The Perfect Pantry

Ginger (Recipe: Thai chicken curry)

Ginger Week, Day One.

Ten things I know about ginger (you'll be glad to know them, too):

Other People's Pantries #22

From Kristine (The Global Kitchen), in Cave Creek, Arizona:

I like to think my pantry reflects my sense of adventure with all the exotic Asian ingredients on the bottom shelf. I pretty much have all the staples to cook a variety of meals from various countries.

Dijon mustard (Recipe: beet and onion salad)

When I was growing up, mustard came in three varieties: hot dog, corned beef sandwich, and Chinese food.

Hot dog mustard was French's, yellow, All-American ball park, mild.

Corned beef sandwiches got a slather of Gulden's, spicy brown, or similar "deli" mustards from Zabar's or Katz's.

And Chinese food mustard came with take-out, in little no-name plastic packets. It could take the hair off your head and clear out your sinuses. Sometimes, my parents mixed their own, with Colman's, English, incendiary.

We never had Dijon mustard, though the foods of my Eastern European culinary heritage cried out for the sharpness of mustard to balance the blandness of the boiled meats. These days, my own kitchen is never without Dijon, usually Grey Poupon, and often Maille, too.

Discos (Recipe: goat cheese-olive empanadas)

I'm ready to sell our little log house, and move back to the city.

I'm ready to give up my herb garden, the one right outside the kitchen door.

I'm ready to say goodbye to my wonderful kitchen with -- finally -- enough counter space, and to the fire pit Ted built so we could cook paella and toast marshmallows for s'mores.

I'm ready to live without my beloved screened porch, the site of winter grilling and summer aioli-making, with a table that seats 12, or 14, or sometimes 16.

I'm ready to give it all up, to live closer to a supermarket that carries Goya frozen foods.

Not even all Goya foods.

Just one.

Discos.

Wait... you haven't tried them?

Hibiscus (Recipe: apple-tea liqueur)

Guest post by Peter in Brazil

Hibiscus is in season in São Gonçalo do Rio das Pedras, and Cí­ntia's quintal (yard) is full of ruby-red-calyx-laden bushes. She sells them by the kilo (R$3,00 or about US$1.80 for 2.2 pounds), and so while her gardener, Maurí­cio, clips the pods from the plants, I wait and sip a glass of cool, pink, hibiscus ade in the shade of her orchidarium, thinking about exactly what I am going to do with three kilos.

I don't remember my first encounter with hibiscus, but I know it was in the 1970s. Perhaps it was Red Zinger, the popular Celestial Seasonings tea of that time, but more likely it was during my liqueur phase.

Other People's Pantries #21

From Meredith (Eat.Drink.Better.), in Toronto:

On Saturdays, we peek into Other People's Pantries.

Come on -- show us your pantry.

Here's how.

Spike seasoning (Recipe: grilled chicken salad)

Helmut Eugen Benjamin Gellert Hauser must have had the world's most perfect pantry.

How else could he have concocted the latest addition to my own pantry -- his famous Spike seasoning -- which combines 39 ingredients (Really. 39. Can you count them in the photograph?):

Chicken broth (Recipe: chilled asparagus soup)

When is store-bought chicken broth better than homemade chicken stock?

I know. The answer is supposed to be never.

Or is it?

Happy Blogsday! We are two. And we have brownies.

On June 14, Elvis Presley graduated from high school (1953), Turkey appointed its first female head of state (1993), and the first Henley Regatta was held (1839).

On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the design of an American national flag, and in 1916 President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed June 14 Flag Day.

On June 14, 1846, California declared independence from Mexico.

On June 14, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811), Margaret Bourke-White (1906), Pierre Salinger (1925) and Burl Ives (1909) would have celebrated their birthdays. Boy George (1961) and Donald Trump (1946) were born on June 14, too. Can you imagine all of them together at a birthday party?

On June 14, 2008, The Perfect Pantry turned two!

And in so many ways, my second blog year was perfect.

Other People's Pantries #20

From Stevi (Good to Be Home), in Naples, Florida:

When we renovated and remodeled our early '70s ranch this past Fall, we included a butler's pantry off the small galley kitchen.