Honestly, I've lived here for almost five years and the jury is still out on it. The shelves on the right are deep and I can't see or find the stuff at the back. The shelves on the left are shallow and actually serve as a door that pulls out revealing more shallow shelves. Every time I think it should be filed under Fancy But Not Useful, I'll have an organizational tangent in which I realize that it really holds a ton of crap.
It had been ages since I'd cleaned it out and I had been coming home from the grocery store feeling like I had no place to put the new stuff. (Honestly, why do I need new stuff when there is no space in my pantry?) When I emptied it completely, I could see all of the nonsense cluttering the shelves. All of my baking ingredients are here. Of course I had three containers of ground cinnamon. And taking up valuable real estate on the seasoning shelves were some cork-topped bottles which I had purchased to store spices, allowing me to buy seasoning in bulk and store them prettily. I had several bottles that had been emptied, but not refilled. They still sat, uselessly, in my pantry door. I'm washing them now so that I can relabel and refill them with fresh ingredients.
Also hogging the shelves were "quick meal" options that I forget about using. I realized that I had an extra shelf, which I installed down low and now there is a shelf for those kinds of things so that they can be displayed prominently at the front of the shelf.
I realized I had MOUNTAINS of dried beans and legumes for crock pot cooking. However, I hardly ever use my crock pot. I need to. I MUST! But it's not my habit and it's hard to change habits isn't it? Because my dried bean cup runneth over, I whipped up a batch of these the very next day:
My mother used to make something called butter beans. I don't know what the technical definition of butter beans is, nor do I know how my mom made them. I just asked my dad recently how mom used to make them and he had absolutely no idea. Several years ago I came up with a good simulation for that dish. I threw about 2 cups of dried lima beans into the crock pot, along with about a quart of flavorful chicken broth. I had the cooker on low for 6-8 hours until the beans were soft.
So rich and savory!
Now I only need to make them about 14 more times so that I can have elbow room on my rice and bean shelf.
I do have pantry envy, really.
ReplyDeleteI thought butter beans were a type of bean, not a recipe. Who knew!? Rebecca got me into cooking black eyes peas to softness with just salt and pepper. YUm.
I have pantry envy, too. I have one broken down ol' lazy susan cupboard that passes for a pantry. I keep my flours and baking misc. in a cupboard in the laundry room. Super handy, let me tell you.
ReplyDeleteI'm sending you my red beans recipe right now.
I can't find your e-mail address...so here it is:
ReplyDeleteNew Orleans-Style Red Beans from Mad Hungry by Lucinda Scala Quinn
Saute chopped veg. with 1 T. oil:
1 small onion
2 celery stalks
1/2 bell pepper
3 garlic cloves
Add vegetables to 2 c. dried beans that have been soaked. Recipe calls for red beans, I use pinto.
Add a ham hock or ham bone and following seasonings and cook until beans are soft.
2 tsp. Tabasco
2 tsp. coarse salt
1 tsp. dried thyme
Serve with rice, grilled sausages and extra hot sauce, if desired.
1 bay leaf
@Margo - Well, when I was searching the interweb for pictures of butterbeans, what I got was mostly pictures of dried lima beans with a few pictures of a long, yellow bean. Interesting, no?
ReplyDelete@Reb - Hey, thanks for that recipe! I think we'll even have it tonight!