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.

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.