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Spring Cleaning the spices cabinets

salsalady

salsalady

It's been a bit rough the last 24 months with the deaths of my mom, John's dad, the cat, the dog, the other cat, and hardest of all, John's 45 y/o younger brother from cancer.   We're finally getting our heads and hearts back to the normal world, and I've decided to tackle some long needed projects around the house. 
 
First Up- the spice cabinets (plural)
 
I knew I had some duplicate spices and there were definitely way too many, I just didn't realize how many there were!  Here's everything out of 2 cabinets, plus some more I found in another cabinet. 
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WOW!  Where to start?  Divide and conquer, I guess---
 
Here's the herbs and spices-
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outdated a bit? 
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4 nutmegs, consolidated-
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Not including all the single jars, I had-
3 basil
2 celery seed
3 chili powder
2 coriander seed
2 coriander ground
2 ginger
3 dill
2 cayenne
4 cream of tartar (seriously??? who even has cream of tartar except grade school teachers making play-do!!!)
3 oregano
2 sage
3 fennel seed
3 onion powder
2 minced onion
3 paprika
4 nutmeg
 
After consolidating and tossing-
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Next up- Salt & Pepper  (ALERT!!!  GEEME! DON"T LOOK AT THIS!!!)
3# + 2 other jars Black Pepper
3# + 3 other jars White Pepper
lots of salt, plus more I found later
the little jar lower right was Lavender and Thyme sea salt (that got tossed, but I did save the jar!)
3 baking soda
3 baking powder
 
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Consolidated-
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More coming in a bit, plus some fun tomorrow!
 
 
Continuing on with the Spice Blends-
 
Keep your eye on that epic RachelRay grinder!  No idea what I was thinking when I purchased that, pretty sure I've never used it, BUT!  All is not lost!  It's been REPURPOSED!  -dance-
2 Adolph's
2 Johnny's
2 Hanna's
2 Old Bay
3 Texas Creek Jalapeno Salt (sheesh, why do I need 3 jars of my own stuff...:shakehead: )
2 chipotle dip mixes with broken envelopes
 
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A bunch of peppers, some whole, some ground...Since I haven't used the whole dried chiles in (10 years??) I'm not feeling bad about pitching them.  Some of the ground chiles were getting those webby-things in there, pitched that.  Combined the white habs with the yellow blend and 4-5 other red powders into the Hot blend.  And 2 containers of xanthan.
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all the empty, tossed, consolidated bottles and tubs...all this was taking up space and was not good....
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Back stock going into the Pantry, including 6 pounds of pepper (sorry, geeme!)-
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Useable stuff going back into the cupboard. 
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I just keep laughing at myself as I know I've purchased at least 3 containers of pepper in the last few years.  Totally forgot about the 3 pounds in the pantry. 
 
 
Next on the Chopping Block.....the dreaded kitchen pantry!!!!  Hard to believe, but I fully mucked this out just a couple years ago.  Oh well, time to do it again, and I think I'll have some fun with this one!!!
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Well, I have to get through the pantry....and we have not even mentioned the fridge! And the things on the desk that have not been opened...


I snuck a few orders in on some Black friday cyber monday sales...pretty sure i am cut off for purchases for a bit.
 
Mites? I dunno...sometimes grains or flour gets it. Hopefully one of our SmartFolks will chime in as i am on the Kindle and dont want to google/paste it.

Yerp, i know .... Being silky....
 
My spice cabinet looks the same....i clean it out once a year.....everything just gets pushed to the back and you end up buying new ones....then you wonder why you have three of everything...lol
What i hate is when a recipe calls for something you buy for a pinch of and then it never gets used again.....usually tossed on clean out day.
 
I did the same thing last month and I couldn't believe how old some of my spices were. I had several items that expired in 2005.  By the time I tossed everything that was expired I had cleaned out more then 3/4 of my spice cabinet. 
 
some stuff, like black pepper, I don't worry about the expiry date, doesn't seem to effect the flavor.  Other stuff like green herbs seem to have a lot of flavor degredation.  And like Sizzle said, those things that only get used for one recipe.  Tarragon....when was the last time that was ever used? and 2 Herbs De Provence.  I'd made those around 2003 to sell in a gift shop, never used it myself. 
 
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