I had to go digging in my spice and baking ingredients shelf yesterday for an ingredient, and realized that a couple of things seemed to be out of date.

So this morning, when I woke up, I checked the dates on every bottle and box. This took only about five minutes. Any container that was out of significantly out of date was thrown out. I last did this about two years ago, so most of the affected expiration dates were for 2008 or early 2009.

One of my happier finds: two newer bottles of cinnamon in addition to an almost empty older bottle. I threw out the oldest one.

I will replace only about half of those products. I need new jars of paprika, ground cloves, ground ginger, and chicken boullion cubes. I also need a new jar of onion powder because I will run out of that soon. But I don’t use allspice or chicken seasoning anymore, so they are gone for good.

The best times of year to have spices and baking supplies on your shopping list are just before Thanksgiving, just before Christmas and just before Easter. That’s when the grocery stores and food companies aim at the holiday cooks. Those of us who cook year-round will be smart to take advantage of those seasonal sales to restock basic supplies.