On my personal Food Prep Day.

Today was Food Prep Day here at Chateau Raoul.  It's something I like to do when I've got a day off to just relax and figure out what I'm making for myself for the upcoming week.  It stems from a mild neurosis of mine; I always feel squidgy about busting out the big boy cutting board for just one onion or one bell pepper.  So I tend to just pull out whatever vegetation I've got in my crisper (courtesy of Door to Door Organics), take a good, hard look at my leftover situation, and go nuts.

So today, I:

Washed, stemmed, and sliced into 1" ribbons a bunch of collard greens to be braised tomorrow with chicken thighs.

Washed, stemmed, and cut into 3/4" pieces a bunch of kale.  Don't know exactly what I'm doing with this yet, probably just sautee with a slice or two of bacon and garlic.

Sliced down 8oz. mushrooms.  These poor guys were getting a little old; they'll live on as red wine duxelle.

Sliced down a bunch of scallions.  Because unless you're going to be charring them whole, they're going to be sliced down anyway, yeah?

Diced a yellow bell and half a red bell pepper.  Destined to become pepper relish with some cider vinegar, brown sugar, and scallions.

Julienned the other half of the red bell pepper, to add some color to the collards.

Washed and stemmed two heads of baby bok choy, wrapped in paper towels in a ziplock bag.  These are going into an adaptation of Nilagang Baka that I picked up some short ribs for, and those are going to be soaking in soy sauce and patis come tomorrow.

Diced three Roma tomatoes.  Because no matter what I'm going to wind up doing with them (and I don't know exactly what yet), they're going to need to be diced anyway.

Julienned one onion.  Everything I'm going to be cooking off in the short term will probably get a handful, particularly the chicken braise and the nilaga.

Portioned out and formed patties out of leftover cheddar buttermilk mashed potatoes.  They're in the freezer now so I can bread them (in a mix of breadcrumbs I made out of leftover bread butts and the crumbs at the bottom of tortilla chip bags that are otherwise useless, all pulverized in the food processor) and refreeze them for when I need potato croquettes on the fly.

All of which was done at a leisurely pace over the course of the last two hours or so while listening to Alkaline Trio and watching Scrubs.  Why do I do all of this?  Because sometimes, I come home from work tired and lazy.  And I could pop out for a cheesesteak or order a pizza in.  But if all my veggies are prepped, that shaves massive chunks of time off of cooking a fresh, nutritious meal for myself.

So instead of staring forlornly at the piles of organic vegetation that inevitably go bad because I'm too lazy to take them apart when it's go time, this stuff actually gets used and eaten.  It's the same reason I'll parboil a bunch of potatoes so if I need a quick mash or hash browns, they're ready for me.  Or why I'll freeze cookie dough in little preportioned balls so I can have fresh cookies on the fly.  Or why I always shred a block of cheddar at a time, because when you most want shredded cheese is usually when you're least equipped to shred cheese.

The more work you do ahead of time, the easier you make your life later.  So maybe next time instead of sitting on the couch watching that episode of Downton Abbey, take apart a leek or some celery while you do it.  Your stomach, your wallet, and your sanity will thank you later.