THE SPICE OF LIFE....

The first of my mini quests toward my ultimate goal was something that was bothering me in my kitchen.  I wanted to reorganize and streamline my spices into something that worked for me.  I have a thing for spices and am always collecting them.  I started out making use of some inexpensive revolving racks which while they worked well for a while, the bottles weren't airtight and moisture got into my spices.  I solved the issue by using Libbey glass bottles and a chrome rack which I ordered from Amazon.  The bottles were perfect, as they allow plenty of room to scoop that measuring spoon into and also a great airtight seal.  They were gorgeous and fit into the chrome rack perfectly.

Here is what they look like -

Finding the perfect racks and bottles though were the easy part - the hard part was devising what spices I actually use!  I finally came up with (after much research) the perfect list of spices that I really wanted to keep on hand, the rest are really not necessary.

The Perfect Spice List

• ALLSPICE
• BASIL
• BAY LEAVES
• CAYENNE PEPPER
• CELERY SEED
• CHILI POWDER
• CINNAMON
• CLOVES - GROUND
• CLOVES - WHOLE
• CREAM OF TARTAR
• CUMIN
• CURRY
• DILL
• DRY MUSTARD
• FENNEL SEEDS
• GARLIC POWDER
• GARLIC SALT
• GINGER
• LEMON PEPPER
• MEAT TENDERIZER - SEASONED
• NUTMEG
• OLD BAY
• ONION POWDER
• OREGANO
• PAPRIKA
• PICKLING SPICE
• POULTRY SEASONING
• RED PEPPER FLAKES
• ROSEMARY
• SAGE
• SEASONING SALT
• SYLVIA'S SECRET SOUL FOOD SEASONING
• TARRAGON
• TUMERIC
• THYME
• WHITE PEPPER

Comments anyone?  Have I missed any essential spices?

Here is what another blogger came up with using Ikea picture hanging shelves - I ultimately once I buy the nest want to have my spices arranged accordingly.