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Insane Kitchen Hoarding Disorders


weinoo

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oh boy, forgot to even talk about all the crystal and silver I also "collect", luckily, I DO have once a month luncheon for lots of ladies, which allows me to use parts of it...and I too have freezers and refrigs...plural. Obviously, I have "issues"! I need to get to know people like you all, I am considered VERY odd where I am, due to my desire to use real plates, etc., over paper! And, to love cooking!

Why am I feeling I have to apologize because I like cooking from scratch?

:wub:

Don't apologize, glory in it! That's what I do - check my cornbread from "scratch" post on my blog! :rolleyes:

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I hoard spices!

5582966749_7fcd24b932_z.jpg

I do clean up this clutter every now and then, but after making a curry or complex chili it all goes to hell again. :rolleyes:

I'll see yours - and raise you ....... these!

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plus these that live in the freezer - spice mixtures with seeds and etc., that often have unwanted hitchikers that hatch at room temp.

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And those do not include the salt collection and the pepper collection:

I'm NOT hoarding, not at all. I am merely prepared for just about any cuisine from several continents.

One never knows when a visitor from some exotic local may drop in and wish to cook for me. :laugh:

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I'm NOT hoarding, not at all. I am merely prepared for just about any cuisine from several continents.

One never knows when a visitor from some exotic local may drop in and wish to cook for me. :laugh:

:wink: I am SO stealing that excuse for my huge spice/condiment/cookbook/gadget/small appliance/Fiestaware collections! :wub:

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Well,I have a ton of dishes, crystal, silver, glassware (including buffet service for 50), but I consider that collecting, not hoarding, and have easily as many spices/herbs as others, but consider that my pantry (and seem to use them all). I consider hoarding stocking up on stuff for fear of not having it when needed, and then never using it, for fear of not having it when needed....For me, this is duck fat, including loads of jars of it brought back from Europe. OK, maybe I have way too many cans of imported Italian plum tomatoes and tomatillos.

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:cool:

Cookbooks. Oh, Lord...on shelves, in the kitchen (and dining room and living room and bedroom), you name it, they're everywhere. And if I don't always use the recipes therein, I still read 'em as entertainment and as fantasy material, imagining how it might be to cook and eat in someone else's kitchen, living that part of someone else's life.

It's some of the best fun a body can have without actually leaving home

:biggrin:

Me, I vote for the joyride every time.

-- 2/19/2004

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I'm NOT hoarding, not at all. I am merely prepared for just about any cuisine from several continents.

One never knows when a visitor from some exotic local may drop in and wish to cook for me. :laugh:

:wink: I am SO stealing that excuse for my huge spice/condiment/cookbook/gadget/small appliance/Fiestaware collections! :wub:

It's possible we are related.... :smile:

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Condiments/sauces. As I said in My Fun eG Foodblog, I am a condiment/bottled sauce slut. 4 different kinds of mustard? Got 'em. 2 different kinds of pickle relish? Check. 75 varieties of Asian curries/pastes/sauces (ok, *that* may be a slight exaggeration....maybe I only have 73 of those...)? Yep, in stock. Tabasco, Cholula, Tapatio AND Crystal pepper sauces? Why yes, doesn't everyone? Sriracha AND sambal olek, isn't that a normal pantry? Oh, and vinegars. Don't get me started on vinegars. Red, white, Sherry and Champagne wine vinegars, rice wine (plain AND seasoned), balsamic (white AND dark), fig balsamic, raspberry, tarragon, and a few more I can't remember what they are. Oh yeah, and white and cider.

Condiments. They're my downfall.

And, um, I may have a few too many spices. And canned goods. But the latter are for emergency provisions. Yeah. That's it..... :wink:

--Roberta--

"Let's slip out of these wet clothes, and into a dry Martini" - Robert Benchley

Pierogi's eG Foodblog

My *outside* blog, "A Pound Of Yeast"

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Condiments/sauces.

Condiments. They're my downfall.

I think we may also be related. :biggrin:

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This is just one shelf in the main pantry. There are more in the little pantry and also in both refrigerators.

I see a condiment and I just can't resist. Perhaps there is an support group?

Condiments anonymous, perhaps?

I am a regular customer of the Mustard Museum

And can't resist the "deals" that show up in my email every week. Often several mustards are "bundled" at considerable savings.

(I also have a Poupon U hoodie, a tote bag and a T-shirt.)

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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Right, having twelve bottles of vinegar in my small cabinet isn't hoarding because they're all different types of vinegar. However, now that I live by a Grocery Outlet my hoarding tendencies for dried pasta and canned tomatoes have gotten completely out of hand, as the occasional deals are more than I can pass up.

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I like many expats, hoard ethnic ingredients. It's gotten kind of ridiculous as I am afraid to use it as I dread the day I "run out" and therefore bring almost everything to the brink of expiration. I only recently started to stop that!

Right now, my fridgerator has 5 packs of cheddar cheese that I miraculously found. I've got a shelf full of Asian ingredients too. The problem is no matter how hard I try, my Chinese food always SUCKS. :(

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my mother always has multiple packs of trifle sponge despite the fact that she makes trifle maybe once a year and bottle after bottle of gravy browning - like enough to make gravy with ebery day for about the next 10 years! Its a running joke now.

