how does ADD affect your cooking?

[D.Lerious]

I've noticed that my constant search for new stimulation makes me love to experiment, with herb combinations on meat, chicken, beef, pork etc. Also, I love food with lots of taste and variety in taste.

[krisp]

I think my ADD ensures that I rarely make the same dish the same way twice. I have a tendency to start randomly throwing in handfuls of spices. Usually, this turns out well.

[Nucking_Futs]

I'm the sameway,,,when upset I tend to bake and experiment. What I have found though is I can make anything and I mean almost anything; but, do not and I mean do NOT ask me to fry you a hamburger (someone over here has trouble standing at the stove lol).

[Spirit]

I tend to experiment a great deal myself. And I get very frustrated when I make something that is excellent only to not remember what I put in it when I try to duplicate it. This isn't always the case, but has happened a few times.

Most of my cooking and love for food also has to do with my Grandma B. She had 13 kids (11 boys & 2 girls) and came from a German heritage. Man could she cook. But growing up rarely did I see her use any type of measuring device, well other than her hands..lol It was always a pinch of this, a handful of that, etc. I have over the years been able to make a few of her dishes that I watched her prepare growing up, but not all. I sure miss her, she has been gone for 10 years now. Although I feel her presence sometimes when I'm making one of her famous recipes or when I'm having a bad day.

[Draga]

I am from the Big Easy and I find that variety is the spice of life...and I am starting to want to follow simple new orleans traditon and have Red Beans and Rice Monday and Catfish Friday...but of course does not have to be catfish..i lie to change up and when I have the money to russle up a good ole creole gumbo dinner...And chicken...OMG is soooo good covered in ranch dressing and chicken dumplins.....I want to make all kinds of thing sticking to the same routine and same dinner is boring!

[MRB]

You all are brave.

Having had many disasters (exploding pressure cooker anyone? Granted, I was only 14, but still ...) I

1) don't cook a lot (thank goodness for packaged broccoli and mesclun greens!)
2) use the crockpot a lot when I do
3) follow the recipe EXACTLY (irritates the **** out of my ADD mom, who cooks with a "dash of this" and a "little of that" - you can imagine we don't spend too much time in the kitchen together unless each of us has her assigned tasks)
4) put lots of spices in everything (even dessert - my specialty is ginger fruit salad - the recipe is in one of the threads in here somewhere)

[Vero]

I burn my dinner a lot less now that I am on meds.....

)
Vero

[Ace]

When I feel like it, or when I am in a corner because I know guests are coming, I can work magic. I visualize this great feast in my head, and I get inspired. I mean, I can meet a one-time guest downtown and they will mention the Afghan dinner, or the dessert or soup they had at our house.

Most of the time, though, as I enter the kitchen, I have NO IDEA what we are going to have for dinner. Even while I'm thawing chicken breasts, I can change my mind and instead do vegetarian Vietnamese. My husband always thanks me for making a nice dinner, but this tends to annoy me rather than please me, because he really is clueless about what is on his plate. He never learned to cook, or even to prep. Sometimes I ask him if he can tell what kind of meat he is eating, and most of the time he guesses wrong.

Why do I bother? Because I'd get bored following rules, I don't like to use cookbooks, and because I never have all the ingredients recipes call for. I see what I have and go from there. I'd guess a lot of us here do that!

First rule: "What will go bad if I don't use it up tonight?" (Yum, yum!)

[sneekkers]

i have too many cookbooks and recipies...

sometimes if i am motivated to make a menu for the week, i will look at my stack of books, including loans from the library, i will be so distracted by the ingredients, the methods and the great photos, my list will not have been made, i run out of time to grocery shop, and i then have to serve my family the usual hotdogs and beans because i am soooo scatterbrained...

when i am cooking, at least once a week i burn something...

my kids complain all the time about hot dogs again, or spaghetti again...

sneekkers

[Ian]

Hyperfocus dominates the scene for me. I go hard and don't need help. When I first started to use medication for ADHD I was rebounding off the Ritalin at about 4:30pm when I was cooking and the kids got off the bus. Everyone hear me now... BAD COMBO!

