Cooking Floyd: Fly South, Swim Upstream, Jump Off Cliff, Organize Pantry

What is it about this time of year?  Cooks and preservers everywhere get this spontaneous, irresistible urge to organize their pantries.  Is it genetic? Something similar in our code to that which makes birds fly south, salmon swim upstream, and lemmings jump off cliffs?  Is it the Universal Subconscious linking us all together?  Or is it just that by January we all tire of digging through cupboards, freezers, and under the bed for all those goodies we processed and squirreled away to feed us through the dark days?  Whatever it is that motivates us, it seems like everybody is in the midst of organizing their pantries this month.

I envy people that have official walk-in pantries.  Small and not-so-small rooms that house spacious built in shelves and racks, chest freezers, and refrigerators, with properly controlled temperature and humidity for optimum food storage.  I lust for a real root cellar.  Hell, at this point I'd be grateful for a large closet.  Instead I run around the house with a thermometer looking for places to stash squash, sweet potatoes and apples that most closely resemble the storage requirements of those items.  Did you chuckle when I said under the bed?  That's where the sweet potatoes reside.

Cooking Floyd: Hoosier Daddy?

 I came home from work one day to find this sitting in my kitchen:

This is a Hoosier Cabinet.  Probably the single most useful and efficient piece of kitchen furniture I've ever owned.  It's also a fine example of a rare beneficial result of the combination of two of my Dad's worst quirks.