Hahaha my poor husband!

[Outoftune]

So last night I decided to let my husband sit down and relax while I made dinner and served him dessert. Great plan right? For a non ADDer probably! But for me? Not so much!

In the process I managed to ruin the rice (as I added way to much water when I was distracted), yes I screwed up on RICE! 😯 And when taking the pie out of the container I fumbled with it (my usual clumsy self) dropping it straight into into the garbage! 👿

My poor husband’s ‘relaxing’ night ended up more stressful than relaxing and he was so not impressed with me and my efforts to be domestic . So I showed him some of Bill’s ADDventure videos and he seemed to be more understanding. Thank goodness for this website! It is making me feel like less of the faliure I always thought I was and accept myself much more!

REPORT ABUSE

[quizzical]

I screw up the rice all the time! Anything where you have x cups of rice and y cups of water is a formula for disaster! I’m counting scoops of rice, one, two, and then I’m using the same container to measure the water…one, two…uh, three? “Did I put in two already, or three?”…and then I start doubting what the proper proportions were supposed to be…”One and a half times the water? Is that right?”…and then I’m doubting my math…”One and a half times two equals….what?”

Seems so simple…and YET.

Sorry about the pie in the garbage…that had to be painful.

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

I used to screw up rice until I bought a rice cooker. It’s pretty fool-proof. I’m a pretty good cook but things that have to be precise, I can and do mess up. I have a new recipe for quesadilla casserole in which I have to add 4 or 5 different spices in all differing amounts. I have to get them all out, add the correct amount of each one, putting the spice away after measuring it out, for each spice. It’s my solution to: did you add the cumin? type questions.

REPORT ABUSE

[nellie]

I used to be the world’s worst cook so to speak as well. It never occurred to me that it was add related ( well I didn’t know I had ADD for starters!). Then during my assessment one of the things she asked me was about following recipes – or anything with steps – and a light bulb suddenly went off in my head. I was able to laugh at myself (literally)and it doesn’t bother me any more. Of course with medication I am able to focus on what i ‘m doing and if I do get distracted, I remember much sooner and get back to watching the pan or whatever. My kids haven’t yelled at me for leaving the burner on anymore lately either.

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

I can’t focus, have to keep going back and forth from recipe to work area to make sure I am putting in TB and not tsp, etc. It takes me 3 or 4 times as long to prepare a recipe as it states it should.

My recipe disaster was baking: putting too much baking soda or baking powder right in with the flour I’d already carefully measured. I figured that I could just scoop out my estimate of what didn’t belong. I was making a gingerbread bundt cake. It was really fantastic when it came out of the oven, fluffy, light, but as we watched, before our eyes in a few minutes it had turned into a solid brick, completely inedible.

I don’t cook, thankfully my husband enjoys cooking. He’s left burners on, though, and burned a few expensive pots and pressure cookers, but we always replaced them. We even had to stay at a hotel one night because part of the pressure cooker’s plastic seal had burned and the place smelled like a chemical factory!

REPORT ABUSE

[Curlymoe115]

I only follow the recipe the first time. After that I do a bit of this and a bit of that. Some of my best meals have been from deviating from the recipe. I love to cook, but hubby thinks it is too much effort. He is of the open a can, put it in a pot and heat it up school. I love to mix and match things. So what if everything doesn’t come out every time. If you enjoy it, do it. If you don’t find another way.

As for leaving things on, I am the worst. Came home, put supper on, went down to find out what Hubby was doing. Suddenly after about 40 minutes I hear what sounds like water hissing. I had left the stuff cooking on high while I was just whipping downstairs. I leave tea towels on still on burners, forget the oven on for hours. And Pigpen and Pigheaded do the same so hubby has to check on everyone later. Pigheaded also loves to experiment when she is cooking and baking. Sometimes things are good, sometimes not so much. But she is also bad for forgetting until things are a little overdone. Just the nature of the beast. Par for the course and all that stuff.

REPORT ABUSE

[munchkin]

Lanakila said: “… to add 4 or 5 different spices in all differing amounts. I have to get them all out, add the correct amount of each one, putting the spice away after measuring it out,…” I do that too – it helps! (I still can lose track though – I will literally dump the spice in, see shiny thing, be holding the spoon and spice bottle in hands, and think “did I just add that spice or not?”)

Another trick – re-write recipes: Lots of recipes don’t go in linear order – you have to skip back to a previous section and then skip to a later section in order to do it. I re-write them in order – even if something has to be written in twice. No skipping around for me. uh-uh, not gonna work.

Worst thing – husband’s family recipe for Christmas bread – I have to make it, it has weird perishable ingredients that you have to find at special stores, it takes like days of planning to pull off, about 12 hours of dough making, rising, etc, and it’s supposed to be ready on Christmas morning. This bread has caused me sleepless Christmas eve’s, hurt pride, scavenger hunts to pizza places, sorting out convenience store trailmix to get raisins when the store’s not open, and yes, occasional success, followed by exhausted zombie state for the whole rest of the day after no sleep and nothing to eat but sugary bread.

