Very interesting. MSM is now putting out little articles like this?

What’s behind that pantry door?

This week I will do my food shopping only at one very special place: my own pantry. Lord only knows what I will find in the back corners of the lowest and highest shelves. I expect to be eating some tuna salad from all those cans I bought when forecasters were predicting the last snow storm that brought Atlanta to a halt - which may give you some idea of the vintage of those items.

But that salad will also feature capers from the jar I found while I was hunting for some artichoke hearts, and maybe I will toss those 'chokes in another salad later in the week. I could also have some salmon croquettes, now that I unearthed the canned salmon I bought because it was good for my heart. That way I can also put some of the half a bag of flour to use before it goes bad.

And there is the soup I added to my shopping cart during cold and flu season. Or maybe several kinds of soup (remember those corners). They will go nicely with the grilled cheese sandwiches I can make from the ends of the frozen bread that play hide-and-seek in my freezer.

While hunting said bread, I also found some frozen tortellini that will go well with the jars of pasta sauce that I dug out of the pantry. But some of the pasta can go into a salad with some limp broccoli that threatening to go bad – and I can use some of the tarragon vinegar or maybe the lovely aged balsamic vinegar. Ahhh - decisions.

Some "aged" carrots can be sautéed with garlic, onions and the can of black beans, and all of that can be stirred up with the bag of brown rice that I didn’t know I had.

And for dessert - either some canned pineapple, or if I can turn the brick of brown sugar I found back into granules, I could bake an apple stuffed with pecans, newly uncovered raisins, a spritz of bottled lemon juice and sugar.

Think of the money I will save not acquiring any "new" food until I whittle down the stores of comestibles in that kitchen closet. That could buy an awful lot of tuna.

How long could you live on the food in your pantry?

Click the link here to answer the poll: http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/07/20/pantry-raid-how-long-could-you-hold-out/

Freezing the ends of the bread, now there's something I NEVER thought of doing as we always just toss it out

I wonder how long they can last