My Mother, the Ultimate Prepper
I think that title says it all.
I’d be willing to bet my life that if asked her #1 cooking tip, my mom’s answer would be…
Prep!
Her fridge totally confirms my assumption.
I spy the makings of shrimp tacos.
And ready-to-heat-and-go rice.
And salad dressing that’s ready to be poured.
And either my mom has taken to drinking or she’s got Bourbon bread pudding ready to bake.
Seriously though, my mom swears by prepping everything ahead of time.
Me? I’ll read recipes through before I start cooking so I know to call Joey and make him chop an onion for later, otherwise I’m pretty much a “chop-as-you-go” kind of gal.
I also don’t have a real job that keeps me from being home early enough to cook everything at once or a daughter and a husband who get rather cranky when dinner isn’t on the table at a certain time. Oh hey, Beanie and Dad — yes, I’m talking about you two!
While I don’t get my prepping skills from my mom, I do get my love of cooking from her. The excitement in her eyes as she told me about the menu she had planned for when Joey and I came over for dinner on Wednesday was totally something I can relate to.
Either she likes to cook, or I’m just really really fun.
Or she shares my love of making fun of Joey.
Good thing he’s a good sport 🙂
Happy Friday!
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Do you prep things ahead of time?
What’s your #1 cooking tip?
Lauren Loves Good Food 
Haha man I wish I was that prepared with things like that!
At first I thought your title said “my mother, the ultimate pepper.” LOL! I thought I was organized, but nothing compared to your mom’s mad prepping skills!!!! I need to up my game!
Ever since you said that, *I* keep thinking it says “ultimate pepper” ha ha.
This made me smile because my mother is exactly the same!
I’m kind of in the middle, I roughly prep what my dinners are going to be for the week but then my lunches are completely random 🙂
I like having the option to make random lunches 🙂
I used to prep things when I had a really time consuming job, and I loved it! I only cooked once a week, and had food for the rest of the week.
That sounds like a major stress reliever/time saver.
That is major prep! Great idea 🙂
My mom will be glad you thought so!
Ha wow I wish I was prepared like that… I need some tips! I get so tired of slicing and dicing sometimes, but I found if I do it while listening to music or something it is helpful 🙂
Great tip, I love cooking to music!
I like prepping vegetables.. washing them all when bought and chopping them so they’re ready. Otherwise I often get lazy and just skip them. 😛
I started doing that last winter and even went so far as to roast them all right after I bought them but that crashed and burned 😛
You’re absolutely right! I would say prepping is my #1 cooking tip. It makes me feel so much more in control when I’m making something I haven’t made a 100 times before or even if I have. I can just concentrate on what I’m cooking. And usually when I’m cooking there’s a few other people around distracting me — like putting in a stick of butter when I’m only supposed to put 2T in the hard sauce for the bread pudding. But then my #2 tip would be, you can never have too much butter, so no harm done.
You’re funny 🙂
Haha that is awesome but no, I am not nearly patient or planned enough to prep in advance like that! I WISH I was. Probably saves her a lot of time! I do it when people are coming over for a meal so that I have to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen when they arrive, but not on regular days.
I’ll definitely do it for dinner parties!
I need to prep more often, but then I just find it takes the fun out of deciding what you’re going to eat the day of.
I think it’s mostly helpful if you’re busy and don’t have the time/energy to decide the day of.
It all sounds really good 🙂
I’m horrible at prep. It takes me like 1/2 hour to prep everything….if everything is even just onion/garlic/celery/carrots.
Chinese food is especially hard for that reason!
Cutting onions and garlic is the bane of my existence!
Haha, Joey is the best. 🙂