Get Your Meez On

How's your meez doing these days? Does it have a nice flow? Okay, I had absolutely no idea what meez is until about three weeks ago. But in Anthony Bordain's hysterical Les Halles Cookbook, he explains, "The absolute foundation of professional cooking, and the most useful thing I can teach you, is the concept of mise en place. As a cook, your 'meez' is your first principle, your belief system, your religion, your Tao."

Well, okay, I'm still not sure what that means but I know I want it. Right?

The fabulous Anthony says, "Get your meez on!"

 Upon further reading, Anthony (we're getting to be on a first name basis, he and I) explains that meez is "the only thing standing between you and chaos. If you have your meez right, it means you have your head together, you are "set up," stocked, organized, ready with everything you need and are likely to need for the tasks at hand. You know where everything is. You know how much you have. (The right amount, of course.) As a result, your mind is similarly arranged, rested, and ready to cook--a perfect mirror of your work area."

So now, understanding meez, how would you say yours is? 

My meez is doing great in some ways, and not so good in others. On the good side, I usually have a meal plan. I go grocery shopping once every week or two. I have a list. I plan for meals. I buy the ingredients for those meals. And then I cook them. I have a little menu board on my fridge and it can usually tell you what we will be enjoying that week. This helps me to remember what I bought all of those ingredients for so that I actually cook those meals!

On the down side, I could definitely be more organized during the actual cooking. Thinking about all of the tools I will need. Setting them out in the appropriate place. Doing prep work beforehand. Really thinking and visualizing my cooking through. Creating a plan.

Good Meez: "Will I cook the sauce, the chicken or the coucous first? What makes the most sense? The chicken needs to be pan-seared and then finished in the oven. If I do that first, I can then cook the couscous and the sauce while the chicken finishes."

Bad, Naughty Meez: "The couscous finished ten minutes ago. I forgot to fluff it with a fork. It's all sticking together and clumping! I guess I'd better season the chicken. Now I can sear it. Oops. The pan's not heated. Five minutes later . . . There. The chicken is seared. Now to put it in the oven. Oops. The oven's not preheated. Twenty minutes later . . . There. The chicken is done. Hmmmmm . . . Maybe I should make a sauce."

For me, one of the greatest ways I could improve my meez is to get started cooking earlier. More time, less chaos.

How about you? How can you get your meez on?

Time Keeps On Slippin, Slippin, Slippin . . .

I feel like this is the theme of my life: time moves by too quickly. Am I alone here? I realize I probably sound like a broken record, but this fact becomes more and more apparent to me with each day.

My first baby, my little Joshua, lost his first tooth today. Pretty soon my little man will be growing in his "adult" teeth. This week he and I were able to have a long conversation, not lecture, about working on bad attitudes. He is studying to be in his first spelling bee. He plays with Veronica everyday like the big brother of the year. Next month he will be seven and will get to watch the first Star Wars movie for the first time, which I'm sure will be the beginning of a whole new season in our home.

The cover of Joshua's first book, The Commander Who Saved Christmas. That's Darth Vader on the right. The Star Wars obsession has already begun, even prior to watching any of the movies!

 

 This afternoon he asked me if the tooth fairy is real. (I blatantly lied and answered "yes," because that's what we do in our household. Judge if you'd like. But that's how we roll.) Questioning and curiosity have been a large part of Joshua's personality since he could speak. But it's possible that the age of doubt may also be upon us. He might as well get his driver's license, get a job and move out! 

Seven years. I have been a mother for seven years.

But tonight is the first night that Jason and I will be quietly and sneakily slipping out a tooth from beneath a pillow and replacing it with money. Wish us luck!

What's the going rate these days? Do you have any tooth fairy stories?

Joshua at his first birthday party.

Mamma's No Recipe Cookin'

This is where it starts. A small, very humble kitchen. But it gets the job done and a lot of great food comes out of it.

 What's for dinner tonight? How many times will you think and hear that question today? If your days are anything like mine, it's probably too many.

