As the sun sets earlier each day on our gardens here in the Northern Hemisphere, the harvest and winter prep is getting to a fever pitch.
The spiders are stocking up too!
This time of year, our roles can change a little. My husband is busy buttoning up the portion of the new roof that needed finishing before our fall rains arrive for good, while I am cleaning the gutters. Most of the time we stick to generalized male/female duties. I do the cooking, he does the manly tasks, such as water system maintenance, chainsaw duties, etc., and our daughter helps either one of us with any task. We are all like ships passing in the night now. But we all have to eat, or snack.
I have devised a few ways to make our bulk foodstuffs a little easier to use when someone is pinch hitting in the kitchen:
Over the years while scouring garage and estate sales, I have accumulated extra measuring cup sets and I now have enough to keep these in with my staples like flours, rice and sugar. Our farmhouse is old, and shy on storage. My whole wheat flour is in the basement milk refrigerator, my white flour and sugar are in the dry pantry off the kitchen. Having a measuring cup in the jar helps a novice cook concentrate on cooking instead of wasting time by forgetting to take the measuring cup from one location to another.
I buy in bulk, and keep most of our staples in buckets and replenish one gallon jars for the dry pantry. Inside the jar lids, I have written the instructions for cooking or taped the recipe from the original packaging. This makes it convenient for someone who doesn't always cook and has the ratio of water to rice in their head.
The fruit room in our basement is where our home canned goods are stored, and while it seems easy to navigate to me, it isn't always so with other members of my family. My hubby makes a beeline straight in the door and grabs what is in front of him, which is canned nectarines. He won't look to either side and hunt for a different fruit. So to keep peace in our marriage I have just devoted one portion of a shelf in the "beeline" to every kind of fruit that I have canned. I can keep it replenished and he gets to choose what he wants to snack on. And further on that tack, I have a pie safe type of cabinet that I call my Christmas cabinet for home canned goods that are for gifts. Still micro-managing, but from a distance. My gift jars stay intact and out of sight, and they are conveniently located for me when I need a gift.
These are just a few ideas off the top of my head - what quick tips do you have that are favorites?
This time of year, our roles can change a little. My husband is busy buttoning up the portion of the new roof that needed finishing before our fall rains arrive for good, while I am cleaning the gutters. Most of the time we stick to generalized male/female duties. I do the cooking, he does the manly tasks, such as water system maintenance, chainsaw duties, etc., and our daughter helps either one of us with any task. We are all like ships passing in the night now. But we all have to eat, or snack.
I have devised a few ways to make our bulk foodstuffs a little easier to use when someone is pinch hitting in the kitchen:
Over the years while scouring garage and estate sales, I have accumulated extra measuring cup sets and I now have enough to keep these in with my staples like flours, rice and sugar. Our farmhouse is old, and shy on storage. My whole wheat flour is in the basement milk refrigerator, my white flour and sugar are in the dry pantry off the kitchen. Having a measuring cup in the jar helps a novice cook concentrate on cooking instead of wasting time by forgetting to take the measuring cup from one location to another.
I buy in bulk, and keep most of our staples in buckets and replenish one gallon jars for the dry pantry. Inside the jar lids, I have written the instructions for cooking or taped the recipe from the original packaging. This makes it convenient for someone who doesn't always cook and has the ratio of water to rice in their head.
The fruit room in our basement is where our home canned goods are stored, and while it seems easy to navigate to me, it isn't always so with other members of my family. My hubby makes a beeline straight in the door and grabs what is in front of him, which is canned nectarines. He won't look to either side and hunt for a different fruit. So to keep peace in our marriage I have just devoted one portion of a shelf in the "beeline" to every kind of fruit that I have canned. I can keep it replenished and he gets to choose what he wants to snack on. And further on that tack, I have a pie safe type of cabinet that I call my Christmas cabinet for home canned goods that are for gifts. Still micro-managing, but from a distance. My gift jars stay intact and out of sight, and they are conveniently located for me when I need a gift.
These are just a few ideas off the top of my head - what quick tips do you have that are favorites?
13 comments:
I love the idea of keeping a separate place for the gift jars!
