Archive for September, 2008

The Spice of Life

Saturday, September 20th, 2008

Aside from a new sink, perhaps the most life-altering event in our kitchen renovation was the completion of my spice drawer. I realize this sounds a bit over-dramatic but, in reality, there’s a lot of truth to this statement.

Historically, cooking has not been my greatest forté. I’d like to be a good cook and sometimes I even put a little effort into it. But for the most part, cooking is a chore I try to finish as quickly as I can. Obviously.

If you look back at our original kitchen floor plan, you’ll see for 20 years we operated basically out of a 9′ x 7′ pantry. Needless to say, there wasn’t much room for efficiency and organization, two things that also are not my forté. So, like many people, I jammed all my spices together in miscellaneous plastic containers and shoved them in one of the few cupboards available. They were always a mess. A huge mess. A meal I should’ve been able to throw together in five minutes usually took 20 because 15 of them were spent rummaging through a gazillion spices (other people in our family actually get into cooking things that take longer than five minutes—thus the large collection of spices).

Enter the Universal Spice Tray by Ovis Online!

This simple piece of molded plastic has transformed my cooking and my organization! Note the fairly tidy and semi-alphabetized arrangement of spice jars in the heading photo. I lovingly refer to this as stadium seating. What used to be a gazillion jars are now only 30-40 because we assess our inventory and don’t buy spices we already have. And best of all, cooking is actually becoming fun! I pull open the drawer and easily choose a spice that will creatively enhance the culinary delights I’ve now mastered.

Okay, well, now maybe I’m over-dramatizing. But someday…