For fun. Mise en my place, ..........

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pacanis

Chef Extraordinaire
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OK, so I started thinking about last night's dinner, reading the mise en place thread and how much room we do or don't have in the kitchen, whether or not we do or don't get stuff ready for the night's meal, whether or not mise en place could simply mean having everything basically there in house, and not necessarily all in bowls and ready to add to the pot.... here's how things went for me last night.

Mise en place pacanis.
The menu: grilled steak, baked potatoes, garlic bread, mushroom and onions and broccoli.

The steak had been thawing on one of those aluminum plates, so it was winding down to becoming room temp. Time to start dinner.
Put a pan on the stove, turn on the burner, add some EVOO.
Start cutting an onion and add to pan. The oil is ready.
Cut mushrooms and add to pan. Season with pepper.
Take out two potatoes, prick with a knife, set on a plate and nuke for 3 minutes.
Flip onions and mushrooms and add salt.
Start grill. Come back inside. Think about the order of things and take a drink.
Realize I started the mushrooms and onions waaay to early to be having baked potatoes too, so turn the burner practically off.
Take potatoes out of microwave and set on the grill, lid down.
Putter around for an undetermined amount of time, realizing the potatoes are going to take a while. Feel steak, it's still very cool. Take another drink. OK...... [time lapse] .....
Go outside and roll potatoes over.
Take broccoli out of fridge and prepare. Place broccoli in a pot with a small amount of cold water on the stove.
Shake mushrooms and onions, the oil is getting thin, add a big glob of butter and turn up heat. Grab a spoonful of flour and shake it on after the butter has melted. Stir, stir, stir and add some beef broth and more pepper. Looks OK so I turn down the heat again. Turn the burner on under the broccoli.
Go outside and squeeze potatoes. They're done. Move off to an unlit portion of grill and go into the house to get the steak. Mushroom sauce thickened up too much, add some more broth.
Cut some bread thick for garlic bread and butter one side (it was a heel).
Put the steak on the grill and close lid.
Go into house and the broccoli steaming, so dump water, add EVOO, salt, pepper and slivered almonds. Shake to coat and set back on burner. Smash a clove of garlic and peel.
Take bread outside, flip steak, season other side and set bread by potatoes to start warming up and draw the butter into it. Decide to leave lid open so steak can color up without cooking too fast.

I flipped the steak a couple more times, moved the bread onto a hot burner butter side down, turned heat back up on the shroom sauce and added some rosemary that was in the fridge..... things were humming along at this point.

Take potatoes into house, plate them and dress them. Shake the broccoli, turn up the heat, remove lid.
Take plate outside, fiddle with steak, pick a side to place up, plate it, move bread to where steak was. Take plate inside and put broccoli on. Grab camera. Put sauce on the steak. Grab the bread. Rub with raw garlic and set on plate.

Dinner is done. Snap a few pics, refill glass, enjoy. Total lapsed time..... not sure. Somewhere between 30 and 50 minutes :)

So that's how a typical dinner gets prepared by me. I'm sure others are more organized.....
 

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One of these days I'm going to strap one of my kids to a chair to teach me how to do the camera thing...

Todays meal has been an all day affair.

I started the bread this morning, and the final proof is happening now.
I baked the cake a few hours ago.

The steak has a crusting of cracked peppercorns and chopped garlic. The potatoes just finished their first bake, ready for the blending: bleu cheese, chives, butter, sour cream. The shallots are caramelizing now.

I bought the lobster tails this morning, so all I have to do with them is toss them on the grill. I'll do that shortly as I prepare the caesar salad. I make the dressing with a crushed garlic clove, olive oil, a raw egg, some dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce and a couple of anchovies. I toss that with the lettuce and juice of half a lemon. Add cheese ( I grate it directly over the salad), fresh cracked pepper and croutons.

The green beans will cook in the oven as I finish the steak. The mushrooms will be cooked soon, and held.

Half an hour till I turn the oven up for the bread.

The bourbon is going wonderfully, by the way.:angel: Wish I could get instant pictures up like you do, though..
 
Vera, I wouldn't know what to do if a meal took all day. It would through my whole timing off :LOL:
Interesting reading your scheme of things.
 
Mine was pretty easy today.

Brown ground beef/onions/garlic. Toss in tomato sauce and a bunch of herbs. Simmer while I find the frozen grated mozza.

Layer the meat sauce, noodles, cheese til the pan is full. Cover and toss in the oven to bake.

Wash and rip up lettuce. Make caesar dressing.

Still to do:
-toss lettuce with dressing, add loads of bacon and parmesan.
-let lasagna sit a bit and then cut
-cut up lovely french bread and serve with butter or olive oil/balsamic vinegar.
-pour wine
-EAT!

I like the days when you can just veg for a while as the supper is making itself.

Vera, I think I want to come back as one of your family. It sounds like they eat really well in your house. Cheers!
 
I decide I'm going to try the quick & easy ever famous Tater Tot Casserole for the first time.
I remove ground beef from the freezer.
It thaws in the fridge most of the day but I sit it out on the counter around 3pm to speed things up.

Around 5:00pm I remove 3 eggs from the fridge and open a box of lemon cake mix.
Brown the ground beef, drain, set aside.
Instead of using canned green beans I wash and trim fresh green beans, steam them for 7 minutes, put them in cold water, drain & cut them up.
I place the hamburger, soup & green beans in a bowl and stir them.
I'm deciding to use the 13x9 baking pan for the cake so I place the hamburger mixture in a pam/sprayed oval baking dish.