I too have an assortment of mis-matched measuring cups in my dry goods jars. I especially love the vintage ones I've found here and there. I distribute the different sizes to where they're most useful - a 1/3 cup in the dry milk, as that's the amount needed to make a cupful, the half-cups in the flours and sugars used in baking, one-cups in the rices since that's the amount needed to make my usual batch, quarter-cups in the brans and specialty flours, 1/8 cup in the coffee canister.
I don't have extra measuring cups but I do have extra measuring spoons in with the nutritional yeast, and two dog daily supplements. Well, the rice has a 1 cup scoop but that came with the rice cooker.
Yesterday I devised a quick large paper funnel when refilling my small sugar containers from the bulk (5 gallon bucket) supply. Sped up the task considerably.
Brilliant! I've never thought of having extra cups in my dry goods. And I'm forever drying my cup measure after using it for milk/water so that I can use it for something dry. So simple and so effective. Thanks!
I like to leave cups in my bags of flour as well, it does really help and there is no point in washing them every time anyway.
Also, I print labels for my canned goods on return address labels. A pack of 800 labels was $2.50. I put what it is and the date I canned it and stick in on the lid.
I just wanted to say thanks for a wonderful blog with such fantastic ideas - I stumbled on to you from a blog search but will add you to my favorites... I'd like to pass you an award - stop by my blog to "pick" it up and pass it on if you so desire. Thanks for all the great ideas.
I forego paying for labels on the homecanned things. Since the lids get thrown away anyway, I just write the contents and date on the lid in permanent marker.
My husband and I are working on developing a pantry and freezer inventory. We'll see how that goes!
Jena, I use address labels, too. But, I don't use the whole label. I cut them into strips and write small. One label can usually suffice for about 8 jars or so.
Well, it is not pantry per se, but - i have minimal drawer space in my kitchen. So i use the drawer organizers to keep my measuring spoons together & another for measuring cups. I keep them on the same shelf as my mixing bowls, so went i need them they are all there together.
Wow, that's so helpful. I especially like the idea of keeping measuring cups with the separate ingredients. Brilliant!
Katie, thanks! It sure makes it easy for me to keep track of the gift items, and that they don't get consumed by "accident." :)
Sadge, that's what I do too, the most common measurement for recipes determines what size is where. Some of my measuring cup sets have been in free boxes at sales because the handle will be broke off of one. Still works fine!
Chile, that is a good idea with the funnel, I transferred some rice flour yesterday and was in a hurry and made a mess for myself. Next time funnel!!
Ms. Lottie, thank you - it saves me so much time - and it really made a difference with my daughter when she was little. I keep my white flour in a large pickling crock and I even keep a spoon and knife in there to make sure I can properly measure the flour for recipes that are touchy.
Jena, that is organized with the labels! I just use a sharpie and put the year. But the labels are a good idea for my gift jars. My husband scolds me for my cryptic notes on canned goods.
Wendy, thank you on behalf of all the writers here.
Penny, I reuse my canning lids for my freezer storage items since I freeze quite a few items in canning jars. If you want to save the lids, open them using a spoon placed upside down between the top most thread and pry gently upwards. As soon as the seal breaks you can pull off the lid. This does not harm the jar and it saves the lid for future use. I just froze corn the other day and some of my lids, had 5 different years notated on permanent marker. This pracice really saves me money, I am reusing jars and lids, and I don't have to purchase the plastic bags.
Good luck on your new pantry inventory!!
Chile, that is a great idea!
Kathryn, that is a great idea, nothing worse than hunting for something when you need it.
Maria, thanks, I never could pass up good deals on something so useful at sales, and I do not regret the few dollars it cost now for sure. It saves me so much time. Some I may change my house, but if it goes the way the rest of my life goes, probably not :)
I hide the jars I want to use for gifts or to enter in the fair in one of the closed bottom cabinets of the pantry. My husband will grab a new jelly jar off the open shelving at eye-level, so I never have to worry about it.
I need to pick up more measuring cups. They seem to have somehow disappeared over the years, and I can only get my hands on 1/3 and 2/3 cups easily, so I end up adding fractions in my head or guestimating, which won't work for baking!
I store my leftovers in canning jars in the fridge and reuse the canning jar lids for covers. Also for dried food.
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