Kitchen

[proudlyfromNJ]

I put baking soda in the washing machine when I do a load of wash. Also in the fridge.

[stevieb]

It's an each to their own kind of world, but I guess my question is for the young career professionals who shop for what they need as they need it, toss out what isn't used and have big houses with nothing in them, just what is the point of the big house and the successful career... Not judging, just wondering...

[shoesnbags]

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@software wrote:

It's been a rough year for me medically speaking, I haven't done much cooking so I recently cleaned out a cabinet of year old spices and such and tossed my cornstarch.

It kind of panicked me that I have no cornstarch in the house!

It's on my shopping list.    I always have flour and baking soda.   I don't always have eggs or milk, since I live alone, I'm not always stocked up like I should be, don't want stuff to go bad before I use it.

I buy the big box of baking soda, I use it for so much, not just baking.  I mean like the size of a laundry detergent box!

Any time I find vanilla extract at a good price, I'll buy a bottle.    I have 3 now!   My local health food store had vanilla at a good price recently.

And I always have sugar as well.    I like a little sugar in my coffee and of course, for baking.

I also need a good supply of salt & pepper at all times.    Bought some recently at Penzey's store.

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@softwareI thought that you might enjoy this - Here I am, reading this thread,  and thinking that yep, I'm one of those folks with a very well stocked pantry.  But then I read your post and realized that I never, ever stock cornstarch.  I do make gravy, but down here we thicken our gravy with a roux - flour and an oil.  What else do you do with cornstarch?

@house_cat, I do have my baking supplies, and even my yeast is not out of date, 'cause I check it regularly.  Good topic, as always!

[shoesnbags]

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@sabatini wrote:

@house_cat, I laughed when I saw this thread. 

It reminded me of back when my kids were young. My middle son has always loved to cook, even as a small kid. (He still does!)

Anyway, he'd been invited to sleep at a friend's house for the night, & early the next morning, called me & asked for 'our' recipe for pancakes, so I gave it to him.

He wanted to make breakfast for the family.

When he came home, I asked 'How were the pancakes?', & he said "I didn't make them."

He was shocked to find that they had no baking supplies; no oil, flour, sugar, baking soda or powder, and not even any eggs or milk.

LOL!!

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@sabatiniI went to a relative's house for Thanksgiving dinner and needed to fix some last minute addition to the food I brought (sauce or whatever).  Whatever it was required measuring ingredients and I was shocked that she had no measuring spoons.

[Mominohio]

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@house_cat wrote:

... baking supplies.

My neighbor knocked on my door this afternoon.  She went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for a carrot cake and forgot to get baking soda. 

No, she didn't run out of baking soda.. she simply didn't have any.  I can't even imagine not having baking soda in my pantry... or baking powder, or anything else I could possibly need to bake a cake.  If I'm running low on something I buy a back up right away. I'm not judging, just impressed that there are people in this world who don't own baking soda!

Yes, I'm partly joking, but not completely, lol.

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I agree. And soda is great for so many other things

[september]

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@proudlyfromNJ wrote:

I never bake anymore. Have no baking powder but I keep baking soda for things around the house. 

When my husbands family come to visit and I serve them coffee, I don't tell them how old the sugar is! We never use sugar or flour.

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I can relate.  The last person who visited me and used sugar in his coffee, was my dad, and he warned me that I was getting low.  That was about 10 years ago, and there is still some sugar left in that container!

I do have some honey that is fresher that I use when sweetener is absolutely needed.  I just don’t need/use sugar.  

[CAcableGirl2]

@Carmie  Wow, I guess that is nice if you can afford to do that....but even if I could afford to live like that I would still reuse/recycle/repurpose.   It's sad that so much is thrown away into landfills that others might be able to use and how food is wasted in this country.

[AuntG]

@Carmie, something seems wrong with a person who would buy a nice pair of pants and dispose of them after one wearing.  That's taking minimalism too far.  OCD comes to mind.

[Carmie]

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@AuntG wrote:

@Carmie, something seems wrong with a person who would buy a nice pair of pants and dispose of them after one wearing.  That's taking minimalism too far.  OCD comes to mind.

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She disposes of a lot of things.  When she lived with me for about two years after she and my son came home from the service, she got rid of most of the things in my linen closet.

I have three and a half bathrooms and store my towels in the large bathroom closet across from the bedroom she and my son slept in. It was their bathroom while they lived here.

I was in the habit of just washing my towels and just putting them back up, so one day when I decided to change out the towels, I was surprised to see that that closet was almost empty.  She threw out large stock of towels!

I was really upset and wanted to confront her and tell her off.  But, I knew that she would not be living here much longer and it wasn't worth it to ruin a relationship over " things" so I bit my tongue.  She threw out a lot of my things and ruined things too. She carried all of my HS year books to the basement and threw them into a box and the pages got moldy and gross,  They were in pristine condition in my family room book shelf.

I could go on and on.  Things have no value to her and nothing is sentimental. It might have to do with her upbringing.  Everything material to her is disposable, everything!

My son met and married her while they were in the service, so I didn't know much about her, but she sure is different than me.

[sabatini]

As far as throwing stuff out is concerned...this is a bit OT, but:

A few years ago, a young, 30-something guy was painting the high stairwell in my house while I was making supper, so we got to talking about food.

He said that he was phobic about eating some things in other people's houses.

I asked 'like what?', and he said "SALADS!"

I thought that was an odd response, but then he said 'It's the dressings I always worry about. I swear, some people keep salad dressings on the doors of their refrigerators for years!'

Ever since then, I'm more careful about mine. 

LOL!