To end 2019, I purged time. Well, technically, I purged thyme, the spice, but it seemed a fitting metaphor.
I try to use the time off from school wisely, tackling those projects that niggle at the back of my mind as “I really should do XYZ.” This week I took on the spice shelves, which was eye-opening.
First of all, we have three and a half shelves dedicated to spices. Two are smallish, right next to the stove, and the remaining one and a half are larger, across the kitchen, and also house some mementos and baking items. The spices by the stove are the savory variety – the aforementioned thyme, for example – and the spices across the room are more of the baking variety – cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, etc.
This particular project has niggled for a while. Like years. A lot of years. I think it maybe once a week, as I rearrange the salt and pepper and garlic salt and parmesan cheese to reach the salt or pepper or garlic salt or parmesan cheese, but it seems to fade the second I close the cabinet. (Which is either a testament to my procrastination skills, or my aging brain… or possibly both.)
This week, however, the thought remained in my head along with a chunk of time and an urge to purge (all necessary) and I brought out two rimmed baking sheets and put all the savory spices on them. I got a trash bag ready and proceeded to read expiration dates and toss.
I tossed a lot. Like three-quarters of the containers.
One spice – celery salt – I purchased before Thomas started school, for one recipe that was given to me by a fellow Mother’s Club member. The recipe was for a pull-apart cheesy bread dish that was utterly delicious, but it called for a teensy amount of celery salt, so I bought a container. I came across it randomly a few years ago and thought to add it to egg salad, but then it migrated to the back of the cabinet and hunkered down, invisible. The date it expired was 2007. (Hmmm… maybe that’s why the egg salad wasn’t so spectacular that the spice remained more visible.)
Also purged were a packet of saffron brought to me as a souvenir of my father-in-law’s trip to Spain in 2006 (it was so special I was saving it, and then it went AWOL in the way back), expired containers of powdered oregano, solidified lemon pepper, Old Bay seasoning (why?), some mysterious homemade mix in a Tupperware container (a rub? Homemade ranch dressing mix? Who knows.) and an assortment of other faded leafy things. I was left with one half of a tray, and a replacement list of three items that we actually use – garlic powder, chili powder and paprika. The remaining spices are all nicely arranged, with plenty of space between them to breathe and be seen.
Next was the baking cabinet. I discovered three unopened containers of almond extract, which I can’t remember ever needing or using. I also have three bottles (two unopened) of lemon extract, but I know why: I use a teaspoon once or twice a year for my grandmother’s sugar cookie recipe, and as the season approaches I debate if I have any (or enough – those bottles are teensy and dark) and so I buy one just in case. The vanilla we use more often — especially at Christmas, when I go into fudge making overdrive — but the two bottles I have are enough. A bottle of maple flavoring was gone, but I only use that for zucchini bread, so I am holding off on purchasing more just yet. I had to toss baking powder that left us in 2014, two half bottles of corn syrup, and a bag of frosting tubes with miniscule dates printed on the crimped bottom, so I presumed had also died.
The shelves look so refreshed and inviting now. I want to bake and cook and create again. Just so I don’t come across a recipe calling for a quarter teaspoon of some obscure spice that they only sell in Costco sized containers…
To new beginnings, and good thymes!
