Do you ever get in the mood to go into the kitchen, shut the door and take on something really fussy, with a lot of steps and ingredients? Something that takes almost all your pots and pans and every inch of your counterspace and loads up the dishwasher twice? Something that asks for every drop of your attention and passion, your whole heart and soul?
Something you do just for the doin' of it.
Forget the 'no-knead in five minutes' and chicken stock from a can. No shortcuts or packets of instant powders. We're talking completely from scratch here. I would even go so far as to say making your own ricotta for the gnocchi or baking a special loaf of bread for the bread crumbs. OK. Maybe the bread is taking it too far but you get the point.
Now I know people are over-scheduled these days and there's hardly time to open a box of Kraft Mac'n'Cheese and I say well, actually, that's my point. Every now and then, find the time. Make the room. Send the kids and the spouse and the homework and everything else away for the day. And start dreaming big.
Think cassoulet or a classic New Orleans recipe that starts with a 45-minute roux. Think the last half of Boulettes Larder, after all the ingredients arrived from Paris. Or a complete meal from Suzanne Goin's Sunday Suppers at Lucques. Pull out that recipe that for some odd reason you've been saving for years, even though you know you'll never have the time to make it. Now you do.
I actually do this. Every now and then I lock myself in my kitchen with a really BIG project and emerge several hours later exhausted but a little saner. I think it's important to give myself over completely to something every now and then. To just step back and let whatever it is take over and be the most important thing.
Usually at some point, everything drops away and it's just me and my knives and the 10,000 things that need to happen in the next few hours. The only thing I have to do is the next thing. That's it. Bliss. And the great thing about cooking is that in the end I have this something, this meal or amazing dish, that usually needs sharing.
I'm thinking a cassoulet is on my horizon soon. I'll try to give you plenty of notice, so you can be sure to be good and hungry on that day.
(Image: Dana Velden)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
There isn't anything more I like to do when things get too much and I need to forget about something!
view Will @ The Red Whisk's profile
One of these days I will get to be invited :)
view Daigan's profile
I'm with you, starting with a long walk through the market...
view maggie (p/c)'s profile
I miss these days. Single parent-hood isn't exactly cooking-project friendly. It'll be a few more years before I can keep his attention long enough to do anything besides eat the chocolate chips for the cookies.
view meleyna's profile
I love spending all Sunday cooking! Sometimes I will make one big meal for the day, but more often I spend the day prepping for the week ahead. It's so zen!
view Kidding's profile
Daily, I set aside about an hour for cooking from scratch. It's turned into my hobby, and we really have reaped the benefits of eating healthier in physical and mental improvements. Occasionally, I do set aside most of a day to do something special; like my homemade entirely from scratch chicken pot pies that starts with the best recipe opening line ever: "Take one whole chicken..." The stock is made fresh, the veggies are fresh, not frozen, the chicken meat comes from the actual chicken, and the flaky crust is also from scratch. Friends and family almost fight to determine who gets to come over to have these tasty pot pies, making the entire experience worthwhile.
view wesaturtle's profile
That's a day like when I make my spaghetti sauce: from ordering the pork neckbones (in advance) from the butcher, the chopping of a huge pile of onions, garlic, the browning and the simmering that takes almost all day. The tomatoes are ones that I canned the previous summer, and by this time of year, they are almost all gone, ready to start the cycle all over again. The house smells soooo great after a day like this! And there's dinner, and seven quarts of sauce canned for future ones!
view Peggasus's profile
sometimes, it takes me three days - especially when there are components of the meal/dish which can be made ahead.
view mangolisa's profile
I would like to lock my kitchen but unfortunately I can't. But i do like to take on those million ingredient recipes sometimes. Or just make thing from scratch that usually are time consuming. I make homemade nachos last night with my own cheese sauce and made fresh pico de gallo to go on it. Took a little while but the reward was great.
view mculp's profile
My friend Mike G told me once, "if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing."
view art's profile
What is Boulette's Larder?
view katti's profile
I love spending a day cooking. Especially if I've got guests to appreciate yummy food. A few weeks ago I had friends over for tapas and I think I may have enjoyed myself a little too much with Rioja as at the end of the night I toppled into the bath and fell asleep!
view Madame Is's profile
Whoops, thank you Katti! I had meant to refer to the film Babette's Feast:
Boulette's Larder is a shop in SF
Babette's Feast is a film about a chef who makes an elaborate feast for a group of religious ascetics.
view Dana V's profile
Every year I have a day like this when I make dinner for my children's elementary school teachers on their last day before Christmas vacation. I make them a nice meal to take home to their families--often soup, a nice salad, homemade pies, dinner rolls with fresh jam, etc. It's a big day or two of cooking at an inconvenient time but it's the most appreciated gift I give all throughout the year.
view Merry123's profile
Like wesaturtle, I consider almost every day like this. No, I'm not making cassoulet, but the act of cooking is not separate from the everyday eating in out house. I would kill for a a door and a lock somedays - it is damn hard to mince garlic while keeping a toddler entertained with a related task and keeping the baby from playing in the dog's water. Generally, though, the kitchen is for the kids underfoot asking questions and begging to help, whether it is a quick homemade mac and cheese or a day for sourdough bread making.
backseatgourmet.blogspot.com
view Mama Ark's profile
I spend most Sunday afternoons preparing delicious lunches for the week. It's time consuming, but I feel great throughout the week eating the food I made.
The star this week is homemade baba ghanouj. I love seeing the eggplants collapse as they roast in the oven.
view heather77's profile
I love doing this. I spent the better part of two days making a pork shoulder recipe for my book club once, and then a quiche too when the vegetarian decided to come. It was so fun.
I also love to disappear into the kitchen and make jam, then can it. A couple of hours with boiling sugar and boiling water will do wonders for your focus. (I'm single, I would never try this with small children I had to entertain) The gloriously good jam is an added bonus. Even works well with frozen fruit (the berries I made into jam last weekend had been crushed and frozen last August. Oops.)
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile
I started friday night and made pickles all weekend. Watermelon rind, summer squash, dill, garlic and jalapeno. I think I used every pot I own at least twice. I don't have AC and it was perfeect weather to have all the windows open, and neighbors kept coming over. It was perfect.
view lindsaylou's profile
I do this quite often on Friday afternoons (and then again on sundays). I get home from work at 12pm on fridays, so I usually like to make something fantastic for dinner.
Last week I had 4 pots of chicken stock going on the stove at once. I had so many carcasses saved that I used every big pot I had.
Then I cleaned out the fridge to make Vegetable soup (with the chicken broth) and it was so good!
I love meal planning and I love spending all day in the kitchen. It is relaxing and lets me forget my stress.
view revolution9's profile
I love this feeling so much, I spend just about every day doing something similar (though maybe on a slightly smaller scale). I like to cook dinner most every night, because it makes me feel like I personally am doing something concrete to nourish those I love and feed, physically and spiritually.
It's also part of the reason I started my yearlong breadmaking project: http://www.abreadaday.com (if I may be forgiven for tooting my own horn). I love the rhythmic movements of a knife, the heat from the stove, the smells and sounds of food cooking, and most especially the look in someone's eyes when they take a bite, the look that tells me I did right to take the time to chop all those herbs myself.
I feel like my efforts are appreciated more when I take the time to concoct something really elaborate and troublesome, just because I love my friends and family. :)
http://www.abreadaday.com
view eprewitt's profile