Mise en place

The first posting. Wow... talk about pressure! Since we are at the beginning and this blog is dedicated to the elegance and joys of culinary basics I guess we should start at the beginning.

A little bit about me :)

I'm a 27 year old marketing and event planner living the dream in Washington, DC. And clearly, by "the dream" I mean living in a studio apartment, with my fearless taster J, where my entire kitchen measures a grand total of 42.5 square feet! Now if that doesn't say city living at its finest then I don't know what will.

Living in a small place and having a teeny, tiny little kitchen has really forced me to become creative. What some might see as a bookcase I see as extra storage in my living area for kitchen gadgets and baking supplies. A spice rack and a canister of kitchen utensils as decorations - why not?!? And let me tell you - I get a GREAT upper body workout every time I need to haul my 4.5 quart KitchenAid mixer into the kitchen and onto the 23x16 inch counter top.

(I really wasn't joking about the bookcases as storage area!)

It has also forced me to become very organized - which leads us to the title of this blog post "mise en place". This French concept means getting everything in place and, lets face it, sounds a lot more whimsical and fun when compared to the phrase "prep work". Mise en place is something that is important in large and small kitchens alike but it goes beyond measuring out sugar, flour and salt. Taking the time to mentally prepare yourself to start cooking is just as important as double checking to make sure you do in fact have the three eggs you need waiting for you in the refrigerator. So before you preheat your oven take a moment to read over the recipe, measure everything out before hand and get yourself ready to create something wonderful.