If you want to have a nice looking kitchen, the key is to combine form and function. Everything should be designed to make cooking as easy as possible, but that doesn't mean that you have to sacrifice style. Making your cabinets, spice racks, baskets, counters, and cookware look attractive will not only give you a winning kitchen, but will also make it that much easier for you to cook meals.
One of my favorite ways to express myself in the kitchen is through the spice bottles I use. Spice jars afford an almost unlimited number of possibilities for self-expression. A lot of people like to use one standard spice bottle for all of their spices. Usually, they will use a small glass cylinder:, something simple, straightforward, and functional. I have always liked a more quirky approach. It helps me decorate and fits my cooking style as well. You see, I use different spices to different degrees. Some spices ? such as basil, rosemary, and thyme ? are almost constantly found in my recipe. For those ingredients, I find giant spice bottles in second hand stores. You can use anything ? perfume containers, novelty jars, or even modified vases. For the spices I use less frequently, however, I use the conventional style of round spice bottle.
When you have different kinds of space jars in your kitchen, it can be a little bit difficult to organize them. Usually, the best solution is to set design your own spice rack. In my kitchen, I have two different spice racks ? one for big, irregularly shaped bottles and the other for smaller, more uniform ones. Not only is this a functional way of keeping track of all of my spices, it but also gives an interesting, tiered effects to my kitchen spice cabinet. Even better, it allows me to display my collection of spice bottles as decoration. The same jars that I use to enhance my cooking also augment my kitchen decor!
With certain spices, however, you have to be all business. Normal spice bottles do not work well for every purpose. If you are a serious cook, you have no doubt noticed that some herbs and spices are more sensitive to variations in temperature, light, and humidity than other ones. For certain ingredients ? particularly expensive ones like saffron ? it makes sense to use thick ceramic containers instead of glass spice bottles. Although they are clunky and awkward, they will keep your ingredients fresh for a longer period of time.
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