What my pantry really looks like

My dear friend L came over to housesit/catsit for me while my hubby and I were visiting relatives over Christmas. It was the first time she'd been over to our new house, and the first thing she said when she came through the door was, "I want to see your pantry."

"My pantry?" I said.

"Yes, I want to see your kitchen and pantry and all. I've been reading your blog all this time, I want to see it."

"Well, ok," I said, and gave her the tour.

"You should totally post pictures of this on your blog," she said afterward.

"I should? Why?"

"Because it's all so normal," L said. "All this time I've been picturing some crazy professional setup, but your kitchen looks like mine, just with more stuff. You've got the bottomless pit of mismatched Tupperware, the refrigerator door full of condiments, you should let people know that your kitchen looks just theirs does."

So here you are, dear readers: my kitchen and pantry.

The wall of cookbooks, along the back of the dining room, adjacent to the kitchen.

Bowls of things.

Flours, grains, etc.

Which are next to the pans, which are above the prep table, which is filled with the fixings for several projects. Plus my cat.

China cabinet.

The refrigerator. Note bulk quantities of things, and the prevalence of Tupperware. What you can't see: all the broth in the back.

The cheese drawer, just after a trip to Costco. It's full.

The freezer. Note all the fish stock up front. You can also make out a couple boxes of butter, several containers of ground turkey (shrink-wrapped, up top), some nuts, some puff pastry, some frozen vegetables. There's a lot of other stuff crammed behind. My freezer is always full, and always in danger of being booby-trapped--things falling out on your foot whenever you open it.

The pantry, next to the stove. Flours, canned stuff, Tupperware, bakeware on the bottom three shelves.

The spice cabinet.

Next to the spice cabinet.

The countertop. The butter stays out at room temperature, so it's spreadable.

More countertop.

Next to the stove, under the spice cabinet.

So that's it! My crazy, unorganized kitchen, which is bigger than any kitchen I've ever had before, by a factor of about seven.