What’s in your Pantry?
Monday, October 8, 2012 at 4:00AM 
By Sandy Hu
All this week, Special Fork bloggers are revealing what’s in their pantry, with tips for using pantry staples. To celebrate Pantry Week, Special Fork has teamed up with Zojirushi, the Japanese maker of top-quality kitchen appliances, to offer a fabulous sweepstakes prize: the 5.5-cup capacity Zojirushi Micom Rice Cooker & Warmer ($192 MSRP), which not only cooks rice flawlessly, but also steams foods and bakes cakes. Menu settings include: white/sushi, mixed, porridge, sweet, brown, cake, steam and quick cooking. Enter to win!
Around 3 or 4 p.m. PST weekdays, I cruise Twitter looking for people who “dk (don’t know) what to cook” and try to give them answers, tweeting as @specialforksndy. Problem is, without a well-stocked pantry, it’s hard to act upon my Twitter suggestions, no matter how quick and easy the ideas.
Here are some of the staples I keep on hand so I can always make dinner, even if I haven’t gone to the supermarket. I’m not including the obvious: canned tomato products, chicken broth, pastas and other standards.