You have a hard time understanding recipe instructions? I can hardly absorb the directions on a box of Betty Crocker cake mix, for cryin' out loud. The adderall helps, but I have to read any recipe SEVERAL times before I actually attempt to make the concoction. If I don't, it's anybody's guess what the mess will taste like! :faint:

I've made (or nearly made) big mistakes while speed reading recipes. My biggest problem is not reading ahead and missing ingredients or rather crucial instructions.

Mostly though, I'm not a good cook. Trying to learn though as I get my first real apartment soon!

Ah My Kindred Spirits! I Thought I Was Just An Idiot! Here Is The Funny Part, I Would Love To Design And Sew My Own Clothes So I Bought A Sewing Maching And Some Patterns--unfolded The Patterns, Laid Out The Fabric And Felt It To Overwhelming--even Though It Seems Like A Simple Task So Fast Forward I Have Repeated That Process About A 100 Times To No Avail! Argh!!!!! So I Have Moved On To A New Interest--online Resale Of Children's Clothing--so Far Not To Bad Except I Have The Darndest Time Keeping Track And Organization Of My Inventory--have Two Rooms In My Basement Filled With New Kids Clothes To Resell--well I Just Bought Quickbooks Pro To Help Me. This Is Precisely Why I Can't Just Leave My Job To Open Up A Business! Anyone Else Out There Like Me?

me?

I usually read the recipe on the box , trow away the box-to make more space on the counter, and then realise that I forgot half of the ingredients and instructions already....

sawing? in my wild dreams. my grandma was a taylor so she tried to teach me some tricks. all she succeded is that i am really good at sawing buttons....

nowadays I searched for recipe on the internet. But don't want to waste ink and paper to print it out. Too lazy to write down either. So I try to memorize the ingredients and steps and head to the kitchen.

Of coz with ADHD I just won't remember everything. So I keep walking back and forth to look again and again....

i realized some time ago that the ADD and recipe following just don't mix. it's all very frustrating. i learn techniques by watching and tasting. that's the only way it all works on a reliable basis.

Since I don't want food all over my recipe books, I usually jot down the ingredients in the order they go in and a rough sketch of what to do with them. Whenever I'm too lazy to do that, I usually end up running around between the kitchen and the place I put the book to re-read the steps, since I keep forgetting the "proper" sequence.

lol--I remember finnally getting a custard recipe right after 4 trials!! And I'm talking the simple, add milk to the powder after it boils type recipe--nothing fancy.....needless to say, I barley cook--I do microwave a lot of stuff, though :) I think part of the reason I can't follow recipes is because once I read them, I sort of want to try to do things myslef my own way......I never read directions before assembling a product--I just like to think of it as a puzzle, and figure it out myself. But I guess food doesn't work that way!

I always have trouble with not reading the recipe carefully enough. Either there are ingredients that I don't have, it needs to cook for two hours, or better yet, you are supposed to let it set a day before cooking it.

I always had trouble too with recepies, missed ingredients, box chucked out before I figure it out, burnt, dry, yuk...

so, to add to my list of "terrific ADD compensations I am getting so good at",(according to my Psych)...I don't bake, cook, experiment with food etc....I just buy the cake/bikkies/lasagne etc..and all is good.

The only problem is I am not teaching my kids anything about cooking, except how to be a dab hand with a microwave, and be proficient heaters of pre-cooked food :-)

Recipe? Who needs a stinkin' recipe?!

Following a recipe causes me to have to stop and think and read, and then stop and think and read again. Where's the fun in that?

A pinch of this, a tad of that, a smidgen of something else....it's all good....

(That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it:)

I get out all the ingredients one by one, then follow the instructions one by one. I never attempt to remember anything for longer than 30 seconds. That's where disaster happens.

O.K., I had to respond to this. I am a chef, so there is hope! Usually I just make up my recipes as I go. If you forget something, only you will know.

When one of my clients wants a paticular dish that requires me following a recipe, I make a copy of it and tape it right above the stove.

Believe me I came up with this with plenty of trial and error. Its also a great idea to prep everything first. That way when you begin to cook you don't get distracted by having to stop and chop veggies.

Some times I will make a check off list of everything I have to prep before I get started.

Everything isn't perfectly organized when I cook, and there more dirty dishes in the sink when I finish then I would like, but hey the foods not bad, and I love what I do.

I have always found cooking to be torture. It involves three things that I find painful: Reading carefully; following directions carefully; and waiting patiently.

I once kneeded the crust so well that when the pie came out of the oven we could have used it to play football.

My favorite recipe is 1. Open the box 2. Remove plastic from dessert area 3. Microwave on high for 8 minutes. 4. Let cool for 2 minutes 5. Peel off plastic and enjoy. :-)

Yes, the level of concentration it takes for me to make a simple recipe is huge. I've made stinkin Kraft Mac and cheese for years and I still have to get out the box to see how much butter and milk to add. It' kind of funny too because if I do attempt to make something like brownies, my kids want to help and that really throws me off. They're like up on the couner fighting over who gets to crack the egg and I'm reading the box over and over! :)

Laugh at this, I teach foods and nutrition! I measure everything out before starting a recipe or I screw it up royally sometimes. Getting interrupted is the worst-that is why prep work is so important to me. That is what they do on the cooking shows-old, old, chef habit. Very ADD friendly!

I do have a few memorized tho-make them so much.
RADD

im better at making up my own. cmon, you know approximately how much baking soda, salt, sugar, etc go in there! and well if you forget one ...

ya ... big problem :(

Hope I'm not butting in here, I just signed up.

I start by looking for an interesting recipe on the internet to use an ingredient I have on hand, then I find another one that sounds better, then I get sidetracked by something else entirely such as looking up a definition of an ethnic ingredient, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera....5 hours later, I'm still in my bathrobe and haven't even had breakfast.

Needless to say I don't do much actual cooking, but if I have ingredients on hand I can create some tasty dishes from all my research, as long as I'm not trying to follow a recipe.

Am I the only one? I don't seem to have a problem reading and staying focused (as long as my obsessional side kicks in) in fact I have too much focus and lose any sense of time and space.

I have problems with any type of step by step directions. It took me 7 hours to put together a basketball hoop thingy last Christmas Eve. The directions said it should take 45min. Ha! I always feel like someone is playing a cruel joke on me and left out every other step or something. I remember when I was teenager my mom left a note telling me to make Meatloaf for dinner and have it ready by the time she got home. I was managing pretty well until the last step. The directions said to put it into this plastic cooking bag thing and then put it in the oven. Well my box didn't come with a bag, it came with a flat sheet. I didn't know what else to do so I just wrapped it around it and put it in the oven. It came out really dried up and yucky. My mom was so mad. Come to find out that sheet was the bag, I just didn't know to open it. I never cook. My husband and son perfer it that way. We always order out.