The Cursing Gourmet Tip of the Day:
Mood enhancers.
If you Haters are like me, cooking is no sunny walk in the park: It’s more like being at the dentist… DAILY.
So we Haters need to approach cooking differently than typical humans… Which is why I recommend finding ways to put yourself in a good mood before you even walk into the kitchen…
One of the tricks to making cooking, or anything, more enjoyable is to incorporate things you actually like into the process. For instance, one of my top mood enhancers is MUSIC. This is nothing new: People have been listening to music while doing annoying things like chores and working out for decades now. And I don’t know about YOU, but it’s really hard for me to maintain a bad mood when I’m listening to good music.
I’m often feeling the Sinatra/Rat Pack vibe when I’m cooking Italian… But Madonna/Prince/80s always puts me in a good mood, so that’s another “go to”.
Standing over the stove, continuously stirring something for 10 minutes while staring at my fugly backsplash as my life slips away minute by minute?
Effing kill me.
Stirring continuously while shaking your ass to Let’s Go Crazy?
“Oh no, let’s GO!”
Much better, am I right?
You know what else makes cooking much better? A glass of wine!
(Though I recommend just one glass… You don’t want to burn something – food or yourself! – because you’re too lit up to pay attention!)
And how about buying yourself one of those digital picture frames, loading it up with your favorite pics, and plopping the frame on your kitchen counter. Food prep is a helluva lot less mind-numbing when you’re watching some of your favorite memories flash by as you work.
What other kinds of things could you do to enhance your kitchen mood?