I have a spectacular kitchen tip for you today. One that I should have figured out ages ago. One you probably have already figured out yourself. BUT, in case you haven’t, here we go!

My kids love cinnamon sugar on their wheat toast in the morning. I never have cinnamon sugar on hand because I could never figure out what kind of container to put it in. That means I make the lamest cinnamon sugar toast ever, with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled separately and haphazardly on top of the toast. My kids think it tastes good, but I know their toast could be sooooo much better.

I started thinking maybe I would start ordering cinnamon sugar from Penzey’s so that the cinnamon sugar would have its own container, but that felt a little over the top (even though I know the cinnamon blend they use must taste divine). And then, finally, it dawned on me – I can just use an old cinnamon jar to store my own homemade cinnamon sugar! DUH! A-HA! HOW HAD I NEVER THOUGHT OF THIS BEFORE? This idea is genius because you don’t have to buy something separate to store the cinnamon sugar in, the jar comes with a shaker top, and it fits in the spice cupboard perfectly.

Also, a 2.2 ounce spice bottle is just the right size to mix 1/4 cup of sugar with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. There’s enough space left in the jar to shake it all together but you have a mostly full jar at the end.

ALSO, if you follow the Pioneer Woman’s technique for making cinnamon toast using an English muffin, you will die and go to heaven. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Apparently I have a problem. I don’t update my spices regularly enough!

First case in point: cream of tartar. I have proof that it does not last forever, in case you were wondering.

Today I have another example of my problem! Cayenne pepper. For months I’ve been thinking that we were out of cayenne pepper. Every time I’d go to use it I’d look around the cupboard, only to realize AGAIN that we were out. Well, I finally remembered to buy some last week. The next day I went to use it and, much to my surprise, I found TWO bottles of cayenne pepper in the cupboard! Only one of them didn’t look so much like cayenne pepper anymore.

I find it funny that I actually picked the cayenne pepper up countless times looking for cayenne pepper but not even bothering to read the label because it looked nothing like cayenne pepper! I mean, it’s BROWN.

So, I have a question for you today. Do you update your spices regularly? Do you have a good system for doing so? Or are you like me and forget about your spices until you actually need them and find they are totally useless?!?!

If you happen to do a good job of keeping your spices up to date, please share tips, resources with info that you like, or anything you’ve got about keeping the spice cupboard fresh!