My Sweetest Things

Over the Holidays I did a whole lot of baking. Spices always show up as an ingredient for a recipe and I happen to have a whole lot of those in my pantry. Pumpkin Pie was on my list of baking goods so I reached in the pantry and pulled out some of my spices.  I set them on the counter and thought I had them for awhile so I went to check the expiration dates.  To my surprise there was no expiration date listed.  Really now? They have to expire don’t they?

These are the spices I pulled out to check. No date on the front.

No date on the back. There is an address though. Like I would write them? Hello. It’s called websites.

On the bottom they have these number and letter codes.  No date. No luck. I headed to the McCormick website for information and I found a nifty little spice checker! You can enter the code and then add the city the spice was made in.  The address comes in handy after all.

I entered the codes and the city and here is what I found.

This little message. “The 2000 election lasted way too long. Your spices have outstayed their welcome too.”  Your Spice was made on 5/4/2000

WHAT?? I was 33 years old when this spice was made? My husband was 20? Weeps. I packed and moved it twice?!

“Hobbits were everywhere and lawyers were blonde. If your spices are from 2002 it’s time to replace them.” Your spice was made on 9/13/2002

I can’t even remember what happened in 2002. Where was I? Who was I?

“Dinosaurs ruled the theater. If you have Jurassic spices then it’s time to make them extinct.” Your spice was made 9/19/1993

In 1993 my youngest son was 2 years old. I stilled lived in Texas. That means this spice was moved across County and State lines into Georgia into 3 different houses! This is bad.

“Baby Doll dresses and clunky shoes use to be a fresh look , but like your old spices, they’ve lost their flavor.” Your spice was made on 11/2/1995

I don’t know which is worse, that I still have the spice or that I still have the clunky shoes?!

This little spice did not have a code on the bottom. Well, thank goodness for that! I get the message. My spices are Expired! It seems I really did not use them very often as some of them were still quite full. They were sitting nice and pretty in the back of the pantry. Just hanging out sharing stories about Elections, Dinosaurs, Blonde Lawyers and High Fashion.

So long my old friends. Thanks for the few good times I enjoyed you. You are expired. Say Goodbye.

It’s all good ~ Donna

P.S.

The lighting in my house is not so great due to the beautiful large trees that surround it. I found a large box, placed a white foam board on it, took a small white box for the background and used a white poster board to reflect the light. I placed this in front of my back living room window and I was very happy with the results! No flash used only natural light with my Canon and 24-70 lens.