As I was cooking dinner tonight, I was reflecting on some of my cooking hang-ups. I consider myself a new Cook - I really didn't do that much cooking until the last couple years. The more I cook, the more I understand what's been hanging me up all these years. Here, for your entertainment, I will ruminate about some of my issues & neuroses and propose some solutions.
Chopping onions. A task I detest - you get the eye burning, face melting drama coupled with stinky fingers... so unglamorous. Plus, I always seem to chop them too big (probably because I can't see through my melting face).
Solution: I may try food processoring them in bulk, then refrigerating them. I wonder if they'd freeze?
MIA Tongs. I like to use my tongs constantly, yet they're often missing as my children pilfer them.
Solution: Buy the kids their own tongs.
MIA Ingredients. I do a lousy job creating a shopping list from a recipe. I always manage to miss at least one ingredient. Like, for tonight's dinner, I chose the recipe earlier in the week, then went shopping, and failed to buy THREE inredients (just for the one recipe). I remembered the arborio rice the following day, when Mr. Helfy mentioned he was stopping by the store. I forgot about dried cranberries until yesterday, so Mr. Helfy made a special (expensive - he was hungry) trip today. And tonight as I was cooking, I realized we didn't have any white wine on hand! Luckily, Mr. Helfy was, at that moment, at the neighbors, so he got some from them (actually, we traded them a bottle of white wine for an acorn squash - perfect). Thank god for Mr. Helfy and his willingness to go the store.
Solution: OMG, read the recipe, woman! Maybe read it twice. Thrice even. THEN make your grocery list.
Raw chicken (and other gooeyness). Apparently I'm not a fan of slimey. It recently dawned on me that I go through ridiculous measures to avoid getting my hands gooey. I'll try to be all Edward Scissorhands with tongs and forks just so I don't have to use my fingers. Or I just totally avoid cooking meat dishes altogether because I don't want to touch the meat.
Solution: Get over myself already. My hands are washable.
Frozen meat. I always forget to pull stuff out to thaw! Total time killer (see below).
Solution: Ideally, the night before, I transfer meat from the freezer to the fridge. I think I'll add a note on my meal plan - like, on Wed's entry "thaw chicken for Thurs".
Time Management. I'm such a slow cook! 30 minute meal, my arse! I often end up frustrated and cranky towards the end of meal prep, because it's late, my kids are hungry and underfoot, and I just want to be DONE already.
Solution: Over-estimate the time it will take me to cook. My former boss Sue once gave me this advice about making time estimates: "take your first guess, then multiply by 2 and add 5". Love that.
Also, I know this is a matter of experience - I will get quicker and better at multi-task-cooking as I get more experience!
Messy Kitchen. A quandary for sure: I hate cleaning my kitchen and I hate cooking in a messy kitchen.
Solution: Clean my kitchen (duh), but don't get caught by the need to clean it perfectly. Just get it clean enough that I have room to make dinner.
I prefer cooking alone. I get irritated when there are kids/pets/etc underfoot when I'm cooking. I get testy when I have to constantly defend the carrots I've just chopped from small hands. My kitchen is small - a "one butt kitchen", no other butts allowed! I just want to put on some tunes, spread out on all the counters and focus on the recipe.
Solution: Yeah, I just need to give up on my dreams of solo cooking for now. Maybe I can keep the dogs out of the kitchen, but my littlest "helper" is going nowhere. As soon as I walk into the kitchen, she whips out the stool and plays with the water, pilfers carrots, dumps flour everywhere, stirs whatever onto the floor... all this within the first minute. I need to embrace this stage... somehow.
Fear of failure. The A#1 reason I didn't cook much for so long. "What if it doesn't taste good?" "What if I don't know what I'm doing??" For years, I never got beyond these questions, and I still get discouraged when something I make doesn't turn out well.
Solution: Just do it. Jump in there and try stuff. I'm not going to learn to cook unless I cook. And I will screw up sometimes - probably a lot. And that's OK! Mr. Helfy has been a good influence for me in this area; his motto: "if it sucks, oh well!" Tonight's dinner was a great example. I worked on it for 1.5 hours, and it was ... meh... only OK. But I didn't let myself get discouraged, and just let Mr. Helfy (the Flavor Wizard) have a go at it. He improved it a bunch, and shared his tricks (caramelized onions & garlic in this case. Often, the answer is butter. And/or bacon.).
So there ya have it, a little trip into my cooking head. Do you have any cooking hang-ups? Any solutions to propose for mine?
p.s. Meal Planning March is going well so far! Had I written this list in February, Meal Planning would've been included, for sure! I'll write a meal planning update soon...