I can’t wait to try it on Concerta – – could it be, actually, really, possibly – – fun?

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

Last night making homemade mac n cheese attention to detail is what suffered. I’ve made this mistake many times. I read 1 1/2 c milk but it was 1 3/4 c. I kept wondering why the rue was too thick to stir.

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

you got past the motivation part to make food!!! lol. I have trouble making it to the grocery store to buy ingredients in which to create food. If I have ingredients, then I don’t have motivation to make food until I am really hungry (ie. food NOW). if i did make food, dishes sit in sink for two weeks. disaster. I am usually pretty accurate if I do go to the trouble and make food. I have to concentrate very hard and sometimes read directions out loud to make sure I do not miss a step or do a step over again. every time I make something it is like starting over and never having made it before. how many times does one have to read the label on an easy mac? or a top ramen bag.. i keep forgetting to boil the water first! I never leave a burner on. i check them multiple times. (although not the OCD thing of having to drive home to go look at it). my boyfriend is having serious thoughts about me and accepts that if he wants regular meals, a house that gets cleaned, and errands that get completed, he’ll have to do it. or even a pet that gets fed. I have a good career and can go make the money lol.

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

Hahaha!! I can soooo relate! I HATE cooking, because it takes so long (well, not really, but in my mind it does) and it’s such hard work. I am all for the quick and easy meals. Our microwave broke last week and we lived on toast and cereal for days until we got a new one, because it was just too hard to cook on the stove top – things tend to be forgotten on the stove!!

I also have to get out all the ingredients and put them away when I am done with each one, though I have had times where I have forgotten why I have an ingredient in my hand (to use it or to put it away). And I have also overlooked an ingredient and found it still sitting on the bench after I am all done. Or I have started off doubling a recipe, and then forgotten to double things halfway through and then wondered why the consistency isn’t right.

But I am totally with Sugargremlin in that I really avoid cooking as much as possible. It’s too much effort and concentration. But having kids makes it harder to avoid it, so I go for the quick and easy meals – frozen things are my favourite, as they have the added bonus that they don’t spoil when I forget to cook them within a set time frame!! I waste so much food because I forget I bought it and it then goes rotten, or I just cannot find the motivation to cook it before it goes off.

REPORT ABUSE

[Anonymous]

I hate cooking for my family because they are so picky and it’s rather boring what they want. So to start the process I open a Corona!! It’s a ‘cure-all’! It feeds my hunger temporarily, it gives me a buzz to enjoy my daily chore, and voila, when the beer is empty I sit and devour dinner and now content.

REPORT ABUSE

[trashman]

I do most of the cooking. we end up eating dads surprise , because I can’t follow a recipe to save my life!!! so we end up eating something I have put together using my imagination. so sometimes its good sometimes not so much. lol

REPORT ABUSE

[ipsofacto]

The cuisine from any country or region mostly comes down to a few simple methods. If you think of it in terms of concepts, cooking most dishes without a recipe is easier. There are only a few basic methods to make a sauce, to cook meat, to cook potatoes etc. National cuisine like Indian, Chinese, or Mexican use a few basic methods for most of their dishes. You only have to vary the basic ingredients. I used to read books on cooking, but really only as an overview. I don’t think I’ve ever followed an exact recipe in my life. I enjoy watching cooking shows occasionally for general ideas. This leaves you free to cook what’s available, or marked down at the store. Baking on the other hand is a whole different kettle of fish.

A great movie (in which one character reminded me of myself) that shows this approach is “Today’s Special” (it’s on netflix).

Which reminds of a good joke I read recently..

Two Adders are talking about cooking.

One says, I bought a recipe book once.

The other says, Did it help you cook anything.

The first says, I couldn’t find a recipe in it I could use.

The other says, Why Not?

The reply, Every recipe started with “take a clean dish”.

REPORT ABUSE

[Tiddler]

Two Adders are talking about cooking.

One says, I bought a recipe book once.

The other says, Did it help you cook anything.

The first says, I couldn’t find a recipe in it I could use.

The other says, Why Not?

The reply, Every recipe started with “take a clean dish”.

Nope, I can’t relate to that at all. Not at all. Not one bit. 😳 😆

REPORT ABUSE

[Bill]

I decided to teach myself cooking and I discovered what ipsofacto said above. All of the casseroles started with cooking the onions, adding the garlic, then the vegetables / meat then the tomato sauce and seasonings. As I got more adventuresome, I tried other types of recipe, but found that there are many common threads to cooking. If you have the context, it’s easier to do the recipe without skipping steps, because it doesn’t feel right if you miss something.

I agree that baking is a horse of a different feather. If cooking is an art, then baking is a science. It can be overcome, however. If you buy a breadmaker, then all you have to do is throw the ingredients in and turn the machine on. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a pie maker yet!

REPORT ABUSE

[Author]

Posts