Your most hated part of cooking

SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
My hubby has the same problem his mother has. Not sitting things. This extends to not going lid up on jars and bottles. So I can go to the cupboard, as I did yesterday, and pick up a bottle of open pomegranate molasses. It was more open than expected! I've learnt not to pick anything up by the lid and not to trust that it's shut. I'll also come back into the kitchen (and this issue isn't limited to the kitchen) to find the cupboard door and drawers partly open. Sometimes they are fully open, but usually partly. He's started to close it, but for some reason stopped just before the point where it pulls itself shut. That's really annoying.
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My wife does the former, I'm guilty of the latter. :laugh:
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
My hubby has the same problem his mother has. Not sitting things. This extends to not going lid up on jars and bottles. So I can go to the cupboard, as I did yesterday, and pick up a bottle of open pomegranate molasses. It was more open than expected! I've learnt not to pick anything up by the lid and not to trust that it's shut. I'll also come back into the kitchen (and this issue isn't limited to the kitchen) to find the cupboard door and drawers partly open. Sometimes they are fully open, but usually partly. He's started to close it, but for some reason stopped just before the point where it pulls itself shut. That's really annoying.
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I thank my lucky stars that I am short, as upper cupboard doors are often left open, and if I were taller I would hit my head!

Also I open the refrigerator door and the small flip compartment where the butter is kept (and sliced cheese) is often left open by hubby, so whatever is in there slides out and either hits me, the floor, or both. Good thing it's nothing heavy!
 
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Morning Glory said:
Ah - I understand. I don't really use cast iron. I think its great for getting a high heat and searing a steak but otherwise I don't really understand its appeal. For most of what make, I use stainless steel pans or non-stick chef's pans or frying pans. If cast iron is enamelled (like Le Creuset) I believe it can go in the dishwasher. At least, when I owned some (in a previous relationship) that is what I did and it didn't seem to suffer.

I'll take a snap or two of my full dishwasher tonight before I run it...

Oh - and I know what you mean about someone else putting stuff away. My partner has dementia so you can imagine the odd places things might be put. But I know he likes to do it and it makes him feel useful (which indeed it is). As my kitchen is so small, there is a limit to the number of places things can be put.
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I always prepare my hash potatoes in the cast iron. No stick and cooks evenly everytime. I sear my scallops in the cast iron. I also like to get a sear on my seafood for chowder and then set it aside until ready to add into the chowder pot, and for sauces, it's lovely to sear something and deglaze the pan to make a yummy sauce, reduction or otherwise. I have some nice enameled cast iron but I wash it by hand, it's easy cleanup so I don't see the need to waste the water and space in the dishwasher, plus I have a friend who chipped hers (not sure if it happened in the dishwasher or not) but I am not taking any chances. I even have soft microfiber cloths separating different pieces stacked in the drawer just to be sure it doesn't scratch or chip.

I have a set of long, skinny pull-out drawers next to my stove. In the top drawer is for solid spoons (wooden spoons for stirring, ladles, serving spoons, etc.), in the second drawer is for slotted spoons, the third is for spatulas of various sizes, the fourth is for anything metal, and the bottom drawer has my rolling pin and potato masher. When I am cooking and in a hurry and open a drawer to get a utensil and the wrong one is in there, it slows me down and also is a cause for minor irritation, because I stop what I am doing and put it in it's proper place. We all know that sometimes to have all the food ready at the same time there is a narrow margin of time near the end of the cooking process and not having what you are looking for in it's proper place is annoying. The spatulas often end up over on the other side of the kitchen in a drawer with miscellaneous items and my parchment paper. I've told him repeatedly all of my utensils go in one of the utensil drawers, and when putting things away, it shouldn't be hard to figure it out. You open a drawer and look at the contents. If you have a slotted spoon and see other slotted spoons, that's where it goes...and so forth. After 22 years you'd think he would know where stuff goes. Oh, and for the record, I have never asked him to put away the dishes, he just does it to try to be helpful sometimes, and I do appreciate the thought, but I would rather just do it myself. Sigh.
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On the topic of washing up as the hated part of cooking, an absolutely true story. Again, student rented accommodation, one enterprising chap found a Karcher pressure washer in the garden shed so decided to give the well crusty cooking pans a good wash. After lining the pans up on the path outside the kitchen door, he attacked them with a pressurised jet of cold water. Needless to say the pans scattered in all directions at phenomenal speed with a sound like an active scrap yard. Once the jet stopped and the mist had settled the scene of devastation was revealed. One pan had gone through the glass panel in the kitchen door, several pans had lost handles and there was a tide mark of crusty food deposited on the outside path and brickwork. Lesson duly learned.
 
I accept cleanup as a necessary evil, and prep work as a necessary evil, when it comes to cooking. But, the thing I hate the most is having other people in the kitchen with me. The people in the kitchen aren't there to help...if they were, I'd be happy to have them. Instead, they're there to do stare aimlessly into the refrigerator to decide which thing they want to eat. Or, sometimes, my son decides it's time to feed the dogs, and he needs some counter space to get their food ready.

Having said that, when I'm making dinner, it's not an issue to have people pop in to grab something to drink. The problems start when I need to sprawl my prep work across the entire kitchen, and I need a lot of time to bring things together. This can definitely happen when I'm developing a new recipe.

