On Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:29:27 -0600, Christine Dabney
> wrote:

>On Tue, 3 Jun 2008 14:22:11 -0500, "jmcquown" >
>wrote:
>
>
>>The idea of mise en place freaks my mom out a little bit. I like to do
>>vegetable prep early. So I'd be in the kitchen at 2PM and she kept saying,
>>"It's not dinner time yet, why are you doing that now?" LOL I find it
>>works better if I go ahead and (for example) mince the onion, dice the
>>tomatoes, grate the zucchini ahead of time. It's portioned, in the fridge
>>and ready to go. I assemble everything else I'll need by the stove/oven.
>>Then when it's time to cook, it's all there. It definitely makes cleanup
>>easier
>>
>>Jill
>>
>
>And it definitely saves on the angst of being in the middle of cooking
>a particular thing, and finding out you don't have such and such
>ingredient, or utensil, or pot, or whatever.
>
>I have learned to read through a recipe thoroughly and go see if I
>have all the ingredients, before I even start. And then I start
>chopping, measuring, etc. I even measure out liquids, spices, dry
>ingredients... If I find that I have only a certain amount of an
>ingredient, I can decide beforehand if I want to go ahead with that
>particular recipe, or substitute, and not get in a panic in the middle
>of the recipe when I find that I am out of something or only have a
>tiny bit.
>
> I have a drawer full of glass bowls of all sizes and some larger ones
>that double as glass salad bowls. I got most of those at Dollar Tree:
>they come in little packages of about 3-4/$1.

True statement. I can't believe the equipment this woman has. She
could open two restaurants.
http://i30.tinypic.com/2lb7ux.jpg

>Anthony Bourdain, in his Les Halles Cookbook stresses this ad
>nauseam...the "meez", as he calls it.
>
>It has taken me a long time to get to this point, but it really pays
>off in cooking, whether it be a stirfry, or a stew, or baking, or some
>other type of cooking.
>
>And if it is done right, with everything measured out, and "in it's
>place", it does make cleanup a lot easier.

Yeah, let's talk measuring. ;-) Girl, you really do measure up.
http://i31.tinypic.com/2vt8imd.jpg
>
>Again, I don't always do it, but I find that my cooking goes much more
>smoothly if I do..and the place is neater. My goal is to do it every
>time, and to wipe down my space between each prep.
>
>Christine

koko
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updated 6/1
"There is no love more sincere than the love of food"
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