Prep Work

I'm an instant-gratification kind of person, like so many of us are these days. Planning ahead tends to make me impatient. When it comes to eating, if I'm going to be messing around with food, I pretty much want to be eating it now. NOW! But with a tiny kitchen, a little prep work makes cooking much less of a hassle.

I'm going to share some things I do to make meal times easier. To a lot of people these are probably no-brainers, but I never worried about this stuff before and got along fine. Now I've got to adjust to having two feet of counter space, and I'm learning as I go.

1. Wash all your produce as you get it. I love salads-- they're an instant side dish when I'm too lazy or don't have enough pans to steam broccoli or make mashed potatoes. Salads aren't difficult to throw together when all the lettuce and toppings are already washed, and when I'm making a complicated meal, I don't necessarily have the time or the space to wash and strain my lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc. So I wash them when the sink is empty, and they're ready to eat when I want to eat them. If something has stems, this is when I pull off the leaves, like with spinach or parsley. Anything that didn't come in a container than I can reuse goes into a baggy or a container I saved from something else.

2. Cut things ahead of time. In my apartment, red onions are for salads. Period. So when I get a red onion, I can cut it into rings and put it in a sealed container, and when it's time for the salad, I just have to grab my pre-washed lettuce and grape tomatoes and mushrooms and my pre-cut onions and I'm on my way. Also, I prefer lemon, salt, and pepper to salad dressing, so I tend to have a container of lemon slices in the fridge for my salads, and because I love lemon in my water and iced tea too. Sometimes if I know I'll be using it with the next couple days, I'll chop parsley ahead of time or mince some garlic. I tend to keep the little to-go ramekins I get from restaurant leftovers, and these are perfect for prepping small-quantity ingredients.

3. Thaw frozen meat in the refrigerator for a day before you cook it. A steak is going to be so much better if it thaws gradually than if you run water over it and wash away the juices, or if you (oh god no) nuke it.

4. Measure ingredients before you start cooking. I said before I'm not much of one for measuring, but I also don't just pour things from the containers all willy-nilly. If you're making a dish with lots of ingredients, or one that's time-sensitive or labor-intensive (I'm looking at you, risotto), you'll have a much easier time if your ingredients are close at hand, pre-measured into cups or bowls and ready to grab and pour. I do this especially with baking, so that the flour and sugar and baking powder and whatever else are all snug back in the cupboard before I start stirring and knocking things over. Although the thought of my cat covered in flour is a little bit hilarious...