My nickname started because I didn't have time to cook until everyone went to bed. As of 2 years ago, I have time, but no one ever leaves, and it seems that no one ever goes to bed. This cuts into my time, and my motivation takes a hit. I can't just say, "Look....no one's here for the next 5 minutes...time to start cooking something!" I can't switch my inspiration on like that. This hurts my love of cooking, which I really hate.
 
karadekoolaid said:
I´m probably the only person here who hates dishwashers. With a passion.
I mean, what´s the point of having a bloomin´ machine that supposedly cleans everything perfectly - except that you have to rinse the plates beforehand?
Additionally, it will blast your cherished, delicately crafted Bohemian Cristal whisky glasses into smithereens if you dare to put them to "wash"?
Or you´re preparing your favourite dish and can´t find the veggie peeler - because it´s in the blessed dishwasher, along with half the rest of the cutlery in the kitchen?
Or you´re just about to sit down to the most spectacular dish you´ve ever prepared... and the only available eating utensils are a pizza cutter and a single chopstick??
NAH!:hyper::hyper::D:D
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I don't put everything I own in a DW. Real kitchen knives (not the table knives) never go in. Veggie peelers never go in. Cast iron (I mean the nekkid cast iron, not the enamel coated types) never go in. Wood never goes in. h, and none of my chopsticks ever go into the DW, whether the regular lacquered wood Chinese ones or even the metal Korean ones. Fine glassware is seldom used here - especially since COVID - but that gets hand-washed.

That being said, when I picked out the appliances for this house, I went with the cheapest DW with a good service record, and back at my old home, when the old DW broke down, I had no issues with doing everything by hand (until eventually I had to replace it for home sale purposes - which I did with a basic.)



caseydog said:
Bosch. Not every stuck on food comes off in my DW, but there are only a few that don't.

CD
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I guess I got trained by my mother well. We always rinsed dishes before they went into the DW unless it just held some cut veggies with no grease spots or crumbs. I still do. I don't scrub them (unless there's baked-on cheese or such) I wonder where all those "oorts" and bits of leftovers go and get trapped in the plumbing system under the counter. So, not wanting to find out, I rinse.

I didn't put down money on a Bosch. Mine's a Whirlpool.
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
I accept cleanup as a necessary evil, and prep work as a necessary evil, when it comes to cooking. But, the thing I hate the most is having other people in the kitchen with me. The people in the kitchen aren't there to help...if they were, I'd be happy to have them. Instead, they're there to do stare aimlessly into the refrigerator to decide which thing they want to eat. Or, sometimes, my son decides it's time to feed the dogs, and he needs some counter space to get their food ready.

Having said that, when I'm making dinner, it's not an issue to have people pop in to grab something to drink. The problems start when I need to sprawl my prep work across the entire kitchen, and I need a lot of time to bring things together. This can definitely happen when I'm developing a new recipe.

My nickname started because I didn't have time to cook until everyone went to bed. As of 2 years ago, I have time, but no one ever leaves, and it seems that no one ever goes to bed. This cuts into my time, and my motivation takes a hit. I can't just say, "Look....no one's here for the next 5 minutes...time to start cooking something!" I can't switch my inspiration on like that. This hurts my love of cooking, which I really hate.
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I can totally relate, and I've only got one 1 person in my way. I can't imagine multiples.
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
But, the thing I hate the most is having other people in the kitchen with me.
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As I've detailed many times, that's me as well, but it's mainly because other people get in my way, even if they're trying to "help."

The one kitchen chore MrsT will do regularly is empty the dishwasher. However, she always seems to want to do so when I start cooking something. I get up at 4PM and start cooking, she's in the kitchen at 4:01PM - "I think I'll empty the dishwasher now." - Really?! You had all 🤬 day!

My sister begged and begged me to show her how to make bread. That was an unmitigated disaster, because she talked and talked and talked and never wrote a single thing down and just stood in my way the whole time, and it would be:

"Ok, it's better to weigh your ingred-"
"OMG! What a cute scale! Where did you get that?! Was it at Bed, Bath, And Beyond?!"
"I think I order-"
"OMG! I used to date a guy from Bed, Bath, And Beyond! He was soooo handsome, and had a little red convertible, and we'd run all over in it, and one time..."
<four hours later>
"...and that's what happened with that! When did you put the bread in the oven?! OMG! I didn't even see that!"

I went over to cook some soup for my mom a few years ago, being dutiful, and I ended up telling her, "God love ya, Mom, but this is the last time I'm doing this!"

She's very short, barely five feet, and she could not stay out of the kitchen. What's worse, she got right on my heels, like a dog will do, and every time I'd turn around for something, I'd knock into her, and if I had something in my hands, or she did in hers, we'd drop it.

Her problem was, she kept trying to be helpful by anticipating what I'd want. I'd turn around, and she'd be standing there with this utensil or that lid, and she'd say, "You might want this," or whatever. Once, I turned around and she was holding a cup of hot tea and trying to hand it to me!

So no, no one in the kitchen when I'm in there.
 
JAS_OH1 said:
I can totally relate, and I've only got one 1 person in my way. I can't imagine multiples.
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I have arranged it so that my cat's kitchen feeding station is out of the way of the fridge, prep station, cook station and sink. Does this count???

The idea of tripping over a 20-year-old cat with arthritis doesn't appeal.
 
Mountain Cat said:
I have arranged it so that my cat's kitchen feeding station is out of the way of the fridge, prep station, cook station and sink. Does this count???

The idea of tripping over a 20-year-old cat with arthritis doesn't appeal.
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It's my husband standing in my way or moving very slowly in my way in the kitchen. He stands in front of the refrigerator and stares inside when I'm trying to gather ingredients. Or he walks across the kitchen slowly to get a glass or whatever, blocking my path, then piddles as he makes a drink or whatever.

Poor old kitty. Thats about 100 in human years? I'd definitely give someone leeway for age. Hubby's 53, he doesn't get leeway lol.
 
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