I have spent the past twelve years or so working on my cooking skills. Somehow, I have gained a reputation as a "good cook," which I have to admit I am proud of. I especially love hearing about when Jason's coworkers envy the leftovers he brings for lunch. It makes me feel like the wife of the year :)

As I have gained this reputation, some women have commented about how they worry about cooking for me. This always makes me laugh because it is just silliness. First of all, if someone else made me one freezer-burned chicken nugget, I would be thrilled because it would be a break from cooking for me. I love to cook, but it can become monotonous and tiring. Second of all, I am most critical of my own cooking. Food that others cook tastes amazing!

I guess I also think it's silliness because I'm really not all that talented. My gift comes from two things. The first is the wonderful women around me who I have learned from, especially my mother. I definitely had a strong advantage growing up as my mother is very talented and I was able to observe and take in a lot of her techniques. (Yet I still cannot make tuna casserole, beef stroganoff or Swedish meatballs as well as she does. I try. But for some things, you just need your mama's cooking.) There are definitely others in my life who have been inspirational. I will never forget my grandmother Mimi's roast lamb, my Aunt Joanna's fish tacos and homemade pesto, my Aunt Judy's homemade rolls, my grandfather Papa's homemade pies or my dad's ham waffles and his fried eggs.

Courage is the second place where my skill comes from. It's simply the "I  can do that" attitude. It is simply because of this that I can make great curry, phad thai, paneer, homemade cinnamon rolls, fresh pasta, beef wellington, egg rolls, fresh summer rolls, baked alaska, tiramisu and the best damn cannelloni that you will ever eat.  Almost all of these things I learned how to make because I love them. The beef wellington was more like a challenge, but it came out great.

Cooking takes practice. If you won't cook because you say you can't, then you'll never get any better. The more you cook, the better you'll get. For the most part, it really is that simple. When I try to cook new things, I often screw them up. I once made the worst peanut sauce known to man and then there was the time I had curry soup explode all over my kitchen.

Through these years of daily practice, I have acquired one specific skill that I would like to teach you about. I use this skill almost daily and it makes my cooking more enjoyable, it helps my meals to stay fresh and new and it also helps my cooking to go faster. The skill I am talking about is cooking without recipes.

Let me specify that I do not mean baking. For me, baking requires a recipe and exact measurements. But for almost everything else, I wing it. And you can too. Of course, I still look at recipes every week. And if I decide to cook something new for company, then I definitely look up a recipe. Recipes are a necessary part of learning how to cook.

Here is where a lot of the magic happens and where I can get creative.

However, there is also a beauty to cooking without them. Without a recipe, you really get to know your ingredients. You learn what goes well with what. You learn the differences between all of those spices and how to use them. You learn your own preferences and tastes and are able to customize your meals more. You experiment more. Sometimes disaster is the outcome, but many other times it turns out terrific. And the more you cook without recipes, the more often your results will be scrumptious.

In the upcoming weeks, I will be writing about this more. I will talk about how to set up your kitchen, fridge and pantry for no-recipe cooking. I will talk about the ingredients you need on hand for different ethnicities. And I will feature many meals that you can master without a recipe. And phad thai is one of them.

Mamma Can't Live Without . . .

Reading a book from daddyread.com

So, I've realized that one of the most helpful things I find about reading others' blogs is their advise about the tools they use for everyday life. I have discovered so many wonderful things this way! There is such an abundance of information out there, making it difficult to discern the good from the bad. And when I look at my life, I realize that there are many things that I go back to again and again, so I will be featuring a variety of things on my blog every week or so.

For instance, Mamma can't live without . . .

High Quality Children's Books Web Sites

Speaking of abundance, how about children's books? Sometimes I wonder what you have to do in order to get one published, because I'm sorry, but the majority of them seem like crap. Have you ever had your child latch onto one of those awful ones and ask you to read it fifty thousand times? No fun. But the truth is that there are some AMAZING children's books out there if you know where to look. The trick is sorting the crap from the awesomeness so that your child has the right books to pick from. When your child chooses a book over and over again that has you laughing till you snort, recalling your childhood or  getting slightly teary, well, that's a win win!

As a homeschooling mom, we literally go through hundreds of books. Thank God for our library system. The Snohomish Library System alone is reason to move up north. Can I just say no late fees! We honestly could not afford homeschooling without our library. That's a whole other Mamma Can't Live Without.

