Even though January is the pantry challenge, and normally I don’t order in December, January or February because weather. The food is delivered in an Azure 18 wheeler that goes from community to community delivering our order from the Azure warehouses in Oregon. I’m not exactly sure how it works but I’m guessing the truck leaves Oregon and takes a few days to get to Missouri, then they spend a few days delivering to numerous towns in my area. In January and February, a trip from Oregon to southwest MO offers lots of opportunity for bad weather for the trucker, as well as for us trying to get to our drop location. Most everything I buy from Azure has a very long storage/best by time. I don’t often buy in July and August because of the heat.
Last month, there were several things on sale so I went ahead and placed an order. I told Vince . . we won’t be doing a pickup again til March but, Azure sucked me in again. They had half gallon jars on sale – 6 for $12.90. I use so many of those jars for storage so I wanted to get them. Now, they’re $15.18 per six pack and Walmart has them for $16.44 so $12.90 is a great deal. So . . another order I hadn’t planned to make.
Here’s what I have in my cart now.
- White Pepper – I do not like white pepper at all but the other day I heard Louise from The Salted Pepper say something like . . some white pepper is icky. Make sure you’re getting GOOD white pepper. I’ve only had icky white pepper so I’m going to try some from Azure.
- Black Peppercorns – We go through a lot of pepper. I store extra peppercorns in jars that have been vacuum sealed and they last a long time. I probably eat too much black pepper but I love it on everything.
- Black Eyed Peas – Since I’ve never liked black eyed peas, I’ve never kept them in my bean stash but after making the Black Bean Chicken Chili the other day, I feel the need to stock up on black eyed peas. As long as we have a dozen or so varieties of beans, one 25 pound bag of most beans will last us about a year. Small red beans and cannellini beans are a bit different. We use more of those.
- Caraway Sprouting Seeds – I use caraway seeds in rye bread and make that usually twice a week plus we sprout them for sandwiches and salads.
- Fennel Seeds – We both love fennel and use them often. I store them in vacuum sealed pint jars and once I get to my last pint jar, I order another pound of them.
- Durum Wheat – 25 pounds – I mill the wheat to make pasta as needed.
- Cannellini Beans – See note below. Cannellini beans are Vince’s favorite and lucky for me, I love them too.
- Half Gallon Jars with Lids & Rings – I have three cases (6 jars per case) on this list.
- Rye Grains – 25 pounds – We both love rye bread and this recipe is so easy. Each loaf requires 96 grams of rye flour. One 25 pound bag is enough for 113 loaves. We use two loaves of this rye bread per week and I give away a loaf or two along the way so one 25 pound bag of rye is enough for one year.
- Organic Semolina Flour – 50 pounds – See note below.
Notes:
Cannellini Beans:
Here’s one of the things I have to watch with Azure. You have to pay attention to the prices per pound or per each or per ounce. You will see below that if ordering one 34 oz. bag of beans, it’s going to be $4.06 per pound. Most often, ordering a 25 pound bag of anything is going to be less expensive per pound than ordering smaller packages. But look at the 25 pound bag – it’s $3.05 per pound. if you order a 4 pack of 34 oz. bags, it’s 2.83 per pound. I ordered three of the 4 x 34 oz. package. That equals 25.5 pound. So, I’m paying $72.06 for 25.5 pounds s. $76.18 for 25 pounds. I know . . in the grand scheme of things, what’s $4 but that’s how I shop.
Durum Wheat vs. Semolina
I have 25 pounds of Durum wheat, which I will mill into semolina, and 50 pounds of semolina on the list. Here’s why – There is a difference in purchased semolina and home milled durum wheat. In the unifine semolina, it is sifted and the bran is removed but the germ remains. What I mill at home has everything – germ and bran. The pasta is a bit heavier, a bit more chewy and definitely has more fiber. I like the home milled better but I wasn’t sure what Vince prefers so I’ve spent the past couple of weeks alternately using home milled semolina and purchased semolina. Last night I made home milled and today Vince heated up the leftovers and ate them with just a little butter. He said “That is the BEST pasta!” I told him . . good . . that reminds me that I needed to ask you this . . and we discussed whether I should order the already milled semolina or use the grain to make it as needed. Another thing I thought was interesting but isn’t going to change what I order – the already milled semolina is $48.75 for 50 pounds and the Durum wheat is $42.70 for 25 pounds. Weird that the grain without any processing is almost twice as much. Just a note . . generally, you get about 1-1/3 cup of flour from 1 cup of grain but weight wise, 100 grams of grain should produce 100 grams of flour so 25 pounds of Durum wheat should produce 25 pounds of semolina.
Another consideration is that already milled semolina (any flour) may last a year, kept sealed when not in use and in a cool, dark spot. Whole grain should be good for the rest of my days. I don’t hesitate to say whole grains properly stored should last 25 years. A 25 pound bag of durum wheat should be about 11,400 grams. Each batch of pasta for the two of us uses 250 grams of semolina so a 25 pound bag of wheat should make about 45 batches of pasta. We’ve been making pasta a couple of times a week but we probably won’t continue at that rate. I’ll probably order Durum wheat again in October or November.
Not your typical grocery shopping, but a typical order for me from Azure.