Behind Closed Doors
It’s no secret – your kitchen pantry is a disaster. But it doesn’t have to be. Get inspired to organize, courtesy of Paula Deen.
Routine maintenance: A neglected pantry becomes an unorganized one. Add pantry duty to the regular round of kitchen chores to ensure a tidy space. Image courtesy iStockphoto
It happened again, right? New recipe in hand, you were prepared to whip up a meal for the memory books, but your pantry had other plans.
All of the food bought specifically for this new dish had somehow wandered off and found homes in between almost-empty cereal boxes and behind crumbled bags of chips.
Don't fret. You can stop history from repeating itself.
Among Friends
Store like items, such as oils, condiments, canned goods and starches, in groups on different shelves, says Dina Guillen, co-author of “Cooking Club: Great Ideas and Delicious Recipes for Fabulous Get-Togethers” (Sasquatch Books, 2009).
“I love to experiment with different flavor profiles and ethnic cuisines, so it is very important for me to organize my pantries by placing similar ingredients together,” she says. “If I feel like preparing a Middle Eastern meal, I can go to the shelf where I keep my starches and reach for the couscous or bulgur, or if I feel like preparing Thai, I can reach for the rice noodles.”
Since Michelle Lowrey, co-author of “Cooking Club: Great Ideas and Delicious Recipes for Fabulous Get-Togethers,” loves to bake, she devotes half of her pantry to baking supplies and baking appliances.
“It may seem strange to store your cookie sheets and muffin tins right next to your flour and sugar, but the key to a good working kitchen is figuring out what works best for you no matter how unconventional it may seem,” she says.
Land of Labels
Professional organizer Lea Schneider, owner of Organize Right Now LLC, Pensacola, Fla., says place similar foods, such as types of pastas and rice in bins and baskets and label them accordingly. You can even take it a step further and label shelves by categories, such as drinks, snacks, condiments and so on.
“It's not just that you organize a pantry one time, but you have to keep it up every time you go grocery shopping or when someone else in the family puts away the groceries,” Schneider says.
In Sight, In Mind
Keep your pantry from turning into a black hole by adding sliders, adjustable racks and good lighting.
“If you can't see everything easily, you will buy items you already have,” Lowrey says .
So she always knows what's in her pantry, Lowrey stores products with labels facing outward, and at least twice a year, she clears out expired and unused foods. “Nothing is more frustrating to a home cook than having to constantly sift through that can of pink salmon that you know you will never use,” she says.
Home Shopping Network
Once you've got the pantry in ship-shop shape, Schneider says to stop wasting money and space buying duplicates and letting outdated food waste.
“Make your grocery list, take it to the pantry and shop from home before going to the grocery store,” she says. “Pull out those nicely labeled shelves and bins and look at what you have. It's well worth it!”
Southern Comfort
Food for thought: Paula Deen has a cookbook for just about every kind of chef, as well a memoir that goes beyond the kitchen. Image courtesy Paula Deen
If there’s one thing Paula Deen knows like the back of her favorite spatula, it’s comfort – comfort food, comfort cooking, comfort family and comfort living.
Despite her big-city successes, Deen has maintained the accessible brand of small-town charm that, paired with her knack for cooking, helped secure her spot on the current culinary landscape. The life of this mom, restaurateur, author and Food Network celebrity has always been firmly rooted in the kitchen.
But before she can start whipping up any of her trademark dishes, Deen first has to head to the pantry, where she has plenty of staples, like canned soups, pastas and cake mixes, on hand for basic meals.
“Some people may not think it’s organized but I know where everything is,” Deen says of her kitchen pantry. Don’t strictly rely on those standbys being there for you, though. “Immediately replace whatever you finish, like flour or sugar,” Deen suggests, to avoid having to call a last-minute audible and make a birthday casserole instead of a birthday cake.
Pantries aren’t just about the food, Deen points out. “People are always sending me products to try so [I have] tons of cooking products. I keep my pots and pans in one spot, and the utensils are visibly stored in big ceramic pots.”
Inspiration is an essential component of any successful kitchen, and Deen’s kitchen is no different. She gets inspired by “anyone who loves my cooking, like my grandson, Jack.” - Mary M. Murphey
 |
CATEGORIES
CONTACT 
|