Apartment Therapy’s Kitchen Cure

I’ve just joined up and even though I’m a week late getting started, I have grand plans!

Week 1′s assigment is to organize and clean out the fridge, freezer, and pantry. That risotto I mentioned yesterday? That was part of my attempt to go through some of the old stuff I haven’t used in forever, and I got to make a new recipe too! I used a modified version of Smitten’s Asparagus, Artichoke & Shitake risotto, only I left out the artichoke (too expensive!) and while it was definitely good, it wasn’t good enough to make again . . . . maybe the artichokes are really a crucial ingredient for that recipe? Who knows. The good news is that the giant container of Risotto rice that’s been in my pantry for over a year is now half as full as it used to be!

So far all I’ve done is take a survey of the state of things . . . this weekend I will take the “before” photos and start clearing out/cleaning up. Adam regularly clears out the fridge for me anyway (I have a low grossness tolerance for spoilt food!), so I don’t expect to find anything too scary in the fridge, but the freezer and pantry are a whole ‘nother story. I actually keep two separate “pantries,” one for regular food and one for baking stuff, and the sheer quantity of stuff in the cabinets is kind of shocking. I don’t know what I would do if I had a Costco or Sam’s Club close by, I tend to shop in bulk even from regular retailers as it is! And considering I keep at least 3 types of butter on hand at all times, well . . . let’s say there isn’t any room to spare in the patries or the fridge!

The only thing I’m hesitating about is the overwhelming desire to bake a truckload of cookies and brownies to use up some of the baking stuff I’ve accumulated . . . I’ve gained a few pounds since the wedding, and eating a whole bunch of sweets is not going to help me any! I have two boxes of nice chocolate I splurged on when it was on sale, which I’d bought specifically to make NYTimes chocolate chip cookies. One box is already open because I used some in some banana bread a few weeks ago (that’s another story!), so I may compromise and finish off that open box but keep the closed one for the future.

Tough call though, clear out some clutter AND eat cookies, or keep my diet?

PS – Don’t know what Kitchen Cure is? Hop on over to Apartment Therapy to find out!

Tagged as: kitchen cure, organizing