Cooking Therapy

(originally posted somewhere else January 25, 2006)

Kids
driving you nuts? Ready to throttle your boss? Spouse working your last
nerve? Long time friend about to drive you nucking futs with her newest
and seriously dire set of circumstances that you are going to have to
get involved with because otherwise she's going to be out on the
streets and living in an unmedicated full on state of depression on top
of having no family, job, car, home, or insurance?

If you're just way past being kinder and gentler, here's another novel way to deal with your stress: COOK.

I know most of the folks I know think that the worst way to calm
their nerves after a hectic day would be to go home and cook a meal,
but personally I find it quite therapeutic. In fact, it's become an
accurate barometer for everyone in the house to use in order to gauge
my mood after work without me having to say a word.

Basically, the more exasperating my day is, the more elaborate the
dinner is. I need time to myself, and the kitchen is my hideout. It's a
mental hideout since physically it's separated from the family room
only by a countertop, but it works. If more than 4-5 ingredients come
out of the fridge, the guys in the house know that it would be wise to
entertain themselves. If every vegetable in the house ends up on the
counter along with the big cutting board, it's best just to leave
entirely - go to the park, the library, wherever.

Maybe all of this sounds really aggressive and unpleasant, but it
isn't really. To me, the tasks of chopping, mixing, stirring, and even
cleaning up are all very meditative. A risotto is not a tiresome chore,
it's a perfect opportunity to just move that spoon around for a good
thirty minutes and put myself into a trance. Chopping up tons of fruits
for a fruit salad (you should have seen the one I made while watching
Fahrenheit 911) gets out aggression and is also kind of tick-tocky
calming. Sometimes just watching a pot of water boil is calming. By the
time we all sit down at the table, Mommy is back to calm and ready to
enjoy hearing about the day's events on the playground.

Nuts? Maybe. But it's cheaper than picking up takeout - on the way home from the therapist's office.