laura @ hippressurecooking's Profile

Interesting! It's hard to see the scale from the photo, but it seems like it could be a little shorter and fatter - like a real spreader. That would solve the knock-down problems. Love the hilt idea and.. I too would be concerned with putting it away - would it stand up and jam itself into my cutlery drawer or do I need to stand it in a corner with a dust cover.

Great idea, loved the comments with all the suggested improvements even more!!

Ciao,

L

Maybe I like these more as placemats. In Italy, weh have special little towels we use to cover the table for breakfast. Cute idea, though.. and lovely set-up with a jar glass!

Ciao,

L

OK, who slices one carrot at a time as in the picture?!? Girl, bunch them up and slice two or three at a time depending on the thickness!!!

Ciao,

L

I don't know if they are available in the U.S. but I use 750ml tomato sauce jars - they are tall and skinny and perfectly fit 500g, or 1lb or dried beans, grains, flour, ect. They take up the whole height of my pantry drawer and I can fit tons of them. Since the top is tapered I can easily see from the top what's what. In the case where there are water ratios that were written on the package. I write that on the outside of the jar with a dry-erase marker.

As I use-up a jar I run it through the dishwasher and add the ingredient to my shopping list.

One of the first commenters mentioned something really smart. No need to stock more than what you can consume in a given amount of time. Most dried pantry foods can last about a year, rarely more. So you need to commit yourself to going through everything about once a year. The fall/winter is the best time to do this. Few fresh local veggies are available and it's time to make lots of grain/legume soups, pastas and dishes.

For ingredients I use more often polenta flour and sugar, I have large jars with a flip-top lid. I use flour in large quantities at a time, so it doesn't make sense for me to fill up a jar with a bag once a week. I just keep that in it's shop bag.

So I think there are three ingredients, of sorts, to keep your pantry neat. The first is only stock what you can realistically use in a year. The second, is use storage containers that can easily fit in the shelving/drawer system available, and the last is adjust container size to the use frequency.

Once I figured all of this out for myself. I was able to keep a very nicely stocked pantry!

Ciao,

L

What a great teaser.. I HAD to click!!

Ciao,

L

What are you supposed to dip in it?

In Italy it's 100g per person of dry short pasta and 125g per person for dry spaghetti. When we have friends over, we ask if that's what they do -too. Usually, yes and we can easily calculate how much pasta to cook for the whole group or all the families.

Works every time.

Since packages come in 500g amounts and my family eats 400g, save all the different shapes and mix them up in a minestra.

Ciao,

L

I'm an Italian living in Italy, and I can assure you that the Italian aromatic base only uses EITHER onions OR garlic. In the north of Italy there is the celery stalk, carrot and onion mix (one of each) usually started with butter - but today's smart Italians add one tablespoon of olive oil. In the center and center-south of Italy we use a garlic clove, pinch of hot pepper and usually a couple of anchovies (especially in Rome). There may be exceptions to these rules of course - but the base of most of our recipes only uses ONE aromatic, not BOTH.

I do appreciate the thought that went into this article since I really enjoy learning about the building blocks each culture uses in their cuisine. So I hope to see more in the future.

Ciao,

L

I have a huge cup of black tea, with a dash of milk and a teaspoon of un-processed honey in the morning. When I'm in a hurry I skip the milk, and notice that I get a stronger caffeine hit from the black tea.

Then, after lunch but not later than 2:30, a nice mug of green tea with nothing added. If it's a cloudy rainy day... I may have a hot milk choccolate after dinner (about 1x month).

So I think I have all the super-food bases covered!!

Ciao,

L

Two words: Fire Hazard.