The French term mise en place (meeze-on-plahs) means to have on hand all the ingredients measured and prepared. Mise en place enables you to cook efficiently and without interruption, the way real restaurant chefs do it. Practice mise en place by having all your prep work completed right up to the point of cooking:
Figure out before you start cooking which ingredients you need.
By checking your ingredients before you start to cook, you also avoid realizing in the middle of preparing something that you don’t have a certain ingredient.
Prepare all the ingredients.
Chop any ingredients that need chopping, mince anything you need minced, measure out all the ingredients of which you need a certain amount.
Place each ingredient in a container, and position all the containers near your cooking work area.
Choose containers that fit the ingredients. For example, you could put your measured milk in a small bowl and place your chopped meat on a plate.