Getting your groove back

winterybella

winterybella

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Has it happened to you? You are away from the kitchen for a while and when you return you have lost your cooking groove? It might have happened to me. I was traveling for about ten days and not going anywhere near a kitchen. I am back three days now and it feels like I still want to be served. I need to get my groove back. Maybe finding some parsnip and making a contributing to the Cooking Challenge might help? Have you ever lost your cooking groove?
 
Oh - yep. Spending 12 months unable to lift anything has not helped. I am still struggling in the kitchen. I have to plan carefully and do a little bit at a time and it is not easy I can tell you. I can't lift anything heavier than around 1.5kg at the moment (still) and that means if I need the mixer or the liquidizer or even one of the bigger pans, I have to make sure my husband gets it out for me before he leaves for work in the morning. If he does not, then I can't make whatever it was that I was making and that has meant a couple of our evening meals have not been made recently (I can manage simple stuff now but have to take small quantities of veg to the pan, and if more than 1/2L of stock is needed, it has to be made in 1/2L quantities and added to the pan in stages). We have a bale out meal to fall back on as and when needed which is basically Veggie Sausages chopped up, served on pasta with peas and a Salca Intense Tomato & Olive sauce or the Salca Tomato pesto that is dairy free. It tastes considerably better than it sounds.
 
You seem to have quite a lot on your plate SatNavSaysStraightOn. Still it feels like you always have it together to some extent making your sour dough bread and the like. I actually think your seeming determination in the kitchen might help me to get back on track. As I speak, I am terribly hungry and just don't want to buy any food from the mall as it won't be to my liking. Yet when I get home tonight at minutes after nine I am not going to want to cook anything at that hour. Maybe time and not wanting to settle will get me going again.
 
Sadly yes my health is not a good as it could be, but maybe getting out to Canberra is exactly what I need? They say a change is as good as a holiday and a 3 year paid holiday could be exactly what we both need!

We used to keep meals in the freezer for exactly the reason you state above. We also have meals that are reasonably healthy but not necessarily super healthy that we can prepare in 10 minutes again for exactly the same reason: getting home late and not wanting to prepare anything, plus there is always the age old fall back of breakfast cereal which can be eaten at anytime of day.

Also if we know that a single day or two are going to be late home, we plan our meals around that so that we already have food prepared that just needs reheating. So last night's and tonight's meals for instance were actually made on Tuesday (OK being veggie helps in this manner with no meat or fish being involved) and it will simply be reheated and added to. We have a super tasty mushroom bisque which has a good dose of cayenne pepper in it (nice and warming), it gets served with a marinated tofu which was also set marinating on Tuesday and is kept in the fridge covered under clingfilm. Served with some potato sourdough bread from the freezer and there is a quick evening meal. The bread is pulled from the freezer in the morning, the tofu fried up (in 1 teaspoon of oil) whilst the soup (portion not all) is reheated. It takes less than 5 minutes and we are sorted with a meal that is reasonably well balanced nutritionally. We have a whole range of soups and stews that we do this with. If they frozen, we just pull them out the morning we are due to be late home and let them defrost on the counter (winter and cold autumn/spring) and in the fridge in summer.
 
Usually when I travel I'm used to not having a kitchen to cook in, so I am usually pretty excited to get back and cook - that feeling of a good old home cooked meal can't be beaten! But yes, I do sometimes go through what I would call "cooking funks" where I just have no motivation, where the same meals are on repeat. For me getting out of those funks is usually done by looking for new inspiration. Digging out cookbooks, coming to the forum here and reading other people's posts - that kind of stuff keeps me interests and refreshes me!
 
I think @SatNavSaysStraightOn has most of us beaten when it comes to planning ahead. That's something I 'plan' on working harder at this year. Today, I've decided to go in a little later but sadly I'm now going to have to take stuff from the freezer and defrost and all that long unappealing stuff. Not wanting to eat out and not enjoy the meal will possibly get me going again. @cupcakechef on this occasion I was neither happy to get back or cook even though I am craving that good home cooked meal. It's just that I don't want to be the cook just yet. Still I know the forum is going to help. I am typing and thinking of parsnips in the Cooking Challenge.
 
Satnav seems to be a very dedicated chef! I can only really cook when I am in the mood. I often lose my cooking mojo and don't want to bother with it. It is only me here more often than not...so that is not a big impetus to get busy in the kitchen. I will be in the mood to cook sometimes though. I need to strike while the iron is hot so to speak. It is fun to cook when I am in the mood.
 
I have to be in the groove as its my job, but some days things fall into place more easier and the results are more pleasing
 
Don't think I've ever in recent years not wanted to cook and enjoyed cooking. But it is an obsession with me... I'll try anything and add and practise new techniques whenever I can. What I hate is when it goes wrong - I'm a complete perfectionist!
 
I'm away from the kitchen for a long while because my husband is the boss there. But in times when he is away, I have no choice but to cook our food. And not having the groove, I always ask my husband for the recipe or pointers in cooking to avoid making mistakes. Fortunately, I always cook with flying colors and everyone who eats appreciates my cooking. As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating so that means I get a passing mark somehow.
 
morning glory said:
Don't think I've ever in recent years not wanted to cook and enjoyed cooking. But it is an obsession with me... I'll try anything and add and practise new techniques whenever I can. What I hate is when it goes wrong - I'm a complete perfectionist!
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No surprise coming from you Morning Glory. Didn't your 'holiday' include cooking on a trip to Paris making bread and all that? I cooked for the first time yesterday after close to two weeks. I am getting there.
 
I spent four years away from a good oven and cooking appliances that I got really creative with what I had in college. I cooked in oven toasters, rice cooker and wafflemakers. By the time I got back into a real kitchen I didn't think I needed it anymore until my sister got so freaked when I cooked spaghetti in my rice cooker. Never again? Maybe. Atleast now I know how to cook creatively. :)
 
Well traditionally Sunday is a big cooking day in my country so yesterday I stepped up to the plate and cooked up close to a storm. It looks like I might be back on track or getting there.
 
Guess who?

I need to get my kitchen groove back! I keep getting emails from the farmer's market with what's in the produce share box for the week and wishing I had the time to deal with all that fresh stuff! My dad brought me a piece of red fish weeks ago from one of his catches, and it's languishing in the freezer. I was just thinking yesterday how good it would be with the shrimp (also languishing) in there and some kind of sauce...

Right now I am just trying to secure some transportation - my car died in November :(
 
I am rooting for you ChanellG. When you are away from the kitchen sometimes it can set you back. I am going in late again today so I am going to be cooking something or the other. My motivation sometimes comes from the fact that I am tired of eating the food in the mall that often falls short of my standards. I know about the transportation issue. My car has been at the mechanic for almost a year. I suspect it's dead so I have resigned myself to sharing with my husband.
 
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