Can tidy spices stave off holiday stress?
Of all the things I should be doing right now, with less than a month to go before Christmas, alphabetizing my spices isn’t one of them. I should be making multiple lists and checking them more than twice. I should be trying to track down the Lego behemoth for my son that’s not available in any toy store. I should be cleaning and decorating; I should be getting caught up on work; I should be writing the 20-page paper for the college class that seemed like such a good idea in September. But I’m not. Instead, I’m standing in my pantry at close to midnight, cursing because I can’t find the anise seed and the almond extract. They’re not where they should be, dang it, on the far right side of the cupboard. That’s the section designated for spices that start with “A,” but somehow, my system got screwed up. All I see in front of me are two full bottles of fennel seed, five kinds of dried chiles and two containers of coriander, both whole and ground. I don’t even like coriander. None of this w