So I regularly check three different web sites to get ideas for children's books. Then I just put them on hold at the library.

The first great site I found is www.daddyread.com/

This is an awesome site because it divides books into age level, it gives thorough descriptions of the books, it will tell you if a book has content that some parents may find a little inappropriate and it tells you if there is an audiobook.

The second is www.boysread.org

Finding books that boys truly enjoy can sometimes be difficult. The books listed on this web site are AWESOME. I have told a few other moms about it and all have been so excited to see their little man get into reading.

Lastly, I love www.readkiddoread.com

This web site divides books into age levels as well as into genres. It includes nonfiction books, which my boys really like. Also, it seems to be the web site that most often puts up new books.

Happy reading!!!

Phases

First time in the snow!

Do you ever find yourself pretending you are in a different phase of life than you are? Most of us cling to our youth in some way. For me, I did this for many summers wearing a two piece bathing suit. Most of the time, I think my body was at a reasonable weight for this. But really, with the road map of stretch marks left across my tummy from growing, kicking babes in my womb, why oh why would I do this? I know why. I didn't want to be past the bikini-wearing stage of my life. I was in denial about those silver lines on my abdomen and on my hips. Thankfully, I have found a web site which sells flattering, supportive, sexy bathing suits for reasonable prices. Here's my new favorite one: www.figleaves.com

I have found that lately, I seem to think I am further along in the stage of motherhood than I actually am. It seems that I think I am actually in my fifties with independent children and that I have a whole lot more time to myself. (That will happen someday, right???) When the new year came along, I decided that this year would be the year for me to finish my novel. Can I please now just say, only about a month later - YEAH RIGHT! What a joke! As much as I would LOVE to do this, it is simply not feasible. Basically, I would have to get up everyday at the butt crack of dawn and write for two hours. Sorry, nope. I choose sleep. I need to choose sleep. This is not a selfish choice, but a life-giving one. I have a hard enough time being patient with my little darlin's. I would be the mother from hell if I was continually sleep deprived for the next year.

Sledding for the first time near our home

Realizing this, I made a schedule that included everything I needed in my week, plus 1 1/2 hours of writing each day. Okay, well if absolutely nothing ever happened unexpectedly, then maybe that would work. If there were no blowout diapers. If I never talked on the phone. If no one ever got sick. If there were no accidents, meaning both skinned knees and puddles of pee on the floor. If I never needed to help a friend.

It's funny how we become impatient for the next phase of our lives. Remember this as a kid? Wanting so much to be a grownup? Ironic now. Joshua reminded me of this today in the car when he exclaimed, "I've been waiting for this for years!" Ha! At the age of six, he thinks he's been waiting a long time. Funnier still is what he's been waiting for; to be in a spelling bee. Next month he will give this his first try and apparently that won't be soon enough. Ya know, since he's waited many a year and all.

My Snow Angel feeling true joy

I am working on this. I suppose we all are. To live in the moment. What a fabulous, comforting and calming notion. Is anyone actually capable of this? I surely am not. It seems I am always planning. The next meal. The next lesson. The next day. The next trip. The next baby. It is February in 2012 and I have things on my calendar in 2013. Is this odd? Am I actually a very sick, sick woman? I think it's possible.

I want to enjoy my children right now. This very day. This very moment. Their giggles, their smiles, their eyes lit up, their excitement and enthusiasm, their sense of wonder and discovery, their insatiable curiosity, their silliness, their bounding growth in height, in love and in spirit. It all slips through my hands like water. 

Enjoying Veronica's wonder

Veronica will be one next month. A whole year. She is crawling, cruising and has just begun to use her walker toy around the house. She'll be walking on her own in the next few months. Beginning to talk. No longer a baby, but a toddler.

Anyway, I had not written on my blog in a long time. All writing energy was being devoted to my book, but the truth is that wasn't really happening too much either. For now, what I need to do is let it go. And I need to be okay with letting it go. For now. Maybe I'll be there in ten years. But there I go again - planning.  I do love to write. And my blog is a very realistic way for me to do that. I truly enjoy it. It's cathartic. I realize that maybe like two people read it, but I'm okay with that.

The little princess is getting so big in her bubble bath - she's almost outgrown her tub!