anti-climatic, cooking blues.... I can't be the only one this happens to? having done

R

randi

Well-known member
a lot of prep work friday, with the help of 2 of my kitchen angels. yesterday, I started cooking and getting things ready around 1pm. soooo, by the time dinner was on the table, I just couldn't get excited about it and nothing tasted great to me smileys/frown.gif

everyone else was loving the food and totally enjoying it. does this happen to any of you?

 
Absolutely. Sometimes, if I am preparing all alone, the work gets to be a bit

much. I feel so tired by dinnertime, nothing inspires me. I need to learn to go simpler when I have no chopping angels to help.

 
Oh yes, all the time. I think if you've been in the kitchen all day smelling and tasting the food

your senses are dulled by dinnertime.

That's when I turn into an Italian grandmother and ask everyone, "Is it okay? Is it too salty? Is it as good as last time? Are you sure? Why aren't you having seconds?" etc. etc., but you may find a more gracious solution.

 
whew, I was begining to think it was just me. you're right Marg, next big

dinner will be well prepared in advance. Joe, I knew the food was great and everyone was loving it. even my girlfriend's husband was asking for recipes. there were doggie bags to go too smileys/smile.gif

the highlight, for me anyway, was a bottle of 1986, estate bottled French Bordeaux that one couple brought.... oh my, was that ever wonderful!

 
Now that my husband is retired, he has taken it upon himself to help in the kitchen.....

Just about everyday, he does up the dishes from my dinner prep in the morning. When we have company, he makes a point to stay near and wash everything up as I cook. It is funny when he says. "I've washed this three times so far!"

He's learned to use the food processor to chop up our dogs raw veggies, he helps me bag the dogs meat into proper portions for the freezer. He shakes our area rugs, so I can do the floors and he helps me change beds. Nice!

 
Happens to me, too; sometimes, it helps to shift gears--pick a new cuisine or culture to cook from >

At the moment, I'm on a quest to try making more than the standard two Indian dishes I know, in order to get out of a cooking rut. smileys/smile.gif
And, not that I'm advocating retail therapy, but this tactic allows me to expand my cookbook collection all in the name of Feeding the Family. smileys/wink.gif
Good luck!

 
Sorry--now I see you were talking about a dinner party... I totally sympathize >>

I've never done a dinner party that I've been happy with...all the prep and the effort to make sure everyone's comfortable, the timing of dishes... Eh. I always feel a big let-down, once everyone sits down to the table.
That's why I'm a big fan of potlucks. smileys/smile.gif

 
Yup, happens to me nearly every big dinner I cook...

I enjoy the leftovers the next day so much more. As is said above, you and your taste buds are worn out by the time dinner is ready. Usually I'm eating the food thinking, this should really taste good, but I just have no taste while everyone is usually singing its praises.

Make ahead and have ready anything you can.

 
Interesting. I had no idea that so many of us would be so afflicted. I learned my lesson

recently when relatives phoned at 11 am and said they would indeed be available for dinner. I was all alone.

I had to plan, shop, prepare, clean, cook, set the diningroom, prepare drinks and hors d'oeuvre, and clean the kitchen before they arrived at 6. They came an hour early without calling first, all 4 of them.

I did a 6 course meal from scratch. I know it was a fine meal, I am my own worst critic; but I had no appetite at all. They left at 3 am apologizing for the mess they were leaving me alone with. (fine with me, I was ready to look at it again after some sleep)

Now here's the stinky thing. I could have prepared a much simpler meal and it would have passed with these folks just as well. Two of them didn't even know what they were eating, and I suspect, really didn't care. The others knew that I had gone to a lot of trouble but were uncertain as to what kind of trouble.

So, do we cook for our own pleasure of the creation, or our pleasure of anticipating the eating? If we know we're going to be too exhausted, is it worth it? Or do we cook for the pleasure of our company? In that situation, I was cooking for them, but if it happened again...I'd go much simpler. And enjoy the company more.

 
this was the "big Italian" planned for last weekend. it was to be 10 people

but two were from out of town and just here for the weekend. (lucky them, we had one heckofa storm '-))

now we are down to 8, one girlfriend's new beau put both feet in his mouth and couldn't get them out so he was "univited". now we're 7... get a call from Joyce and she was badly clawed in a cat rescue and bleeding like crazy. her beau is keeping tabs and thinking a run to the hospital is imminent... now we're 5 with lots of food.

thankfully, these are very close and dear friends and arrive with their sleeves rolled up to help with everything. no pressure to be perfect (which is sooo over-rated) just to have fun with all of them. goodness, Sheila cleaned my stove top!

I had noticed before, if I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, I'm never happy with the food. I'm already planning the next "big" one, a bistro dinner. surely, I will plan ahead and try to get as much done at least a week ahead of time. Sylvia said she freezes her tourts so I'll be doing that. annnd, my 2 kitchen angels love spending an afternoon cooking in my kitchen with me, so I'm fortunate there too.

and, Joyce is Ok this morning without a hospital trip and just some butterfly bandages smileys/smile.gif

aaaannnd, on is finally taking pics of kitchen... woohooo!

 
Sometimes you have a nice mental picture of how a party is going to go...

who will be there, where they'll sit, who will talk to whom and what about. It's so hard to keep adjusting the mental picture as guests have to cancel, get cat-scratched, (!!!!) dump thier boyfriends and all. At least it's hard for me, because I've been planning and picturing it for a while and no matter how much fun the group ends up having, I can't help being diappointed.

 
Oh, and about your Bistro Dinner, I've learned from catering that there's hardly a single recipe

that can't be at least partially completed the day before. I buy scads of cheap plastic disposable containers in quart, pint, and cup sizes and do everything I can; reduce the wine, measure the stock, chop the onions, mince the parsley, grate the cheese etc. (If I were better organized I'd have everything stacked in the refrigerator by course, but that's getting a little too Martha-ish.)

Assuming you can be home on a Friday afternoon, having all those little things done ahead of time and cleaned up makes such a huge difference on the day of the party.

 
my biggest problem when this happens is to remember to be graceous...

to my guests.

laur finally knocked into my sensibilities that response to raves that including words like "overcooked" and "tasteless" implies that the guests don't know what the ham hock they're talking about.

you don't need to agree with them, but the proper response is "thank you".

 
This happens to me frequently . . .

Though I don't really entertain (except when I am catering my friends' parties) this happens to me all the time.

I love the "PROCESS" of cooking. Cooking is a creative, cathartic, stress-relieving endeavor. that balances the long hours of sometimes stressful architecture. I love the shopping, the organizing, the chopping, the cleaning, the preparation, the balancing of skills required.

It rarely happens these days, but I loved the Saturday afternoons where I would prepare two or three complete entrees. Chop, cook, clean . . . etc. Just doing that leaves me so satisfied that I usually just wrap it all up for the freezer and go to bed.

And my (predominantly male) colleagues know that when I am really stressed I go home and chop carrots - just to satisfy my cooking desires!!
Carrots are inexpensive, take concentration to chop without cutting fingers, freeze well, and I can thrown them into numerous dishes when my freezer runneth over with them and I have no food. Buttered pasta and sauteed carrots after a 12-15 hour day?? It's better than nothing.

 
My most frequent mistake is finishing touches on the next course so I'm not

sitting down eating with my guests. I try to get stuff done ahead but there's always something that needs to be done at the last minute. I also can't relax after dinner and spend that time cleaning up. Hard for me to let anyone help.

 
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