The Pantry

Recently, my family moved.  As anyone who has moved knows, you work on dwindling down the things that you are taking with you, so as to lighten the moving load.  This means going through what you own and determining what is needed and what can be taken to Goodwill.  This also means eating as much of the food you have in your current home without having to make purchases that will end up just having to get packed and unpacked especially heavy, bulky cans.  This is purging is really quite beneficial, but it also has its drawbacks, especially as it comes to the pantry.

As any home chef knows, the key to improvisational cooking is having a well stocked pantry and spice cabinet.  Being an improvisational cook means that you are improvising with what you have on hand and if you don't have much on hand then you better hope that you have A LOT of creativity and even then that doesn't mean success.  Being an improvisational cook does not mean you can run out to the store for last minute ingredients.

I definitely consider myself to be an improvisational cook.  I personally think cooking is more fun that way.  However, right now I have a bit of a challenge.  My pantry is not back to its previous, before the move, state and I'm trying to come up with something for dinner.  I'm attempting a Vegetable Beef Barley soup without the beef, the broth and without the canned tomatoes and sauce.  I've got chicken, cream of chicken soup, and Ro-Tel to substitute for the missing ingredients.

I know that this can end up a major disaster, but I also know this could end up being one my family's favorites.  Here goes. Wish me luck.   I'll let you know what they thought.

My pantry actually has a little more than this in it.

This isn't my actual pantry.  I just wish that my was a full as this one.