Charcoal Pizza
Happy New Year Musers!
As we all reflect on our past selves and look forward to what we want to accomplish this year I find myself coming to a conclusion about myself…I really do just hate cooking.
Y'all I will be the first to admit that my sense of timing can sometimes suck. More often than not it's to do with when to enter or leave a conversation, when is it my turn to talk, is it okay to laugh? Etc. … But friends, cooking is the second biggest area of life for me where timing things takes a serious hit.
A couple months ago my partner and I were going to warm up some leftover pizza for lunch on a Sunday and he said to me “We should warm it up on the grill, it will be so much better that way.” Great idea! I figured it would be simple enough. Hot and fast should do the trick, right? Make the crust nice and crispy again. WRONG! I had the heat way too high, for no reason other than I wasn’t adept at using a grill yet. And when I say it was only in there for five minutes it was probably more like 7 to 10 because I forgot to set a timer and, well I suck at timing things on my own. So, the grill got up to over 500 degrees and it was in there for way longer than intended. The result … charcoal pizza. Bon Appetite!
After a fair amount of spiraling and a meltdown, he helped me get back to neutral and I began thinking again about the difference between my unaccountable desire to be a perfect cook and the reality of my limitations. I’m not saying that I won't ever try anything new again or try to do something in a new way. I will, however, be much more aware of what might not be the best idea for me to attempt.
To say that we eat on a routine is both true and false. Do we eat the same five to seven meals on a rotating basis? Yes. Does that rotation end up looking the same week to week? not usually. I have a select few meals that I can make with minimal mental load, healthy 'ish ingredients, and are reliably edible. All of which I have memorized (with minimal Googling) and the timing of preparing mastered, mostly. It’s never 100%, but it’s within a good enough margin of error to work.
14 years it has taken to make this rota of cuisines. It's honestly embarrassing to admit that out loud, let along on the internet, but this is a truthful space. I used to think that I just didn't like cooking and so that’s why I wanted to put the absolute minimal effort into doing it. In reality I was having to do a task at the end of an already overstimulating, overwhelming day of work that only causes me more overwhelm and overstimulation. Oh, and yes, I do actually hate cooking and I’m not even mad about it anymore. I'll never be one of those people who relaxes and winds down at the end of the day by cooking a meal for my loved ones, or trying new recipes all the time. Turns out, I’m fine with that. So freeing!
My focus now is on improving the dishes firmly in my repertoire by increasing the healthiness of the ingredients. I’ve also figured out a bi-weekly cooking day for myself to prep several servings of each thing that I freeze ,already in a disposable aluminum pans or in exact portions for the two of us, and we are pretty much set for about 3-4 weeks. So far it’s working out pretty well! Being able to have this many made ahead standards in the freezer has gone a long way in decreasing my daily mental load.
I’m curious though, how do you handle the demands of dinner time? What are you favorite meals to eat or cook? Let me know in the comments.
Thank you for visiting, fellow Muser! I hope you have a wonderfully creative and peaceful day! 🤗✨️💛