The second day I think it was when one of them pointedly and earnestly asked if I was OK. Things that make you go.. hmmmmmm.

I got the message and switched to dex. I look at the half life of the meds now before I get too far along.

I think my sensitivity helps spur me into cooking. I love the subtleties of food. Went to a pig roast last night. The hog was 185 pounds live and whoa there was food for all! It cooked for about 12 hours. I was green with envy that it wasn't my baby to nurse along until people could ooohhh an awhhhh..

ian

[sneekkers]

what a catch-22...

kids are hungry, and tired...
spouse had a hard day and didn't have time for lunch...
supper is not made...
appointments have to be kept...
now our kids are becoming part of this national epidemic of obesity...
but who has the time, energy or even money to purchase food that has no additives, or the sugar factor...
when i get to the grocer i am amazed at how hard it is to find anything that is pre made that does not have some kind of sugar-natural or not...
but we are all part of the big picture, technology is supposed to help us, make our lives easier, but infact our kids are spending more time inside with their high-tech toys...

sorry for the ramble, i just want great futures for my kids, for all kids...

sneekkers

[Ian]

Fruit and veggies are pricey in the off season. We plant a big garden and put away a lot of good food that way. I insist on cooking from scratch. Gotta love that food! My kids haven't had enough junk in their diets to even like it. It's not that there isn't chips and pop but the staples are in place. I am quite happy about my kids taste in food. They all eat a wide variety of flavours and types of meals.
ian

[MovingOn]

My biggest problem, with cooking is that there is never any food here. Yet another long forgotton routine taught to me by my mother. There are only 3 reasons to go grocery shopping...no coffee, no creamer, no cat food...ok gotta go.

Other than that, I'm a good cook, rarely use a recipe, and when I cook for myself, I lose weight.

Gotta get back into that routine.

Futs, I almost forgot.....cooking hamburgers at home and doing a good job of it does not require standing at the stove.....this is a very common reason why most home cooked burgers resemble hockey pucks and are inedible. Saturday night hamburgers were a ritual when I was growing up and I can't imagine any meal being easier to prepare for a family.

Try this:

Use ground chuck or ground round. Patties are shaped to approx 1/4" to 3/8" thick and about 1" bigger than the bun you are using (1/2" overhang all around) This accomodates shrinkage. Skillet is preheated to medium temp. Place patties in warmed skillet. Sprinkle w/salt and onion powder (onion salt is too salty). UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WHATSOEVER DO YOU EVER MASH THE PATTY WITH A SPATULA. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER.
Glance at them occasionally as you get condiments, buns, chips,etc, to the table. Use a splatter screen to reduce mess and to place buns on top to steam them after the patties are turned. Turn the patties when the edges become brown approx 1/2" in. Watch for juices to run clear when pricked with the corner of the spatula in the center of the burger.

Hamburgers do not require babysitting. After you do this a few times it will be a breeze.

I once had a boyfriend make a face when I offered to make him a burger. He finally said "OK, just one though". After the second bite, he smiled real big and said,"sweetheart, can I have a second one?" Who could resist.

[ADDitives]

yes i'm very experiemtal in what i make for myself, even snacks and stuff. i've done some odd things during my life.

the other day i decided that instead of making 2 frecnch toasts i'd make one, fry the other half of the egg by itself, place that half egg fry thing ontop the toast, put some hot tin spaghetti (mmmm) ontop of that fried egg, and fold it in half.

it was fantastic.

and yeah, i know its strange, and i know french toast is MEANT to be sweet.

i've done other stuff, but i dont remember.

oh i've mixed interesting drinks inspired by lemon lime bitters. i even had a creative 9 year old boy say to me "how did you come up with THAT?!"

[ADDitives]

the other thing i find is that i dont get everything 'set up' or ready, i seem to just start when i get out the first thing, and run around the kitchen in a disorganized flurry

but its more FUN that way!