A highly subjective guide to stocking a pantry

My 79 can't-live-without-them ingredients (for now)

When I overhear my husband talk about my cooking, he often says, "She keeps this massive pantry, so then it's easy to add one or two fresh things and make a meal."

This is true. As a cookbook author and chronic ingredient purchaser, I've got an embarrassingly overstuffed pantry that doesn't look nice for Instagram but is good for making easy meals on the fly. 

My daughter salivates at the idea of organizing it all into uniform jars — a project I expect would cost hundreds of dollars and a system that probably wouldn't work well for me. (Because there's always another heirloom bean to buy!)

While a well-stocked pantry is a key to improvising meals, you don't need one as full as mine. (In fact, I’d recommend against having one as packed as this.)

To help guide you as you create or replenish your pantry, I went through and picked out my essentials — the 77 ingredients I use at least once per month. (It also includes the condiments, etc. that I keep in the fridge door.)

It's a purely subjective guide showcasing many of my quirks and contradictions. But I hope it's helpful. 

And, of course, I'd love to hear more about your essentials. 

Here it goes.