"Experience is something you gain just after you needed it" ....A Wise man

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So we actually have

a)hoarding (which has been defined above as an insane disorder)

b)collecting

c)buying stuff in great quantities for a number of reasons:

- you are outside your region and can't get ingredient 'X' back home - it's one of those stores which carries ingredient 'X' once and you will never see it again

- it's an ingredient which the store has warned you that they don't know when it will be suspended

Only folks who are subject to 'a' need feel any chagrin. The rest of us are just full of virtue. :raz: (Oh, the virtuous includes me, of course)

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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Darienne: How can you be so right on?!

I think I fit in all catagories - and both the "need to" and virtuous group...

I need to get all the AAA prime rib roast sales in case they never have as good a sale again, in case I have unexpected company, etc...

I needed to bring back 6 containers of Hungarian Hot paprika because I might never find it in our part of the country - and eneded up giving away 4 containers with recipes to friends - virtuous?

I feel I NEED to spend as much as I used to when the kids were all home even tho' we are empty nesters...gotta support the local economy - definitely virtuous!

I WILL eventually use up everything, even made a promise to my family that I will NOT buy any more meat until the freezer is cleaned out. It's been 2 weeks - doubly definitely virtuous!

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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Darienne: How can you be so right on?!

I think I fit in all catagories - and both the "need to" and virtuous group...

I need to get all the AAA prime rib roast sales in case they never have as good a sale again, in case I have unexpected company, etc...

I needed to bring back 6 containers of Hungarian Hot paprika because I might never find it in our part of the country - and eneded up giving away 4 containers with recipes to friends - virtuous?

I feel I NEED to spend as much as I used to when the kids were all home even tho' we are empty nesters...gotta support the local economy - definitely virtuous!

I WILL eventually use up everything, even made a promise to my family that I will NOT buy any more meat until the freezer is cleaned out. It's been 2 weeks - doubly definitely virtuous!

Love it!!!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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andiesenji I wish you were my neighbor. That is am impressive quantity of condiments.

I see that the hot sauces and Worcestershire aren't refrigerated. If I didn't have to refrigerate all my hot sauces it would free up alot of space for me. :)

Have you ever had a problem with that?

Grace Piper, host of Fearless Cooking

www.fearlesscooking.tv

My eGullet Blog: What I ate for one week Nov. 2010

Subscribe to my 5 minute video podcast through iTunes, just search for Fearless Cooking

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I have what seems like a hundred of single purpose kitchen tools. Like a corn cob stripper, or the ever popular ultra mini whisk, zesters of every shape and size various pitters, slicers, and other "can't live without" items.

I am also "storing" 15 pounds of kobe beef cheek in my freezer right now. Anyone hungry?

Can you eat that?

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andiesenji I wish you were my neighbor. That is am impressive quantity of condiments.

I see that the hot sauces and Worcestershire aren't refrigerated. If I didn't have to refrigerate all my hot sauces it would free up alot of space for me. :)

Have you ever had a problem with that?

I don't have a problem because they are in my pantry, which has been engineered to be cool, even during the summer. No exterior windows, etc. During the winter it can be downright chilly, but not as cold as a fridge. I live in the high desert where summer temps can get well above 100° F. but the pantry rarely gets warmer than 70 and is usually cooler.

Frankly there are a lot of sauces that to me do not have as much flavor when they are refrigerated.

With the pepper sauces, there is enough vinegar in them that works as a preservative.

Chutney, for instance, is never refrigerated. And I don't put the marmalades and jams that I use frequently in the fridge. I do refrigerate curds &etc., that contain eggs.

Also. Darienne has posted the best description/explanation and/or justification!

Edited by andiesenji (log)

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I definitely have a deli cup problem. They just seem so much more useful than weird sizes of rubbermaid with all of their specific lids taking up space. The worst, tho, I think, are my glass jars. My husband hates them. But they're useful, and it just seems wasteful to throw them out. There are the 5 bookcases of cookbooks/foodbooks.

On the food side - condiments are bad, but jellies are the worst for me. I'll be at a farmers market or somewhere and see something that I haven't seen before or that looks good, and then it goes home and ends up on the infamous "jelly shelf".

It just always seems like whenever my husband manages to talk me into getting rid of something, a situation comes up where I have exactly what I need because of the hoard. And so it remains.

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I have a jelly shelf, too. I have to try every known brand of black currant jam ever made. This is research! :laugh:

I wish I lived near andiesenji too! I stand in awe of your knowledge, your collections and your ability to explain and share things so clearly with us!

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I have a jelly shelf, too. I have to try every known brand of black currant jam ever made. This is research! :laugh:

I wish I lived near andiesenji too! I stand in awe of your knowledge, your collections and your ability to explain and share things so clearly with us!

lordy, lordy there's far worse things to research than black currant jam - it is my absolute favourite.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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I feel your pain!

HPIM3985.JPG

These are just the ones that have not yet been opened.

How about a honey collection?

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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The closest I get to hoarding is all the crap I toss into the the freezer (small odds and ends, usually) because I have no immediate use for them, and don't want to waste even a small part of what is quite good/cost rather a lot. Also, I have an insanely large bundle of plastic bags in the under-sink cabinet, not because I have much use for plastic bags, but since disposing of them in an environmentally-sound way is not really possible, I try to use them, so it's not a total loss. I'd say I can't imagine where these things come from (I always bring a rucksack when I'm shopping, because you get charged about fifty cents (USD) per plastic shopping bag, here), but the evidence is printed right there, on each bag, so I know I bring most of them back from various trips.

Michaela, aka "Mjx"
Manager, eG Forums
mscioscia@egstaff.org

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