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Cooking Habits You Are Trying To Break...

I've a bad habit of nibbling along the way - thereby being too full to partake in the meal - making people uncomfortable with their meal...as I drink and watch them eat.

Taste with my fingers...yep have burnt them along the way so I'm busted and in pain.

I don't close the cupboard cabinets/drawers anymore..for some darn reason...eventually everything is opened...what up with that...

why can't I stop?
can you help!

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  1. I am trying hard to cook only for the FOUR people in my family and not 7,000 other people. I tend to to cook way too much food!

    3 Replies
    1. re: lilmomma

      I tend to have this problem more when I'm shopping - some things I can judge how much to get for the two of us, but with others (green beans and broccoli crowns come to mind), what looks like the right amount in the store becomes twice as much as we can actually eat when I get it home and cook it.

      1. re: BobB

        I use my fist to help me estimate. Sometimes I guess a little high or low but usually that helps, especially with the broccoli crowns.

      2. re: lilmomma

        I have a large household (me, hubby, 9yr old son, 8yr old ID twin girls, 4yr old son & 7 month non ID boy girl twins) so cooking small isnt really done in my house but on the rare occasion that its just me, hubs & babies (kids shipped out to grandparents etc) I simply cant cook for 2! Friday is family dinner night & invariably open house night & so we are usually all us lot, my mum & stepdad, a few cousins, my elder 4 children's dad, his mother, hubs mum, sometimes my dad & occasionally a few tag-alongs! Luckily this is usually when it's "Chilli Friday" & so there is always a huge pot of my famous chilli, rice, guac, salsa, tortillas, cheese & spring onions to top!

      3. I don't know if this is considered a bad habit but it is certainly an obsession. I have to empty the dishwasher (if clean), put away any dirty dishes (usually a glass and bowl from hubby from the night before) and put away the clean dishes in the dish rack all before I start cooking a meal. My hubby thinks I have OCD but there must be a good reason for this ....right? :)

        9 Replies
        1. re: juliewong

          Hey, you're ahead of the game that way. It really does sound OC, though- my husband has it and that's something he does.

          1. re: juliewong

            I do the exact same thing. Further, I have a little bit of a fit if I come home after work to cook for the family and find that able-bodied people have left clean dishes in the dishwasher and dirty dishes stacked up on the counter for me to take care of when they know I will be starting dinner the second I walk in. I want the kitchen clean when I start a meal. I think better that way...the clutter is very distracting to me.

            1. re: juliewong

              I also do this and most times I do it before leaving for work in the morning so I don't have to do it at night before cooking. I guess my OCD is worse than yours! lol

              1. re: juliewong

                That's just logical to me. If you're going to cook, you want an empty d/w to put things in as you go along. Everyone *does* clean as they go along, right?

                1. re: juliewong

                  I do the same thing, but I consider it a -good- habit, heh heh.

                  1. re: juliewong

                    Not OCD at all, just a good habit.

                    1. re: juliewong

                      I hope that's not a habit you're trying to break! It's a good habit IMO.

                      My husband has finally caught on and started making sure he's at least washed all of the previous night's dinner dishes before I get home. I don't mind putting dishes away, but I really mind doing his chore.

                      1. re: juliewong

                        I do it too. Dishwasher emptied, reloaded, etc. before I can even begin to cook. I also keep everything tidy while cooking. On the other hand DH destroys the kitchen in the event he has to make the smallest thing. Essentially my bad habit is yelling at DH for making the mess.

                        1. re: juliewong

                          I prefer to do this too, but it isn't a HAVE TO situation.

                        2. HA! I do the same ones!!! My family goes crazy because I open every drawer and cabinet in the whole kitchen.. and I never close them!!

                          13 Replies
                          1. re: hungryabbey

                            I admit to doing this as well. Why close them if you're just going to open them back up for another ingredient, pot, pan or serving dish!
                            When I lived at home my mom swore that if the insides weren't so unsightly she may as well remove all the doors since she was sick of closing them all the time. I bet my boyfriend feels the same way.

                            1. re: hungryabbey

                              I do this too & usually it's just fine until I bend over to get something & stand up & hit my head on the open door!

                              1. re: hungryabbey

                                The cure for open cabinets is clear glass cabinet windows. It's all about being able to see, for me.

                                1. re: hungryabbey

                                  I don't get this. Most of these quirks I can as least empathize with even if I don't do them myself, but why leave everything gaping open?

                                  1. re: BobB

                                    So I can see things. It's only doors, though. Never drawers.

                                    1. re: Jay F

                                      Ditto...I thing it also depends on the type of door. If is has handles or knobs I am more apt to close it.

                                      SO gets mad if I don't though (and I inevitablely hurt myself).

                                  2. re: hungryabbey

                                    In the same manner that a man will usually only _once_ per lifetime haphazardly 'catch' himself in his pants zipper (the immediate lesson is punishment enough to prevent such a reoccurence), the same goes for leaving a cabinet or drawer (at genital's height) open; once you've unthinkingly walked full-bore into a solid wooden corner and taken one in the baby-maker, you'll seldom forget that lesson and never do it again. Same with a kitchen cabinet door in the cranium. I guarantee that the view from the floor, curled into the fetal position and praying for unconsciousness and sweet release, will provide an enlightened perspective on the quaint habits of absentmindedness :-)

                                    1. re: silence9

                                      Yep, getting yourself banged up will cure certain bad habits, for sure! Once you burn yourself, you surely don't keep sticking your fingers into hot food?

                                      You probably don't close drawers because you don't think about doing so. You are probably focused on the completing the larger task. I think you should practice closing the drawers and cabinet doors though. It is safer.

                                        1. re: silence9

                                          man, Silence9, you must have been booking! i've bumped my head on cabinet doors before but never to the point of knocking myself down to the floor! maybe i'm just too slow-moving in the kitchen....

                                          1. re: mariacarmen

                                            It's the corner/edge (pointy and hurty) of the cabinet door, taken in the 'soft spot' of the noggin as I arose from bending down, that laid me out flat. But I'll still take that over an intimate encounter between a waist-height open drawer and my naughty bits...

                                        2. I'll put something I'm working with on my left because there is more space or it seems out of the way, but then need to reach across my body with my right hand to get it. Trying to remember to put things where I can actually reach them : )

                                          1. Not stopping to enjoy the moment.

                                            Too often I cook simply to put food on the plate, without pausing to really savor the joys of the actual cooking process.

                                            1 Reply
                                            1. re: ipsedixit

                                              so true....if you have any tips on how to enjoy the moment in the cooking process - pass along or write a book...!