Bad mood, bad food?
I tried making dinner for my parents tonight, as a thank-you for putting me up before my big move to Boston - everything (roasted squash, quinoa with caramelized onions and dried cranberries, chicken braised with sherry and mushrooms) was good in theory but kind of suffered in execution. I've been in a terrible mood all week, and I honestly think that's what killed dinner tonight.
While I was in Boston with my boyfriend, in contrast, I had fantastic cooking mojo the whole time I was there (over a month) - perfect roast chicken, baked heirloom tomatoes, butterscotch brownies, eggplant parm, baked chickpeas, and on and on. I was also deliriously happy while I was there.
Do you guys ever find that a case of the blues shows up in your cooking? What do you do about it?
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15 Comments:
When I get the case of the blues I don't even feel like cooking. When that happens, there's nothing I can do to cure it. I've tried going grocery shopping or heading to the farmer's market for inspriration, but it rarely works. I've just got to wait for the mood to pass and once it does, the need to cook comes back and everything's fine again.
PumpkinBear at 11:31PM on 10/23/09
I'm right along with Pumpkin. Can't cook when I'm blue. What's worse is when I'm nervous or stressed, everything I try to cook turns to crap. Burned, bland, or braindead, as in I forgot some major ingrediant, like baking soda in a cake.
Eliza524 at 11:39PM on 10/23/09
I love cooking regardless of my current mood. Being blue doesn't change anything. In fact, cooking helps cure it. Isn't that the whole point? Cooking = joy and immersion and taste and escape. How could it be anything else?
I hope it all sorts out for you, JetCity -- I am sure it will.
tmj529 at 5:09AM on 10/24/09
Baking helps get me out of a bad mood.
But I do think that mood can affect the quality of the cooking. Thursday was a terrible day and when I came home to cook dinner... I made a tortilla which I've made a million times and is super easy. Unfortunately an hour later it was half burned and half raw and I was crying...
I ate a tub of Kozy Shack rice pudding instead.
gingercookiewithlime at 8:08AM on 10/24/09
Usually cooking pulls me out of a funk...but there are times, particularly when I'm overtired and need sleep more than anything else, that I should not be in the kitchen unless it's to open a can of soup.
JetCity--come on over to my house this weekend--it's pizza all weekend long here to pull my husband out of the blues.
dhorst at 9:12AM on 10/24/09
When you feel like road kill it is best to confine your food preparation to opening a a carton of Ben & Jerry's
redfish at 9:56AM on 10/24/09
Redfish, yes!
greenkitchen at 10:22AM on 10/24/09
After a making a bad meal, I'm in a funk the rest of the day/night. The next meal, I usually resort to making a tried and true standby. If I get a bad restaurant meal, I'm in a funk all week and proceed to tell everyone who will listen what a crappy meal I had and where.
2fussie at 12:09PM on 10/24/09
absolutely -- if you've ever read the book or seen the movie "like water for chocolate".... you'll see what a mood or an emotion can lend to your cooking..... be at peace while you work .... touch your food with love!
pooch at 12:57PM on 10/24/09
You guys all rule. I'd completely forgotten about "Like Water for Chocolate," which is a fantastic book - good call with that, @pooch.
And, @dhorst, a weekend of pizza should cheer anyone up - but I think I might take @redfish's advice tonight :)
GirlFromJetCity at 1:35PM on 10/24/09
My mom told me this - she pointed out that when you cook while you are in a bad mood, the food suffers (and so, by extension, does whoever eats it, i.e., the rest of the family). Was this a subtle threat . . . . ?
Likeswords at 1:45PM on 10/24/09
my mood definitely affects my cooking.
when i get pissed i make bread.
nothing like pounding the crap out of some dough to release some anger.
also, eating chips and salsa seems to help my anger-something about the crunching, i guess. it's better than just grinding my teeth, though.
gastronomeg at 2:27PM on 10/24/09
Moods can also affect my taste I find. Did your dining companions also notice a difference in the flavors of your meal? Or was it just you?
ag3208 at 2:37PM on 10/24/09
Moods tend to affect my patience. So if the pizza dough I'm rolling out keeps shrinking on itself, for example, my mood will get worse and worse and I'll become less and less patient. I've learned when that happens I have to put down what I'm doing and/or hand the task to someone else. On the other hand, making bread has always done wonders for my mood.
Skythe at 10:14AM on 10/25/09
Cooking makes me happy, but if I'd worried or distracted it's best if I'm not trying to follow a new recipe.
My mother used to like chopping things when she was mad, and she liked chopping things for soups. I may never forget the day I came home from school and there were three different pots of soup on the stove, and she was working on the fourth.
dbcurrie at 1:30AM on 10/26/09