Ingredients on hand

[Marg]

What ingredients to you keep on hand (always) in order to do basic cooking/baking - do you find you have to run out to buy specific items or make a grocery list planning recipes? Seems I am always running to get something for a recipe.

[SHERRY]

In general, I tend to always have
Cream of Mushroom, chicken, celery, etc. soup
jar of pimintos
can of diced green chilis
powdered buttermilk
flour
sugar
vanilla
all spices
canned tomatoes, corn, green beans, garbonzo and black beans,
canned tuna
a variety of rice, and couscous
frozen hamburger and chicken breast
milk
butter, the real thing, sorry
All shapes of pasta
salsa
oils
choc. chips
cocoa
powdered sugar
etc.

With the collection above, In a jif I can cook
spaghetti
tuna & noodles
chicken casserole
choc. chip cookies
Devil's Float, our favorite dessert
Tex Mex nachos
Vegetable soup
tacos
etc.
My pantry is pretty stocked with all the non-perishables. I find myself having to go to the store for those recipes that call for fresh veggies. But, in the winter, when veggies aren''t at their peak, I keep bags of frozen peppers, corn, broccoli, spinach, to use.

[lindrusso]

We had a discussion about this a while back, so I'll hook you up with that thread if it interests you.

Since responding to the first discussion, I have added unusual cheeses that are sometimes hard to find (like smoked gouda - hey, for this small town, it's considered unusual!) - cheese keep such a long time that I decided to keep more on hand. I also added sour cream and sometimes ricotta to the list, as long as the expiration dates give me some leeway.

We just got a freezer recently, so I've been able to add phyllo and puff pastry to the list - I figure this will come in VERY handy over the holidays.

Anyway, here's the link:
http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/Forum1/HTML/000947.html