Saturday, January 7, 2012

Pantry Challenge

After taking a break from this blog for some time, it is creeping back onto my "radar screen" right now, so we'll see what happens!



To start off, I'm jumping into the Pantry Challenge hosted by good (cheap) eats this month, but starting today, January 7th. We just returned from a big trip over the holidays so I'm getting a late start, but already had something like this in mind, anyway, for a couple of reasons:

1) There are a few things that the money we'll save could be used toward replacing in the kitchen.
- large non-stick skillet - This is one of our most used items in the kitchen - often multiple times per day - and is visible in multiple blog posts from the past. I think our current model has been in use for about 3 years (2-3 years seems to be the average duration of the non-stick ability for the particular quality level we purchase, and I'm OK with that).
- small crepe/omelet sized skillet - Pretty much the same story as above.
- 2 lb. bread machine - The one we received from some friends worked well for about 6 years (used at least once a week), but around the time we moved, one of the paddles in the pan stopped working correctly. We could replace the pan/paddle, but it's nearly half the expense of a new machine, so I'm leaning toward a whole new machine. Bread-making has fallen by the wayside somewhat since we moved here almost a year and a half ago now, partly due to the machine issue, partly to time, and partly to the fact that there is a bread outlet here where we can purchase fairly good quality bread for less than $1 a loaf.

2) Some of the things on hand need to be used up.
-You may know that I keep a pretty significant quantity of food on hand. I'm better at having food on hand and planning meals around that, than I am at menu-planning and buying food as we go.
- The weather has been so warm that it's made me think about spring and gardening, which reminds me that there is food in the freezer to be used from last summer.

There are probably other reasons why I need to do this and it will be good, but can't think of them right now! So starting today, well see how this goes!

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