This American Spice Cupboard

Skip to the end for knitting related content, I have some cooking to do first.

I have in my kitchen a whole cupboard dedicated to storing the bottles and tins of spices we use for cooking.  I've seen those tidy little organizers that you can use to lay out your bottles so that when you open the drawer, there they are all laid out in alphabetical order and you can find just the cumin you're looking for.  But I need a whole cupboard, mostly because I have never been able to bring myself to throw any of it, however irrelevant, away.  It also is so unorganized, that I lose things in there, and when I can't find the cardamom, I buy a new one.   I own three jars of cardamom.  I use it once a year, yet I own three.  One of them is so old that the yellowing price tag tells this tale: .69c.  The last time anything in a Durkee tin cost 69 cents, telephones were still attached to the wall.  So last night while my husband was cooking dinner (really, truly, he does this a lot, he does laundry too, and you can't have him), my Virgo perfectionist husband discovered that there was no more chicken broth in the freezer (he makes his own: I kid you not) so I suggested he try a boullion cube.  He opened the door to the spice cupboard and rooted around looking for a boullion cube.  In an organizing process that ultimately took up most of the night in the editing and (gasp) alphabetizing of the bottle collection, he disinterred and rejected these fine examples of what I have in my paltry Taurean cooking life resorted to for boullion;

 
Number one ingredient: salt.  Number two ingredient: MSG.

Next:

Smells like composting barnyard.

 

Next:

Ingredients not too menacing, smells not too offensive, but what does this baby look like?

Opiated chicken broth anyone?

Oh, I am so easily amused. 

That's it.  That's the joke.  Opiated chicken broth. Get it?  Okay.  Thanks for coming folks.   I'll be here all week.

Now to knitting.  The answer is. . .
yes, I cast on.  I did a half-hearted gauge swatch because I know my own knitting, and I knew what the swatch would tell me.  So last night I developed a new respect for knitting on size 3s by casting on 305 stitches and knitting ten rows on size 0's for the lower edge.  You don't need to see it.  It's just as you suspect, fine, teeny stitches crammed onto a 24 inch circ while I locate one of my many 32 inch ones wherever they might be hiding. (Nope, not in the spice cupboard.)

Meanwhile, check out the gorgeous Poetry in Stitches Leaf Cardigan at Erica's new blog.  I'm going to be unofficially KAL with her (and Margene) whether they like it or not..

Comments

[Margene]

It's a KAL if it last for another year. I'm leaving the sleeves of Lotus until March. They should be ok for summer knitting.
I need your husband to visit and fix my spice cupboard! LOL

[Jane]

My cousin, a true artist in so many areas, just told me about "Poetry in Stitches." I doubt I'll ever knit anything from it, but have it I must. Erica's sweater is beyond beautiful!

[elisa]

That's a man after my own heart, I tell ya'. I don't make enough stock to freeze, usually, but you can bet your sweet bippy that my spices are well organized. ;)

[Valerie]

You could just say you're investing in "spice futures". The last jar of cardamom that I bought was almost $10!! I treat it like gold.

Good luck w/ your sweater...the first few rows are always the worst when working tiny gauges.

[Claudia]

From a foodie - I have the chicken broth answer for you. A drum roll please..... Better Than Bullion. It comes in a little round jar with a black label and it really and truly is. Now, it's 4.99 a jar, but worth every penny. But don't buy any flavor other than the chicken. And though I'm ashamed to admit it, I probably have close to 100 jars, tins, small bags and dried things on strings in my spice collection. Scarier still, they're all relatively fresh. It's an illness - I know.

[Dana]

I could trade some nutmeg for your extra cumin. I used to do mine alphabetically, and then I got too many spices.... or the wrong sized containers... and now I tend to do sweet in one section and savory/salty/spicy in the other. Not to mention the 3 kinds of Japanese dipping sauce.....
I cannot imagine LONG needles under size 5. Bless you and your eyesight. Or bi-focals.