Mise En Place

This is the french term translated to mean "everything in it's place". I know it sounds simple, but for someone like me who loses their keys/wallet/etc. on a semi-hourly basis, it's a hard dictum to follow.

Basically, what they want you to do is:
1. show up completely mentally prepared
2. prep everything for each dish beforehand (prep should be finished by the start of class)
3. during slower times clean up your messes and prep for the next class

For this particular class, we got the instructions on our dishes the day before. Given the above three requirements, that means I have to keep most of the events of the last three days stored in an easy access file in my brain. Like that's possible. For someone who skated through school without even paying attention, it's a rude awakening.

It took me about two weeks to wrap my brain around this concept and decipher the pattern of information imparted by the lectures. Now, after finishing my three weeks, I have 80 pages of notes, recipes and cryptic one words phrases which may or may not mean something.

Wish me luck.

An ode to butter

I am taking a three week break from school right now because of a certain high school reunion I had plans to attend when enrolling in culinary school. Honestly, it's a bit of toture and my knife hand is itching to go out and buy a ten pound bag of carrots to brunois. So I am soothing my cooking jones by spending all of my time talking about food, class, knives, rouxs, etc. It's bound to get annoying. But I find most people will listen to my nattering as long as I am actually cooking for them. Consequentially, I've been baking a lot.

One recent conversation went as so (it's not verbatim, but close enough):

Me: Blah, blah, cooking stuff, BUTTER!
Friend: Oh really?
Me: Butter, butter butter.
Friend: You know, you talk a lot about butter.

And it's true. That entire week I probably talked about butter about as much as sauces, perhaps even more since butter, by itself, can be a sauce. It wasn't always like this. Like most women, I had cut butter out of my life a long while back and used it only sparingly and with solid conviction that the butter was trying to undermine me. But, seeing what the correct amount of butter can do to a dish is amazing. There's a fascinating amount of sauces you can make with butter and a few additives. I'm sure eventually my infatuation will cool and I'll start making stuff without butter in it. But for now, I sticking with the gold stuff.