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.