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Little quirks while cooking

C

chefdiva

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Do you have little quirks to put you in the mood for cooking? For instance, do you play music while cooking? Should the television be on while you're cooking? In my case, I like to have the television turned on while I cook. I need not see the screen. As long as I hear what's being aired, that's good enough for me. Coz I have a bad habit of being so into a show and that might eb a disaster.
 
I don't know that it puts me in the mood for cooking (I have to cook if I'm in the mood or not), but I generally have the tv on for noise. I'm so used to there being noise all the time that it feels funny without it. (I even have noise to fall asleep by)
 
let's face it - if anyone wants to eat - I have to cook!!! quiet time is fine with me - gives me time to think or enjoy the pleasant sounds of the birds singing - sometimes its just listening to CNN or Fox news is something is going on somewhere - usually the cooking takes preference over everything else!
 
Three times a day I focus on making delicious meals for my family.

I loved to cook and eat tasty foods. I make almost every meal from scratch, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Scratch in my case includes frozen vegetables and the occasional packaged pasta or potato side dish. But honestly, I like to make my own side dishes, so the machine packages foods for the most part only fill the busy week night needs.
 
I cannot stand anyone to stand over me while I am cooking. I even hate the kids sitting in the kitchen when I am cooking. That's because if they watch me, they will see me putting in ingredients and say "yuk" and then they wont' eat it, when if they didn't see what I put in it they would eat it just fine. In lots of families the kitchen is the hub of the house. Not mine, it's the family room. My kids are too picky to see what I am putting in the food. LOL
 
I usually have to have the TV on the news while I cook. I guess it is so I know whether there is a good excuse for me to use to go out to eat...LOL. I am used to it being loud in the house and usually when it comes to cooking everyone finds things to do in their rooms or outside so it is to quiet.
 
You are lucky. The first thing my boys' ask when they see me in the afternoon is what's for dinner. And when I start cooking they are drawn to the kitchen like a magnet. I have never seen people who are so thin eat so much. It sounds like I am complaining about them a lot, I know, one day I will come home and neither one will be here to ask what's for dinner and I know I will be sad. It's just I have never seen human beings eat this much in my life. My 13 year- old came home and was having a "snack." This snacking went on so long that I finally had to say, "Can you stop snacking long enough to eat dinner?" And he ate a huge dinner, too. When I tell people what they eat in a day they can't believe it.
 
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I have to have all dishes and counters clean before I start cooking and the sink has to have clean dishwater in it to clean as I go. If the kitchen is a mess I simply can not cook until it is clean. I also have to have a trash bowl for all the scraps so I only have to make one trip to the trash can.
 
I have to gather all the ingredients before I start. I got burned a few times by starting a recipe and then realizing I was missing something to finish and had to send DH to the store (or more likely, interrupt the process and go myself) so now I have to see to it that everything is in order beforehand.
 
Well, I listen to both TV and Music. I usually change the channel on the TV to one of the XM radio stations on DirecTV. Bluesville on 854 is my basic cooking music channel. Although sometimes I will put on AOL radio and listen to acoustic blues. For some reason that really puts me in the mood to cook.

As someone else stated in this thread, I try to prepare all my ingredients ahead of time so I am not running to the store, but it also gives me time to cleanup while I am cooking.
 
I usually like it quite or with some music that I like playing. I don't mind food network playing while cooking. but also if I want to eat then I need to cook. otherwise if hubby cooks it is beans and hot dogs. LOL!
 
I prefer to have the television playing while I cook even if I am not really paying attention to what show is on.

Before I begin to make a dish I have to check to make sure that I have all the ingredients to make the dish. There is nothing more frustrating than to get part way through making a dish and find out that you are missing a necessary ingredient.
 
Not only is it frustrating to discover you don't have an ingredient, or not enough of one, it's actually more efficient to have all the ingredients measured and ready to go.

It's part of what the French call mise en place.
 
mise en place.:

oldbay's translation: "Everything in it's place ready to go."

Meaning, have everything ready to go.

I strive to the excellence of making my meals with everything on hand. Occasional substitutions happen. I agree it is absolutely the worst frustration cooking, besides burning something, when you're missing the 'whatever' and is more so when you looked at the list and think you have the needed items. So I suppose, my first goal in preparing to cook is "mise en place" :)
 
I know exactly what you mean about being frustrated when you have a specific meal in mind and you begin to cook the ingredients and then something burns and ruins the dish.

I recently did that when I was making spaghetti. I was browning the sausage, onion and garlic and went to the pantry to get other ingredients and before I knew it the sausage, onion and garlic was burning. What was even more frustrating I was all set to start again but did not have anymore sausage..argh!
 
Now that's the difference between us regular folks and creative cooks.

The creative cook would have called it pasta with blackened sausage, and turned a mistake into a culinary masterpiece. :D
 
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