What a beautiful day!

Some days it's just too good to be true!

I love this time of year.  It is not too hot and unbearable, but it's still cool enough without being freezing and having to layer up in mountains of jumpers.  That's if you live in the tropics.  I grew up in Melbourne and would not go back to living there.  

This morning I woke up and it was a bit overcast and still dark (at 6am).  It was cool enough to warrant putting on a dressing gown over my pj's, but as the day went on it warmed up to the point where I'm now in cargo pants and a 3/4 length sleeved top.  No shoes, of course.  

I turned on Sunday Sunrise and heard the weather report for the Southern states and gave a smug smile that our day here was going to be a fine one.

I was browsing the links to other blogs from other's pages a few days ago (don't you hate it when you find a good site but forget to bookmark it?), and came across a blog where the woman talked about the things she had in her pantry and why they deserved a permanent place there.  It got me thinking about my pantry.  

The pantry in this house is nowhere near as big as the one we built in our last house (but it was a big walk-in one, this one is just a deep, narrow one and VERY impractical), so I've had to rethink what I keep in it.  Before, I would stockpile certain things I used a lot, now I have to keep in there a limited amount of stuff and store everything else in the shed.  That bugs me because I don't go into the shed often and then I forget what I have in there anyway.

So, here are my top 5 things I keep in my pantry and why they are there.

1. Tomato paste.  I love pasta and make a lot of my own sauce.  I love it really rich and thick and you can't make a good sauce without tomato paste.
2. Dried pasta - various types.  See number 1.  I love pasta.  Maybe growing up surrounded by the families of my Italian friends in Melbourne has something to do with that.
3. Capers.  We eat a lot of fish and we make up a caper and butter mix to spread over the fillets before wrapping them in tin foil and cooking them on the bbq.  Yum!
4. Vegemite.  Because everyone should have vegemite on their toast or sandwich!  Also, a light smear of vegemite on the paw of your cat or dog helps distract them from a nasty like a vaccination needle or clipping their nails.  It's also good for their coats.
5. Weet-bix.  I like it best in winter with hot milk and sugar.  It must never be thin and watery, always thick so it "lines the tummy".  It's filling and 'homey'.  It reminds me of mornings after spending the night at my nan's as a child.  Especially because she'd let me eat it on the couch in front of the electric heater - normally we were NEVER allowed to eat anywhere other than at the kitchen table (or our lunch on the back step in summer).

So, there's my top 5.  What's yours?