Mise en Place

French culinary term that means having everything prepared and in its place before you begin to cook

Last night GirlTalk events organized a session at Mise en Place where we could prepare meals to take home and freeze. There were about ten ladies there and we prepared everything from a Thai Prawn and Coconut Rice dish to Baked Macaroni and Cheese to Pizza. Each dish was priced differently and you were allowed to make as many dishes as you wanted (the average was 6 dishes per lady).

The concept is simple. All of the ingredients are chopped and set out for us with simple instructions. You basically just add each ingredient into your bag or bowl, mix or shake and voila! You have created a meal that you can just “throw together” when company arrives. While we were there we had sparkling pink lemonade (lemonade with a little bit of ginger ale added) and a slew of appetizers. We were real chefs working up a sweat and needed refreshments! Okay, maybe not working up a sweat...but half the fun of cooking is eating :)

I met some really great girls last night and we had some awesome laughs. The employees at Mise en Place were so friendly and helpful too. They even stock their own freezer so if you don’t feel like mixing it yourself you can just shop!

I am pretty excited I discovered this little gem in Calgary. Cooking is always more fun when you are with a group of great people and everything is ready for you. Mise en Place does home parties as well which might just be what I am looking for as a home warming party when I have my own place.