Q&A Wednesday - Pantry Questions

Based on my recent pantry makeover post, someone anonymously asked:

"1. What about things like Ritz crackers? Out of the box and in a container still in the sleeve? Out of the sleeve and in a jar??   
        
2. With the pasta, does it work ok to mix brands. (i.e. sometimes I buy Walmart brand spaghetti and sometimes I buy cremette). The cooking times for various brands differ and I'm curious how you get around that."

Okay, #1 is easy for me.  I'm a fan of getting rid of as much packaging as possible.  For crackers, I do generally keep them in the boxes, because we don't have many.  But if you like the idea of jars, take them out of the sleeve and just have the crackers openly in the jar.

As for #2...only mix the pastas if they're exactly the same shape/size and have identical cooking instructions.  I tend to buy the same brands over and over, so most of my jars have the cooking time cut out and pasted onto the top or side of the jar.  If you buy different brands often, double check that the instructions are the same before dumping the pasta into the jar and if it's different, cut and replace the new instructions so you know your pasta will be cooked properly.  It seems that most brands vary slightly, so I vote for keeping the directions accurate for the pasta inside the jar.