One of the best things about being an adult is having a liquor cabinet.

Not just a few pints stashed away atop a refrigerator, but a proper piece of furniture -- or at least a designated shelf -- to keep one's array of bottles, glassware, shakers and swizzle sticks. However, many of us shove and stack and forget about that old quart of Kahlua or the sticky shot glasses and ruin the whole effect.

In order to reap the full Nick and Nora je ne sais quoi from your liquor cabinet, you also must do a little maintenance at least every six months.

Slashfood's tips to cleaning up your liquor cabinet after the jump.

I've been a little reluctant to go through my larder, largely because I've been busy overhauling my swinging bachelor pad. Frankly, I was starting to think PSP's dustball campaign was inspired by my crib. In any event,  here's what  I found  in my pantry:

• Seven containers of ginger Altoids. When these first came out a couple of  years ago they were impossible to get. So I snatched up about a dozen at a Trader Joe's in Westchester.
• An unopened 10-pound bag of Kohinoor basmati rice. Time to fire up the old National rice cooker.
• Two miniature bottles (one red, one green) of El Yucateco habanero hot sauce.

If anyone has any ideas about how to combine these ingredients (savory biryani with ginger habanero crunchies, maybe) please keep them to yourself. I plan to use the rice when I try my hand at Indian cooking. I'll save the hot sauce for scrambled eggs and such. As for the Altoids, maybe I'll throw some into tea.

This bag of potato starch has been in my cupboard for about a year and a half. I know that because I bought it after seeing it used in a recipe for beef negimaki (scallions wrapped in seared beef and dressed with a soy-mirin-sake sauce) in the November 2004 issue of Saveur. Our Spring Cleaning day seemed the perfect opportunity to finally make use of it. There's a recipe similar to Saveur's over at Epicurious, one of the main differences being that Epicurious's sauce is thickened by reduction while Saveur's is thickened with the potato starch. In doing the latter, I was really impressed with how the two teaspoons of potato starch diluted in five teaspoons of cold water created beautifully thick glaze in a matter of seconds when I added it to the barely boiling soy, mirin and sake. There were no lumps, as I often find with corn starch, and no added flavors it seemed. There's a picture after the jump.

[Photos: Nick Vagnoni]

What do you have the most of in your pantry? Because I like to bake, I always have a fairly large supply of baking ingredients, including different flours, baking powder, baking soda, and yeast, among other things, like chocolate chips and sugar. I also always have cereal and oatmeal to give myself some breakfast options. But there is one thing that I almost have more cans of than I can count: tomatoes.

Granted, I do use canned tomatoes a fair amount, especially when making dishes like soups and pasta sauces. I love tomatoes and it is much easier to reach for a convenient jar of them, especially when they’re pre-roasted or diced, than it is to fuss with fresh tomatoes. For some reason, though, I buy them in groups of twos and threes with complete disregard to the fact that I have at least 10 different varieties already in my cupboard. Addiction? Paranoia? I am quite certain that the world would not end if I ran out of my favorite canned tomatoes, and yet I can’t seem to help myself. That’s my pantry-stocking secret. What’s yours? Beans? Cereal? Jarred salsa?

This bag of dried Peruvian corn or cancha also turned up as a result of some spring cleaning. Truth be told, I was cleaning my car. My girlfriend left it in the back seat a few weeks ago, after a visit to our local Hispanic supermarket. We've always enjoyed the small bowls of cancha that our favorite Peruvian restaurant serves, so making it at home seemed like a good idea. (As an aside, yes, I know that these are probably not all that different than the Popnots that I spoke less than fondly of a few weeks ago.) Basically, these large dried kernels get popped just like popcorn, except that they don't really turn inside out, they just puff up and turn golden brown. The Goya website has a recipe, but really all you need to do is heat a little vegetable oil in a pot with a tight lid, add the corn and shake it until it pops, then drain it on some paper towels and toss with salt. It's a great snack by itself, with some hot sauce and especially with ceviche.

Eggs, milk, even jarred mayonnaise (which we know could probably withstand nuclear fallout) all have expiration dates, but what about the dried goods in your pantry? Some of the things have a "Best when used by" date, but not everything. This list of shelf-lives for common pantry items is taken from a book that my father bought me when he helped me "clean out" my own pantry. I think he was scared.

Baking

• All purpose flour - 12 months unopened, 6-8 months opened
• Whole wheat flour - 12 months unopened, 6 months opened (if refrigerated)
• Granulated sugar - 2 years unopened, 6 months opened
• Brown sugar - 4 months unopened, 4 month opened (in freezer)
• Confectioner's sugar - 18 months unopened
• Solid shortening - 8 months unopened, 3 months opened
• Cocoa - 2 years unopened, 1 year opened
• Baking soda - 18 months unopened, 6 months opened
• Baking powder - 6 months unopened, 3 months opened
• Cornstarch - 18 months

Have unmarked cans lurking around the back of your pantry? Spices you bought when they were on sale and never used? Well, dust off your under-utilized waffle iron or crock pot and get cooking with it! At Slashfood, we think that there is no better time to clean out your cupboards and start off with a fresh batch of ingredients than the beginning of spring. Today, we're pulling everything out of our cupboards and trying to use it up - after all, how else can we make room for all the new goodies we'll find at the grocery store in the next couple of months? We'll be thinking up ways to maximize the canned and dry goods that we never seem to quite run out of and offer suggestions for restocking the pantry once your cleanup is done.

Stay tuned for lots of suprises and some of the following:

• How to stock a basic pantry
• Making buttermilk scones with white chocolate chips
• Marshmallow cereal bars for kids and kids at heart
• What do bachelors keep at home?
• Uses for basic marinara sauce
• Shelf lives of common pantry items

Yes, in case you weren't paying attenion the first time we asked you nicely, we're reminding you that this Thursday, March 30, Slashfood would like for you to please, get up off the couch and clean up ... your pantry!

All day, we'll be emptying out our cupboards of those dried, canned, and preserved things and making stuff to eat to make room in our kitchens for spring's bounty. Pasta? Of course. Canned chicken broth? Absolutely. Dried beans and tomato paste for a cassoulet? You bet!

Hell, we might even throw in that can of Spam we bought back in 1981. Don't worry. It's still good. 

If you're in the mood, please post about your pantry clean-up and let us know on Thursday!