Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

The one thing that makes me happiest in the kitchen is the relationship of the whole process from farmer to supplier to you to the preparation of the raw product to the presentation and then to the enjoyment of the person for whom you cooked. If anything goes wrong in this process it can be catastrophic, but when it all goes right then it is love.

I love making bread in my kitchen. To mix and kneed the bread is fantastic. Watching it rise, then shaping it into loaves. The best of all is the aroma, obviously. The scent wafts from my kitchen through the whole house, promising warm crusty jewels....They usually don't last the day.

The smell of basil makes me want to do a little dance of joy.

Preparing the mise en place before starting to cook is so relaxing, but my favorite may be the moments when friends are over for dinner, when everyone is in the for the last steps of preparation before eating. Drinking wine, anticipating the meal, chipping in to throw together the last steps. Coolness.

What makes me the most happy in my kitchen is a new recipe. It's gives me the chance to try something new. I love it when the recipe comes out exactly as I had hoped. I get a lot of excitement out of a new recipe. I have been trying new recipes for chocolate chip cookies for the past couple of months, thanks to Megnut.com. My little boy loves it when I make cookies :)

Baking makes me happiest. I like the order that goes with it. You get out all the ingredients, follow the directions, and throw it in the oven. As you are cleaning up, the house fills with the aroma of a yummy baked good. Then comes the best part, eating the result.

That would be "Willis" my KitchenAid Pro Mixer and all he's whipped, mixed, and kneaded up for me! Also the smell of bacon would have to be a close second!

You mean other than the food?

I'm happiest in the kitchen when my friends and family have drinks in hand and are chatting and grazing around a spread of foodstuffs and snacks spread out on the island.

I love grooving and multitasking, having all burners going, listening to NPR or my local public music station. When everything is working like clockwork and you can feel the dishes coming together into a complete meal, especially for large dinners like on Sunday.

i love seeing how happy my wife is while she bakes.

Taking the finished product out of the kitchen and bringing it to my ravenous roommates. :)

Preparing a cup of coffee - grinding the beans, boiling water, steeping the grounds in a french press - and then enjoying it!

Baking makes me happy. Organizing ingredients, measuring, paying attention to every word of the recipe; it's all very therapeuitic. But I'm happiest when I'm done, the kitchen smells amazing, and my family and friends are stuffing their faces with my endeavors.

The smell of.... : brewing coffee, baking bread, frying bacon, baking cookies, braising meat, I could go on and on!

I can't think of any smell better than fresh garlic as it hits hot olive oil. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy everytime.

The sound and smell of the sear on the chicken skin as I place thighs in the stainless steel skillet on high as the fat renders and magical fond is born.

An open window, glass of wine and fresh herbs!!

A good nonstick pan and a spatula do wonders for my attitude.

Glass of wine, cooking some sort of thing that will be much better in an hour or so and includes everything stinky and wonderful - onions, garlic and cheese. Surrounded by friends and family, laughing while still keeping an eye on the pot.

Or... having some coronas and hanging out near the grill smelling steaks, giddeous in the sun.

I'm most content in my kitchen on Sunday mornings after I have fed mom and the hub. I can then sit at the table while hub cleans up, enjoying a large pot of tea and reading the Sunday paper. A nice way to ease into the day....

I love when people pull up a seat at my breakfast bar area and chat while I prep a meal. It makes me happy to have friends and family to cook for, and to have someone to talk to while I chop and slice. If I'm cooking for people, I'm a happy camper!!

About two minutes before the meal is served, just as everything has come together and all the smells are just right.

Being able to spend all day cooking without being bothered.

Peace and time to concentrate -- things I don't usually get in the kitchen, with two kids and a husband hanging about. But, when I do, things always taste better!

I love my rice cooker. I eat rice at almost every meal, and I can just set it, leave it alone, and go about my other tasks, until the rice is done. I can also broths and spices to the rice, for interesting combinations.

The smell of garlic sizzling in butter.

The smell of baking bread.

What makes me the most happy is just simply being in the kitchen. I think I've mentioned before that my kitchen is super small.. so small that only one person can be in it at a time. Even though the counter tops are lime green, the shutters to the window are almost a neon yellow, the stovetop is old and decrepid and the hood doesn't vent well, I still enjoy my time in the kitchen. It's cooking food in the kitchen and having it turn out better than what I had expected. When my husband's face lights up with delight from the food I've made, that's pure joy to me.

I'm happiest in the kitchen because ALL of my senses are engaged. I love trying new recipes almost as much as I love perfecting my own. And I love reading new cookbooks almost as much as I love writing them myself!

The thing that makes me most happy about being the in the kitchen is how time flies when I'm really focused on making something complicated, when I am not really aware of time passing or other things. It's the same type of purity of thought I get during a really good yoga class. The calmness is really, really nice.

What makes me most happy in the kitchen is when that aura of calm is finally achieved, when, once the final touches have been applied, the food has been plated and taken to the table, I can finally take a seat, glass of wine in hand and enjoy the fruits of my labor with loved ones.

I find chopping vegetables to be extremely theraputic!

My cast iron skillet makes me happiest. Things just don't taste the same without it.

What makes me happiest is when I know that I have executed a recipe (mostly desserts and baked goods) correctly and that it has turned out well enough to share with others and be sure they will like it! And by then wonderful smells are probably emanating out from the oven, so that helps too :)

Happy in the kitchen is when somebody has actually bothered to wash the dishes from the night before (including the pots), and Songs in the Key of Life is on the CD player which, for once, isn't skipping. That was tonight. I made a Scallop and Corn Chowder.

What makes me happiest in my kitchen is making something I think is good and then having family or friends think so to. You just can't hardly beat that feeling. peticook

A perfectly cooked steak

The thing that makes me happiest about my kitchen, other than the view of Long Island Sound, is the good old gas and fire stove top. All the newest technologies in appliances just don't cut it when all you want is a fire-roasted pepper or some smokey eggplant salad. My newest love is the communal stove top s'mores. I got some extra chocolate-covered matzah over Passover and we plunked marshmallows on kebab skewers and had ourselves a finger-licking good time.

Right before throwing a party and looking at all of the food in the kitchen people will (hopefully) drool over gets me pretty psyched - when they actually drool is when I'm the happiest.

To me, cooking has always seemed a magical process. The alchemy of changing raw ingredients into something else entirely has fascinated me since I was a budding cook completely obsessed by my copy of Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls. There is still nothing in the world that makes me happier!

So many things! But I LOVE getting a fresh, crusty loaf of bread and getting out the best oils and vinegars that I have and pulling pieces off for dipping. With wine and friends, it's the coziest thing.

There comes a moment, during the preparation of a complicated meal, in the midst of all the chopping, throwing stuff into pots, grabbing for spices, burning myself on an oven rack or getting splattered, when I can see the whole thing come together. It doesn't mean the work is over--there will plenty to do yet--but it's a moment of calm and grace, worth all the preparation and effort.

My happiest times are when my mother visits from Seoul and teaches me how to cook the Korean dishes that I grew up with. She has a completely idiosyncratic way of measuring ingredients: "put water into the rice cooker until it reaches the first fold of your wrist when you bend your hand." Of course it works perfectly every time! Then we get to eat and reminisce as the culmination of our hours of hard work.

I am happiest setting the mise en place--there is nothing like having all your ingredients at the ready when it's time to start cooking!

a fridge full of yummy produce.

I love the whirl of the knive beneath my hand, the hum of the chopping and the bubbling of pots on the cooktop.

what's the question again? (come on! that so derverses a book!)