How many times have you come across a certain ingredient in your pantry and wondered if was still safe to eat?

The downside to a new, unique recipe is that after you use that half-tablespoon of tamarind pulp/dark miso/black mustard seeds, the product sits stagnant in your cabinet, begging to be put to use.

The Washington Post has collected a few hard-to-use ingredients and provided recipes that use them. Have leftover cacao nibs? Mix them with nuts and cranberries for a jazzed-up trail mix, or substitute them in for chocolate chips in your next batch of brownies (and check them out sprinkled over lattes at right).

Kaffir lime leaves? Stuff them in your chicken as it roasts. Pomegranate molasses? Make it into a vinagrette, or drizzle it over ice cream.

If you still have questions, consult a site like Big Oven, whose Leftover Wizard tool allows you to choose three ingredients from the extensive drop-down menu and tells you if there's a recipe that incorporates them all.

There are certain dishes for which I always have the ingredients in my kitchen. Scrambled eggs (eggs and butter). My sister's Quinoa, Bean-wa, Green-wa (a mash up of quinoa, garbanzo beans, Trader Joe's Curry Simmer Sauce and frozen spinach). Lentil soup (dried split mung beans, carrots, celery and onion). My friend Cindy always keeps around Ramen Noodles and frozen peas for the nights when she can't deal with being creative. Another friend is never without the makings for fluffer nutter sandwiches.

These are the items I can make quickly, with my eyes nearly closed (chopping veggies without at least one eye open is a very bad idea). I know that they will taste good and stop me from being hungry, which is often all I ask from my food.

Okay Slashfoodies, confession time! What are meals you make time and again, and always keep the makings for around in your fridge and pantry?

...or if they're already there, they're gonna stay all the way back there, gathering dust until I bequeath them onto my children.

Nah, I wouldn't do that to them.

1. Tuna Helper - I just don't like that the talking glove only has four fingers. That's scary.
2. Dinty Moore Beef Stew - childhood trauma
3. Hormel Corned Beef Hash - if you have ever seen it in the can, you will wonder if it was really Alpo that had been mis-labeled.
4. Vienna Sausages - those tiny ones that come in the pull top can.  
5. Boxed macaroni and cheese - okay, it's not that bad when you eat it, but when you make it and you see the cheese that looks like Tang, you have to wonder...
6. Canned mushrooms - they're slimy and no matter what you do to them, they taste like metal
7. Velveeta - someone, please, tell me how this is cheese
8. Spam - 'nuff said.  

For Spring Cleaning, we've been talking a lot about the pantry - dried pasta, grains, beans, canned goods - but we can't forget about our freezers. We tend to store a lot of stuff in our freezers to use later, just like we do in the cupboard. Here's a list of a few things that are helpful to keep in the freezer:

• Vegetables - while fresh vegetables are obviously the best, sometimes we want something that isn't in season where we live. Frozen is the next best thing. Canned vegetables, with the exception of plum tomatoes, always taste mushy and bad. The best frozen vegetables, I've found, are peas, broccoli, and spinach. 
• Fruits - for making sauces and baking, frozen fruits work, and are awesome to toss into a smoothie
• Homemade stocks - especially after Thanksgiving, stock made from the roast turkey is awesome to use for soups and stews
• Tofu - it sounds weird, but tofu that has been frozen has a really interesting texture
• Dough - you can keep store-bought pie-crusts, bread doughs, etc., but if you make it yourself, make enough to seal some up for later. 
• Vodka - well, duh. It doesn't freeze, and ice cold out of the freezer, you won't have to dilute it with regular ice. 

Bisquick is buttermilk baking mix, a blend of shortening, powdered buttermilk, flour and leaving agents, which has a long shelf-life when kept in a cool, dry place. It is popular for everything from pancakes to dumplings, but when you usually make homemade versions of those things, a box of Bisquick can last you a long time.

I searched through Allrecipes.com to find a way to use it up and came across a semi-homemade recipe that was ideal for springtime pantry cleaning: bisquick cookies. The recipe also calls for boxed pudding mix – mostly sugar and cornstarch – to be used. Fortunately, I had a box of pudding mix remaining after I disposed of the packages that looked as though they were bought in the 1980’s. The only thing you really need to make these cookies that can’t be found in your pantry is an egg. And if you keep your eggs there, I strongly recommend using some fresh ones.

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?