In the meantime, I grease the bottom of my 13 x 9 baking pan, add the water, vege oil & eggs to the cake mix and beat it. The cake goes in the oven at 325degrees and the phone rings.
"Hello, this is Precision Auto, your vehicle is ready"
I quickly reach to remove the cake in the oven but not before burning my fingers on the oven rack. I sit the cake on the stovetop, turn off the oven and place the hamburger mixture in the fridge, place fingers under cold running water. Not too bad.
90 minutes later I return in my perfectly running vehicle, turn the oven back on to 325, get the hamburger mixture out of the fridge.
I grate 2 cups of cheddar cheese, set it aside and place the cake back in the oven.
I decide I want to spice-up the tater tot casserole so I slice up some fresh jalapenos. I place the tater tots on top of the hamburger mixture, dot with some jalapeno slices & finish with the cheddar cheese.
Take the cake out of the oven and sit on wire rack to cool before frosting.
Place the casserole in the oven at 425 for 35-45 minutes.
I make a simple green salad w/tomatoes and vinegar & oil dressing.
It's getting late now, we're sitting down to eat at 9:00pm
I look over and see that someone has decided to cover the cake, which hadn't cooled completely, which now looks a bit 'damp' on top.
I sing a few new words into the night air, something like "thank you for helping" in the key of C minor, uncover the cake.
It's 10pm and everyone is shouting for cake. I open a can of pre-made lemon frosting and begin spreading it on top of the cake. The cake LATCHES ON to the spatula. I'm dipping the spatula in warm water after each spread of frosting but the cake keeps latching-on and I give up.
I start putting individual slices of cake on plates and a spoonful of frosting next to each piece. For dipping.
Someone says "What kind of cake is this?"
"It's lemon spoon cake!"
"Is it the recipe you got on the internet? It's really good"
aarrrgghhhhh...... :wacko::wacko::wacko:

PS. everyone really loved the tater tot casserole.
 
That was good chefmaloney. It sounds like you hit a stride and improvise, too.
Adjust this, tweak that, leave for a while, OK where was I.... that's what I'm talking about. Unless you're following a one dish recipe and live in a vacuum, sometimes you need to make small adjustments and keep on going.
 
My mise en place for dinner tomorrow night will include, but won't be limited to:
onions
garlic
pasta
butter
evoo
peas
eggs
heavy cream
parm cheese
bacon
sourdough bread
salt
pepper
house seasoning
pinch red pepper flakes
pinch nutmeg
and a truckload of pots and pans
followed by lots of water and dishwasher soap
red hands for me
full tummy for him
 
Our meal tonight:

Browned beef shortribs
Arranged ribs in casserole
Normally would have made my own sauce but tonight poured a bottle of EB's Sweet Sauce (from Raine's restaurant) over ribs.
Covered tightly and placed in 325 degree oven
Peeled and cut up potatoes
Peeled and sliced carrots
Put potatoes and carrots on to boil (separately)
Mashed potatoes
Spooned mashed potatoes and carrots onto two plates
Put ribs on plates (bones fell out as I did this)
Spooned sauce over ribs
Ate
Followed with yogurt

:)Barbara
 
I'm sure I could have found a way to complicate that Barbara. You sound so organized.

Lefes, no way I could have gotten all those ingredients out and ready ahead of time.
 
I'm the kind of person that preps EVERYTHING needed for a dish before I ever start cooking. All the onions, mushrooms, and garlic would be cut and ready to go, with seasonings added in.

That said, I will be prepping food in a few minutes to dinner probably Tuesday night. My other half, PeppA, bought a roast, and I'm sure she wants me to do a pot roast. It's frozen, so I'll have to pull it out and put it in the fridge to thaw. I'll probably cook it in the crockpot, so I'll start it sometime early Tuesday, and won't throw any veggies into it until later that evening.
 
We had guests for dinner last night. I started after breakfast 'place-ing' all the 'mise'.

I diced veggies, measured out flour, spices and herbs, did any other prep work I could think of.

Made a batch of sour cream mushroom soup and put that in the fridge without the sour cream and milk. That will be added later.

As time passed, I started the osso buco. Seared the veal shanks and set aside, sweated the mire poix, added the other stuff and the shanks and tossed it into he oven.

SO made a chocolate cake with chocolate whipped cream frosting. I can't describe that process as I stay away from the kitchen when she's baking.

Shortly before the guests arrived, made a small batch of pate shue (sp?) added some grated gruyere and made cheese puffs.

After the soup course, made a batch of risotto to go with the osso buco.

The dish washer is currently running for the first batch of dishes. There will be one or two more.

Without the mise en place, dinner would have been a lot harder to pull off in a reasonable time.
 
I'm the kind of person that preps EVERYTHING needed for a dish before I ever start cooking. All the onions, mushrooms, and garlic would be cut and ready to go, with seasonings added in...
I have extremely limited space to prepare and cook, so I prep in stages. For instance, I didn't peel the potatoes and carrots until the meat was in the oven. One thing that I try to always do (but don't always accomplish!) that I think is as important as prepping ahead is to clean up as I go. That way when I am done there isn't much left to clean up.

:)Barbara
 
I have extremely limited space to prepare and cook, so I prep in stages. For instance, I didn't peel the potatoes and carrots until the meat was in the oven. One thing that I try to always do (but don't always accomplish!) that I think is as important as prepping ahead is to clean up as I go. That way when I am done there isn't much left to clean up.

:)Barbara

Limited room, not cooking for a large group or needing to play host/hostess, being able to stagger what needs prepped and cooked next... I find I'm better off scrambling than taking the time to prep everything ahead of time. Especially if I'm going to be in the kitchen anyway.
And I too clean as I go, which I consider a fault. I am always putting away something I still need.
 
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