WFMW: The Kitchen Organization Edition can be found here!

The other half - guessing. Makes meals interesting, and sometimes fun. :)

Watching the new Alton Brown series, he featured one chef who had learned cooking from his grandmother. She’d never said a word about cooking, he learned by watching.

A lot of my cooking I learned by watching, experimenting, and guessing. Measuring is … optional. Unless you’re making Kraft Dinner - too much milk there makes for a thin, flavorless sauce.

So I’ve streamlined my kitchen and cooking in several ways:

1. Dumping the slotted knife block. My knives are … eclectic. I bought a block that is filled with little plastic fibers instead; I can slip a knife in at any old angle.

2. Rotating up and out. Things that haven’t been used in three months go up a shelf. Six, the top of the cabinet. Nine months, the garage. The one exception is my tamale steamer; I store my canning supplies in it instead.

3. Dried fruits and veggies. Add to meals during crunch times, have around for hurricane season, have them ready for any time.

4. Losing the measuring cups. I have them, sometimes use them. Usually I’ll just grab a kid’s plastic bowl from IKEA - they measure about a cup.

So when asked for my crockpot pinto bean recipe the other day, I slowed down and ‘measured’ it out with my cereal bowls:

1 cup dry beans
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/4 dried, roasted garlic or 1 chopped fresh clove garlic

Soak beans in a large bowl overnight (fridge) in water, rinse, throw in crockpot on low all day with at least 6 cups water. Salt when refried or served.

And about 4 minutes ago, I half measured out pancakes for breakfast.

1 box Jiffy Banana Nut Muffin Mix
1 cup wheat pancake mix
1/4 cup chopped, dried fruit (I did strawberries)
1 cup milk plus a couple of splashes
2 eggs

Mix dry ingredients, dispersing strawberries. You can do fresh, but it’s a bit harder.

Add wet ingredients, mix. As the mix sits, it will thicken - thin with more milk. Also, the more dried fruit you add, the more milk you’ll need to add; the fruit soaks it up as it reconstitutes. Cook as usual.