Everyone's "basic" pantry really depends on what they like to eat, what they're cooking on a day-to-day basis, and what kinds of "surprise!" entertaining they may have to do at the last minute. However, there are a few general categories of things (in bold) that I see in almost every pantry, with differences in the specific type:

• Dried pasta - Pasta lasts along time, especially if they're made without eggs. You can't really go wrong if you have something long like spaghetti or fettuccine as well as something short like penne. From there, get fancy.
• Grains - Like pasta, these also last a long time on the shelf. The most common grain is rice. Mine is a mostly Asian household, so we have the Asian-style short-grain white rice. Since I'm trying to maintain some semblance of health, brown rice is gradually replacing the white rice, and we also have barley. A lot of people also like to have oats on hand for breakfasts and baking. Good idea.
• Beans and legumes -  I'm a huge cheater here. Long cooking dried beans are the way to go here, but I love the convenience of canned beans. I would say that black beans and whatever bean you put in soup (navy? pinto?) is good to have on hand, and of course, a can of chickpeas for an emergency hummus.
• Vegetables - Better to stick with frozen vegetables over canned, with the only exception being whole plum tomatoes. But for my Mediterranean bent, sun-dried tomatoes, brine cured olives, artichoke hearts, capers; bamboo shoots and water chestnuts for the Asian side.
• Meats - canned tuna (packed in oil, it tastes better). Canned salmon is good for a change, and of course, I love anchovies. I can eat those straight out of the can. By the way, Spam doesn't count as meat.
• Oils - Canola oil for deep frying, and olive oil for you know, everything else. I also have sesame oil. For reason, please see "Grains."
• Vinegars - Plain white vinegar at the very least, but I'd toss that for Balsamic any day. I also have rice vinegar for all the Asian cooking I do.
• Salt and pepper - obviously. I have Kosher salt, regular table salt, and soy sauce.
• Flours and other - all purpose flour at the very least. I also have whole wheat flour (in the freezer) and panko breadcrumbs.
• Stocks - for those times you don't have three hours to boil bones, chicken stock and vegetable stock, but not in cans

That should do it for a basic cook's pantry. Baking, on the other hand, is a whole different animal.

I can't say for certain how long this has been in my pantry - surely less than a few other slightly dusty bottles - but I will admit that I have no idea when I bought it. I am incredibly glad that I found it, though. Muir Glen's organic Chipotle Salsa is full of tomatoes, onions, spices and peppers. The chipotle flavor comes from powdered chipotle peppers, which concentrate the flavor without resulting in an unpleasantly large chunk of hot pepper on your tortilla chip. The salsa is just spicy enough, with the lingering heat of chipotle that makes you reach for a large second helping.

Jarred salsas are shelf-stable before being opened and  are a great thing to have on hand when a nacho craving strikes. The salsa can also be used to top anything from chicken to grilled steak and, when combined with a little sour cream or guacamole, can be tossed into some salad greens for a fantastic Mexican-flavored lunch.

Over time, some of the dry goods in the pantry will expire, from Bisquick to canned cranberry jelly. Most of these things will still be safe to eat in the weeks immediately following their “best by” date, but it is best to try and use them up before reaching that point. Spring cleaning is a great time to sort through all those cans and mixes and figure out what to do with them. Soups and chili recipes are a good start for most pantry favorites.

Another prevalent pantry item is chocolate chips. The Tollhouse recipe is a classic and one of the best, most reliable recipes there is, so keeping a bag or two of chocolate morsels on hand is common. All of these chips have a “best by” date on them, after which point they will still be usable, but their flavor will begin to decrease. I happen to have a lot of seasonal chips around – red and green white chocolate chips for Christmas and red and pink white chocolate chips for Valentine’s day – in addition to the specialty Milk Chocolate and Caramel Swirl Chips pictured above. Just use them in place of the regular chips in the Tollhouse recipe, or one of the other recipe on the back of the bags. It sounds obvious to say it here, but would we ever have leftover chips if we just disregarded the holiday that they are “supposed” to be for and used them whenever we wanted a batch of cookies?

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

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!

It's been a while since we've had a theme day here at Slashfood, so we're back this week with a whole day, Thursday March 30, dedicated to...Spring Cleaning.

No, we don't expect to start opening up our windows and sweeping out all that winter dust. We're cleaning out our pantries. You know you what we're talking about. You have unmarked cans lurking in the back of your pantry (is that Spam?). Dried pasta that you bought last summer. A whole vacuum-sealed container of navy beans that were supposed to be a soup...

Slashfood will be finishing off that last can of tuna from the six pack we picked up at Costco, but we'd like to see what you can make to clean out your pantry and make space for the fresh new ingredients for Spring. Just post your stories and let us know about it on Thursday.

With the Chinese New Year goings on around the world this weekend, it's no better time to stock your kitchen with commonly used Asian ingredients both in the pantry and in the refrigerator (right after you've purged it of all those useless gadgets). A lot of Asian foods are healthy and delicious, so if you haven't done much Asian cooking at home, let the new Year of the Dog be the year you try it.

I do a lot of Asian cooking at home, so these are a few things I like to have on hand:

• Soy sauce - I actually have a giant 1-gallon container in my refrigerator. Yes, keep soy sauce in the refrigerator. Also, if you are wary of gluten or carbs, there is wheat in soy sauce (who knew?)
• Sesame seeds - I have both regular and black sesame seeds. They taste the same to me, but the black ones add some contrast for presentation. However, there is a difference in taste between regular and toasted sesame seeds. If you buy regular sesame seeds, toast them yourself in a dry pan over medium high heat.
• Sesame oil - It's rarely used as a cooking oil, but rather, as a seasoning in marinades or added to a dish like a condiment just before serving for its fragrance.
• Rice - Short grain rice that is "sticky" when it is steamed.