"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
Robert Louis Stevenson




Wednesday, August 4, 2010

A Well Organized Pantry and Appaloosa Beans



My kitchen cabinets are 1970's wood, very small with limited storage.  I do however have this one nice large pantry which holds all of our food products, storage bowls, glass mixing bowls and bakeware. 


I spent yesterday adding more jars of beans.  Earlier last week I ordered some from Purcell Mountain Farms and they arrived yesterday. 


I am cooking some of their Appaloosa Beans now with some chicken sausages from Trader Joe's.  I think that will be a yummy dinner for tonight with some cornbread.  I also purchased Anasazi, Pinto, Cannellini, Cranberry, Black Turtle, Red Chief Lentils and Split Green Peas. 

I love that so many of these beans are named after horse breeds.  Maybe we should dress for dinner, cowboy hats and boots?



I thought I would share my small, but I think, well organized pantry with you.  I am attempting to eliminate most, if not all of the plastic containers I use for storing.  I have a large amount of canning jars and I also save nice jars from foods I buy.  The Ball Wide Mouth  jars work out well for the beans and all sorts of dry goods.  You can find these jars at thrift stores also. 

"To invite a person into your house is to take charge of his happiness for as long as he is under your roof."

_Anthelme Brillat-Savarin




9 comments:

  1. Carla, I just gutted my spice cupboard and general cupboards! I transferred my beans and pastas to two large glass canisters. This is a great idea, to use glass canning jars!

    How cool that I should come check up on your blog and see such a lovely, organized pantry! :o)

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  2. Some time ago, inspired by Alton Brown, I eliminated all of the uni-tasker gadgets, gizmos and appliances from our kitchen. I think you've just inspired me to do the same with our storage containers. I'm tired of tripping over mismatched lids for various assorted plastic containers, and never finding the right top to match the bottom when I need it. Canning jars are genius! They're economical, and have a multitude of uses, some are even freezer safe. Plus those 'use once' lids with the seal, can be reused for dry goods after they've been used for canning once. On top of it all they make for a very tidy pantry, and who doesn't need one of those! Thanks for the inspiration Carla!

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  3. Carrie,
    I was thinking of you when I was working on this; I remember when you showed a photo of your well organized and healthy looking refrigerator!

    I recycle my spice jars as well. I have a large collection of Spice Island jars from the late 50's and 60's that belonged to my Mother. She was tossing them for a new spice rack and I decided that they would work perfect for me since I always buy dried herbs and spices in bulk. Some of the labels worked and the ones that didn't were easy to remove.

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  4. Very neat and tidy, wish mine looked this good. take care, Gina

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  5. I'm very envious and may be inspired, Carla! Will give me something to model my cupboard after! Thanks for sharing!

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  6. I love the country look. You are a very organized person which is what I hope someone would say about me..
    I have joined the ranks of the blog hopping club....love it, glad I saw it here first. If you get a chance read about click here
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  7. for some reason the two posts I wanted you to read didnt show on the click button...sorry, I'll try again:
    click here
    click here

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  8. I thought I was organized but now I think I will reconsider that. Canning jars are a great idea.

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  9. Hi Carla, you have a very tidy well organised pantry. The jars look pretty and it is easy to see what is what. In winter I use also dried beans for cooking. I prefer to cook them myself then taking them from a tin. I use Bormioli preserving jars which look similar to yours.

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Thank you for taking time to visit my blog, I love hearing from you, stay as long as you like, Carla