Other People's Pantries #92

From Kalyn (Kalyn's Kitchen), in Salt Lake City, Utah:

It's probably been three years now, but I can still remember my feeling of delight when I first discovered Lydia's blog. Finally, here was a fellow blogger who might be as infatuated with pantry ingredients as I was! Of course Lydia and I are now real-life friends (and still wildly enthusiastic about pantry ingredients.) When I finished my recent house renovations I was lucky enough to gain four new pantries, so how could I pass up a chance to share them with readers of The Perfect Pantry?

My new pantries are are in a narrow hall between the kitchen and my office which makes photographing them a challenge, but I'm loving all the space I now have. The first pantry outside the kitchen door has mostly canned things like beans, olives, tuna, salmon, artichoke hearts, and roasted peppers, as well as Ziploc bags and a few other miscellaneous ingredients.

Below that is the pantry that has oils, vinegars, condiments, canned tomato products, coconut milk, broth, and a good supply of diet soda to feed my addiction.

The next upper pantry by the office has grain products like couscous, wild rice, oatmeal, and Dreamfields pasta. (I have open shelves in this hall with big jars of dried beans and most of my pasta is stored there.) Above that are paper products and electrical things on the top shelf.

The pantry below that has a lot of baking supplies on the top shelf, which I seem to be collecting a good amount of even though I rarely bake. There are nuts, peanut butter, and sweeteners on the middle shelf, and below is a big box of microwave popcorn, mostly for visiting nieces and nephews, although I do indulge occasionally.

Finally, although I already showed my spice rack a few years ago when food bloggers showed off their kitchens, when I moved so many things into the new hall pantries it freed up this set of pull-out shelves near the stove where I keep things I use all the time when I cook, plus an abundance of overflow spices that don't fit in the spice rack!

It's true, I do have a well-stocked pantry, but even with all these ingredients, Lydia sometimes writes about an ingredient I don't have.  That's just one of the reasons I love her blog!

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

Come on -- show us your pantry.

*Other People's Pantries is booked into mid-December. If you'd like this feature to continue, please send in your pantry photos. Pantries are featured every Saturday, in the order in which they're received.

Here's how.

Comments

[AZ]

Hey Utah! I just visited St. George, Utah, it was beautiful. I noticed all the black olives, you must like them as much as I do. Very neat and tidy, I love neat and tidy!

[milton]

Fantastic. You should hire yourself out to people like me as a pantry consultant :) before I started reading PP I had salt pepper thyme and rosemary in the kitchen. Now i have stuff all over the place. Its getting out of control.! help!!

[pam]

That is one beautifully organized pantry!

[Denise C.]

Love it! I too have a fascination with pantries (mine was posted, though it forget when!). Awesome organization!

(My husband and I moved and I gained a huge pantry! Maybe I should photograph it as well!) ;)

[Kalyn]

AZ, I buy olives at Costco and I think they come eight in a pack, but yes I do like to make sure I have plenty on hand! Hope you had fun in St. George. That's in a beautiful part of Utah.

Milton, I'm kind of an organizing freak, but it was only when I got these new pantries due to house renovations that I decided to try for a super-organized pantry. Question is, will it stay this organized? Hope so!

Thanks Pam! One of my neighbors says I am OCD, but I say I'm just organized!

Denise, lucky you to get a huge pantry in the move!

[Melynda]

Those little storage areas are sometimes the best ones, also you can "save" some of the goodies for when they are needed!

[Debbie M.]

I love the way you labeled all the spices on top! great idea, if you are looking down at them!

[Susan @ SGCC]

Oh, maaaan! Look at those beautifully organized pantries! I am so jealous! My husband calls my pantry the "Bermuda Triangle of Food", so that might give you a clue about what a wreck it is. I'd photograph it, but I'm afraid the camera lens would crack! ;)

[Natashya]

Such fun to see your pantry, Kalyn!
You are so organized!

[Kalyn]

Melynda, I love having those shelves right by my stove. Everything I use regularly is stored there!

Debbie, notice there are some things I still haven't managed to get labeled, but yes it does make it much easier to find things.

Susan, you're funny! I am a bit of a fanatic about it. Works for me though!

Natashya, thanks. I think I inherited this organizing gene from my mom.

[Peter]

Reminds me a little of that chilling scene from Sleeping with the Enemy...
I used to love S&W products - my father was a distributor in Boston and then they just seem to have disappeared from local shelves. Great pantry - mine's currently in an out building or distibuted on shelves and cupboards all over the house. Let's just say that Brazilian's aren't big on ample closets.

[Daryl Callahan]

Absolutely beautiful. I had one built recently in my basement but truthfully there isn't much food in there! I would love to see the rest of your kitchen!

[Kalyn]

Peter, I can promise you that my towels are often crooked! I buy the S&W tomatoes at Costco here.

Daryl, there was a blog event where people showed their kitchens, so you can see the kitchen on my blog:
http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2007/01/especially-for-ilva-heres-what-youll.html

Those are old photos, so a few things have changed (and that office is replaced by my new office) but it's still mostly like that. The stove is acting up and I'm thinking about replacing it, although I love that old gas stove!

[Amy @ Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free]

I have a well stocked pantry, too - I couldn't live without it. We only have one indoor pantry so I have two modular pantries in the garage.

Anything that is in a bag (dry beans, lentils, bulk items) or a box (raisins, cacao nibs, dog treats) go right into a glass jar.

[Kalyn]

Amy, I love to put things in jars too. I have all my dried beans in jars on a set of shelves across from the pantries. My only problem is running out of jars!

[Chiot's Run]

Someone who has as many spices as me. I too love buying all kinds of new spices and enjoy trying new foods.

Looks like you're a bean lover, which we are as well. Although we typically used dry beans instead of canned.

Wonderfully organized pantry - thanks for sharing.

[Rupert]

Wow Kalyn - beautiful pantry. Nice job.

[Kalyn]

Chiot's Run, thanks! Of course the pantries are new so they haven't had too much time to get disorganized yet.

Thanks Rupert!

[carol, boston]

I was a huge diet coke fan (with lime too!) before I finally kicked it. Now I just stick to black olives!!