time to organize and restock your pantry!
Organizing Your Pantry
There are dozens of shelf organizers that you can use to make your pantry easier to work with. Start with defining how much space you have to work with. In my cabinets, I discovered that my spices are the hardest to keep organized.
This is the type of organizer for my Spices I currently have. It fits into the small, narrow corner cabinet.
To show you what I mean, recently I put my groceries away only to find that I now had 3 bottles of Ketchup, 2 bottles of Balsamic Vinegar, and 2 bottles of Molasses!
If I’d had any kind of organization, I could have avoided that. Since then, I have tried to rotate things on my pantry shelves, putting the newest items in the back and the older items in the front. If you have the room, try to separate things into zones. Keep your staples like sugar, flour, etc., all together.
Can racks such as this one help enforce the idea of “first in, first out.” This rack can also be stacked if you have the space.
See these? They may become your best friend when you start organizing your pantry. There are a number of sizes that work great for storing food items that you can’t store in the original packaging.
If you notice in the After Photo, you can see labels on several of the containers. That’s an easy way to keep track of what’s in the container exactly. Bread Flour and All-Purpose Flour look the same but are not interchangeable! Also, on the various containers of pasta, I labeled the container with how much a serving was. Using containers for the pasta, instead of the original box made it much easier to see if I needed more.
Stocking Your Pantry
Most cookbooks that are for beginners tend to have a section on what the author recommends for the pantry. In searching Pinterest, I found several pantry checklists. I’ve started a board of Pantry ideas where I’m collecting these ideas and others.
Make a list!
The format you use is completely up to you. I can’t tell you what will work best for you. Here are a couple of ideas and where I found them.
This is a simple checklist that you can use. I found it on All Recipes.
I do have a few thoughts about this subject to pass along to you.
Make sure you can access the checklist easily whether you’re at home or out shopping. It doesn’t do you any good if it’s at home while you’re out shopping!
Make it a habit to update your checklist regularly. Not doing this led to the aforementioned multiple bottles of ketchup, vinegar, and molasses.
If you download one of the ones that I pinned on my Pinterest board, be sure to adapt it to your needs. (I’ve currently got a bottle of Fish Sauce in my pantry that I don’t remember why I added it!)
Take a moment to follow me on Pinterest. My next post in this series will focus on why we’re doing this. I promise you, there’s definitely a reason!
Book Reviews by the Reluctant Retiree 