While I get pleasure from cooking well, I also get a lot of pleasure from shrinking the time I spend on dinner.
For example, planning my shopping around an errand I am running in the neighborhood of my market.
One of the great advantages of inner city living is the proximity of retail stores to each other. On one walking trip, we can make several stop.

In that spirit, I cook in a schedule that suits my rhythm – the roast chicken a great example:

Five minutes the night before dinner, to unwrap, dry, and brush the bird w baking powder, leaving it in a poultry rack  to dry the skin overnight.
One minute when I wake in the morning, to put the chicken in the oven for a slow roast of about an hour and a half, following the recipe.
One minute to take the bird out when the slow roast is over, and set it on a counter to wait the hours until I’m ready to eat it.

About 45 minutes before I want to eat it, I start the finish.
Here, although none of the finishing steps require thought, they do require attention.
At the finish, a beautifully colored, juicy, crispy-skinned bird _____________________________________________
Today’s post continues that thought by discussing the ‘ready position’ as it pertains to quality dining.

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Today is Tuesday, August 21
This is my 133rd consecutive daily posting.
Time is 5.51am and the weather is cloudy but comfortable.
Today’s dinner is Pot Roast with a good friend.
 

Photo of the Day

Web Site Tweaks
Working on format of recipes.
See today’s post: Always on Hand.

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Encyclopediacs
We are focusing on preparedness.
What does ‘mise en place’ mean?

Find the answer just before today’s Post below.
Give yourself partial credits for partial answers.

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Thumbnail Biography:
John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959 in Wiesbaden, West Germany) is a retired American tennis player, often considered among the greatest in the history of the sport.

He was known for his shot-making artistry and volleying skills, as well as his confrontational on-court behavior that frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities.

McEnroe attained the No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, finishing his career with 77 singles and 78 doubles titles; this remains the highest men's combined total of the Open Era.

He won seven Grand Slam (also referred to as Majors) single titles, including four US Open titles and three Wimbledon titles, and added nine men's Grand Slam doubles titles.
His singles match record of 82–3 in 1984 remains the best single season win rate of the Open Era.

McEnroe also excelled at the year-end tournaments, winning eight singles and seven doubles titles, both of which are records.
Three of his winning singles year-end championships were at the Masters Grand Prix (the ATP year-end event) and five were at the World Championship Tennis (WCT) Finals, an event which ended in 1989.

Since 2000, there has been only one year-end men's singles event, the ATP Finals (the new name for the Masters Grand Prix).
He was named the ATP Player of the Year and the ITF World Champion three times each: 1981, 1983 and 1984.

McEnroe contributed to five Davis Cup titles for the U.S. and later served as team captain. He has stayed active in retirement, often competing in senior events on the ATP Champions Tour. For many years he has also worked as a television commentator during the majors.
 

Thank you, Wikipedia

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Reader’s Comment: from
Marc Olivere

Thought I’d share a note about The Shadow Radio show.
It’s possible to stream any and all episodes of that program or any of the 20th century radio programs with an app you can download for free for your iphone or iPad (I don’t know about Android or tablet). It’s called “Old Time Radio.” and it has them all, and not just Mystery (where The Shadow is), but comedy, westerns, straight drama, police, detective, even science fiction (did someone say HG Wells?) or whatever.
It’s all there. and in order of first broadcast.
And they are commercial free, except for some of the programs carry the original commercials which are fun to listen to in their own right.

Among my favorites are the mysteries: The Shadow, The whistler, Inner Sanctum, are two that really standout, Suspense (Weekly from 1940-1962), and CBS Radio Mystery (daily from 1974 to 1982).
I find them all very entertaining and fun to listen to.

That’s it,

Thanks,

M.

Web Meister Responds:
Positive our readers will love this info.
I certainly will try it out for my car trip.
Thanks Marc
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Movie Details
Jeremiah Johnson is a 1972 American western film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Redford as the title character and Will Geer as "Bear Claw" Chris Lapp.
It is said to have been based partly on the life of the legendary mountain man John Jeremiah Johnson, recounted in Raymond Thorp and Robert Bunker's book Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson and Vardis Fisher's Mountain Man.

The script was by John Milius and Edward Anhalt; the film was shot at various locations in Redford's adopted home state of Utah. It was entered into the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.

Web Meister responds:
This film a great example of the values of preparedness.

Thank you, Wikipedia

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Word of the Day
Preparedness
refers to a very concrete research-based set of actions that are taken as precautionary measures in the face of potential disasters.
These actions can include both physical preparations and trainings for emergency action.
Preparedness is an important quality in achieving goals and in avoiding and mitigating negative outcomes.
There are different types of preparedness, such as public health preparedness and local emergency preparedness or snow preparedness, but probably the most developed type is "Disaster Preparedness", defined by the UN as involving "forecasting and taking precautionary measures prior to an imminent threat when advance warnings are possible".
This includes not only natural disasters, but all kinds of severe damage caused in a relatively short period, including warfare.
Preparedness is a major phase of emergency management, and is particularly valued in areas of competition such as sport and military science.

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Answer for Encyclopediacs
'Mise en place' is a French culinary phrase which means "putting in place" or "everything in its place."
It refers to the set up required before cooking, and is often used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients (e.g., cuts of meat, relishes, sauces, par-cooked items, spices, freshly chopped vegetables, and other components) that a cook will require for the menu items that are expected to be prepared during a shift.

The practice also applies in home kitchens.

The term has also been used outside of cooking: psychologists Weisberg et al. used the phrase to refer to "how one's stance towards a given environment places constraints on what one feels able to do within that environment, and how these assessments and predispositions impact the process of preparing to act."
They used the term in a study of how a school became safer after security measures — like metal detectors and bars on the windows — were removed, leading to the unexpected outcome.

The writer and chef Dan Charnas uses the concept of mise en place as a "philosophy" and "system" for what chefs believe and do, even going so far to call it an "ethical code."
In the kitchen, the phrase is used as a noun (i.e., the setup of the array of ingredients), a verb (i.e., the process of preparing) and a state of mind.
All these uses, however, refer to someone who knows to be well-prepared.
In this view, the term's broader meanings can be applied to classrooms, hospitals, and elsewhere.

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TODAY’S POST

The ‘ready position’ is fundamental to tennis.

It gets your body set up to return serve, play groundstrokes and make volleys.

It allows you to push off to the ball with maximum acceleration in as short a time as possible.

It also starts the shot off technically - if your ready position is wrong then you have little chance with the rest of the shot.

While not as dramatic, being ready in the kitchen is at least very helpful.
We might call it foresighted.

The “Always on Hand” page provides a list of items I have found very helpful in my cooking.
Everyone’s list of staples is different and the list presented herein is created from the use of the recipes and cooking methods in this website.
And my personal idiosyncrasies.

Distinguish between this “Always on Hand list” and the setting up for a specific recipe.
This latter the French call the mise en place, and that definition can be found in today’s Encyclopedeic.

The “Always on hand” list has been posted before.
But I’ve learned a lot about the blog since and reintroduce it with better descriptions and a bevy of images.