Setting Up the Kitchen to Cook, or, Cooking with ADD

One of the things that has held me back from cooking more often is a kind of ADD exacerbated by a multiplicity of objects and disorder.  Visual overstimulation.  It feels like I lose at least one-half of an IQ point for every object in my immediate view.  Don’t know why, but that’s how it is.

It’s why I feel like my brain turns to goo when driving (so! many! things! whizzing! by! at high speed!) and also why most of my friends think I’m hyper-organized.  I mean, I am hyper-organized, what they sometimes don’t understand is it’s not stemming from some kind of tidy saintliness (ask my parents, they’ll vouch for an utter lack of innate tidiness), rather it’s a coping mechanism, a trick I’ve developed to help keep my foggy-brain-time to a minimum. 

I actually lose much much less time sorting magazine clippings into Martha-Stewart-esque binders than I would lose lost in the confused inertia of being surrounded by unorganized piles.  Because of course ADD also means that I seek out the stimulation of lots and lots of stuff and ideas and things…but over the years, I’ve developed a balancing act to help me spend less time in an overstimulated mouthbreathing waking coma.

But cooking!  Lord!  All the stuff. The equipment and the ingredients and the detritus of the ingredients and the different places to put the detritus and the washing up and the drying and the putting away in the right spot.  So many items!!  Brain hurts!!  I’m just going to go lie down midway through making this cake…

For years, the cooking process has been one giant battle ground between my nature and the self-nurture I developed to deal with my nature.  And what I’ve decided works is succumbing utterly to my coping mechanism, suppressing my slapdash and impatient nature, and being totally, utterly, and yes, some would say even anally ordered about how I set myself up to cook.

Structure is beautiful.  Structure and routine, I believe, free up your mind from processing the minutiae and allow those precious neurons to fire about more important things, like finding creative solutions, noticing small details, and,  basically (not to get all Zen on your noggin) being present in the moment.  That might seem counterintuitive, but if you make all your small decisions in advance, you can actually be more open and receptive to making big decisions in the moment.

Between these thoughts, and the tricks I’ve picked up from watching many chefs in action at the cooking school I’m working at, I’ve developed a pretty solid set-up that has been making the cooking process a complete pleasure lately. 

And so when doing my marathon cooking session this week, I took some pics and thought I’d outline what I’ve come up with.  None of it is going to be earth-shatteringly novel, but if, like me, sometimes you feel like cooking is a big chaotic process and you feel discouraged from dealing with the mess, these are some things to maybe try to help make it more pleasant and efficient...click through under picture for the details...

 

1. THE PREP TRAY.  Everyone who’s ever seen a cooking show knows about the prep tray, the ingredient mise en place; basically, all your needed ingredients in one place, usually measured out in advance.  I always resented it in the past – why create all these little extra dishes to wash?  Who has time?  Who has the patience???  Finally, after seeing it about a gajillion times in person by every chef who’s taught a class, I finally capitulated.  It’s worth it.  It means you’re not left frantically chopping something you need right that second because you forgot you need to add it immediately after another ingredient.  It means not getting two-thirds through the recipe before you remember you forgot to buy the buttermilk.  Yes, it’s more dishes to wash at the end – and I don’t have a dishwasher so I take that very seriously – but it’s worth it.  Extra dishes are nowhere the headache of the disorder for me.
2. Hard to see in the big picture, so here’s another shot.  This is one of those little bathroom towel holders. I put one damp and one dry cloth on it and have it handy.  It keeps them off the work area whilst keeping them within easy reach (those little rings can be adjusted).  I’m always needing one or the other, plus sometimes when you get something sticky but not dirty (e.g., like after cracking an egg, etc.) on your hands, you don’t want to stop to thoroughly wash up, and so the damp then dry can keep your rhythm going.  Also keep a towel in the pocket of my apron, but there’s always a need for more wipin’.
3. Cookbook holder.  Natch.
4. Spoon rest.  We use these standy-uppy kinds at the store and I like it for the prep area.  Less surface area taken up by the utensil you might have to keep returning to.
5. Utensil crock.  A totally anal usage of this kitchen basic.  I have two.  One just lives by the stove with stovey-type equipment.  One is extra.  When I’m baking or prepping something that will require lots of utensils (e.g., making a quickbread where I’ll need two whisks, a microplane, couple spatulas, large spoon, etc.), I will actually read through the recipe, and separate out the needed ones, stick and only them in the extra crock before I start. Might seem silly but it is actually part of true mise en place process really, and means no more having to urgently wash a spat or spoon at the point you really just needed to be using it.
6. Tub of measuring spoons and cups.  I am a big fan of cheap little plastic baskets and buckets you get in dollar stores or dollar sections of drug stores and Targets.  I have yet to have too many.  In fact, I never even really noticed this about myself, until the President of the Debate Club’s last visit where she pointed out that everything I use on a regular basis is in a “bucket.”  I have the skin care bucket and the current set of magazines bucket and the papers to be looked at bucket, etc.  Anyway, point being, little baskets to organize like can be super-helpful, and ESPECIALLY when baking – when you’re going to need like a million different measuring spoons for the spices, baking powder, salt, etc.  This way, you can just grab one basket and park it in prep area as opposed ot picking through a drawer for individual items.  (Also, speaking of measuring spoons and cups: if you bake a lot, it’s hard to have enough of these.  Especially useful are the sets with 2/3 and 3/4 cup measures.  Sure, you can make those with the standard smaller set, but again, keeps your flow going to not have to stop and wash or calculate too often.)
7. Compost pail.  Or, as Rachael Ray uses, a garbage bowl.  I don't care what food snobs think about RR, this is totes brilliant. BRILLIANT!  Luckily we can compost most vegetative waste here in Seattle, but if we didn’t, I’d just use it as a garbage pail on the counter.  I have no idea why the two nanoseconds it saves to put it in something in the counter as opposed to the trash can matter, but they do.  They matter.

Since I started using this little rig, I’ve found myself infinitely less exhausting or ADD-addled when cooking.  And despite the extra set-up time, the actual prep is a breeze.  I feel more focused and therefore I think the ultimate product (unless – lately – it’s friggin biscotti) turns out better because I’m paying attention to the actual cooking process as opposed to having one eye scanning the kitchen trying to find that lemon and the zester I’m going to need in a sec.  I’m actually enjoying it as opposed to idly wondering midway through if this is how Fitzcarraldo felt.

Over the next couple days, I’ll be posting some results from the recent cooking blitz, including – dare I say it – some positive developments in the biscotti arena!  I know what you’re thinking:  “First I had to wait for Santy Claus and now THIS?!?!  I will die from anticipatory excitement!”  But try to pull yourself together.