Are y’all nosey like me?

The age old question. I could write a basic laundry list of things I keep in my pantry, but I kind of want to spice it up for y’all. I’m going to give you a little bit of background about me, so I can answer this question as clearly as possible. Until about the age of 9, it was just my mom and I. At the time, my mom was this big fancy business woman who worked in finance in Beverly Hills. I went to school in the heart of Los Angeles, right on the border of Beverly Hills and Culver City; we lived in little old Monrovia, a good 18 miles east of Metro LA. Because of my mom’s commute and her inability to cook, I grew up in the backseat of her Lexus rx330 on McDonald’s, In-N-Out, Jack in the Box (my personal favorite), & Taco Bell. Again, my mom was not exactly a savant in the kitchen, as I remember her most notable meal was a recipe she found on some random food blog back in 2006, “Tequila Chicken”. I remember the taste of that so distinctly, because the tequila had dried out the chicken so much that the texture was that of playground chalk. Nonetheless, my mom did the best with what she had, given her work hours, commute, and her little backseat driver. After the age of 9, my mother married my step-dad. What an oddity it was to behold a dude (with a funny accent, I thought as a child) that liked to traverse grocery stores and cook everyday. He was Hungarian-Romanian, a very important distinction, as that gave context to the foods he cooked at home. When he came into the picture, my mom’s pantry started to be stocked with dry goods like rice, beans, flour, oats and pasta. Him and his mom started making palascinta and langos in the morning, and kaposzta, schnitzel, and krumplis teszta in the evening. I had never been a picky kid growing up, so I was excited about trying all these new foods. I was equally as impressed at my mothers pantry shifting from Shake ‘n Bakes and Uncle Ben’s instant rice to dry goods. Like I stated before, my stepdad loved going to the grocery store everyday; that was mostly for produce and protein. Our pantry essentials always stayed the same, and as I started going with him on these grocery store runs, he taught me how to grocery shop and to find joy in all of it. This brings me to my list of pantry essentials. Your pantry is personal to you, keep that in mind. This is just what I restock when I buy pantry essentials.

• Rice
  • Jasmine
  • Brown
• All Purpose Flour, usually a 5lb. bag
• Pastas
  • Fettucine (Household Favorite)
  • Macaroni
  • Farfalle (Something Fun)
• Beans
  • Pinto
  • Black
  • Kidney
  • Garbanzo
• Sugar
  • Brown
  • White
  • Cane
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Vinegars
  • White
  • Apple Cider
  • Balsamic
  • Rice Wine
• Oils
  • Olive
  • Canola
  • Sesame
  • Recycled
• Honey
• Snacks
  • Popcorn
  • Chips
  • Granola
• Soy Sauce
• Extracts
  • Vanilla
  • Almond
• Mirin
• Buldak Ramen (Easy Meal)
• Oatmeal

These are the things I always have stocked. The most basic of basics, and usually the bases of all my recipes. When I grew up and went to culinary school, my pantry essentials started to change. I started to get really excited about the possibilities ahead and the things I could create, so I started buying more and more things for my pantry, but as one does, I used them once and never really touched them again. Which, truth be told, helped inspire this food blog. Go out there and personalize your pantry! Happy Eating!