ISO: ISO Your thoughts...does anyone else lose their taste for a dish by the time it is cooked and is on

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marianne

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the table? Many times, while I am making a new recipe, I'm preparing and chopping ingredients, then combining them, and tasting, adjusting flavors and seasoning along the way.

By the time the dish is done, I'm tired of it, and I don't enjoy it for dinner. DH appreciates a warm meal when he comes home, and he enjoys what I have prepared, but he has remarked that I never make the same thing twice. I think that it is because after the first time, I rarely repeat a recipe. Now there are a few special ones that I've found, but I am constantly trying new dishes.

If there are leftovers, I store them in my "food museum", the frig, and later I often throw them away after they spoil.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to let me enjoy the tastes of my cooking more, and not get bored with a dish by the time I serve it? I am really looking forward to your thoughts.

 
Make enough so that you have leftovers? I think sometimes

I just get tired and/or hot after being on my feet, rushing around to not overcook, etc. that I'm mildly stressed by the time I actually sit down to eat sometimes. Either that, or the smell of the food makes me think I've already eaten it.

So... make more than you need, and you'll have enough for a prepare-free meal next time. Works for me. I make at least double what I think we'll eat if it's an involved recipe.

 
Happens all the time for me. The more labor intensive, the less I want to eat it. Of course

several hours later, I'm good to go. I think that's why many professionals prefer a simple salad for snacking when they're deep in it.

 
Absolutely. The senses get saturated. When I'm catering, I suddenly become hungry while packing

leftovers.

At home, I prefer things the 2nd day.

 
Some dishes like "coq au vin" for instance are better made the day before. The flavours have time to

develop and you are less stressed with one less dish to make the day of your dinner party.

I'm constantly on the lookout for recipes which can be made ahead of time.

 
Ditto. If you stand and cook it all day, you won't want to eat it, or at

least not so enthusiastically.

I try to do as much as I can the day (and 2 and 3 days) before dinner parties so that I have a chance of enjoying what I've spent so much time creating.

And if not, there's always heating up the leftovers the next day.

 
Yes, especially for an elaborate meal like during the holidays or for a large party

I just have a nice glass of wine, something little to snack on and don't really eat much of the meal. It does help to have helpers or to do more in advance so that I don't get burned out.

I consider this part of my overall diet plan! ha ha ha ha

 
My mom never really enjoyed what she cooked. I used to have the problem, but think it was because I

was a snacker. Grating cheese?...eat a piece, cutting veggies, same thing and so on. Once I got over that habit, I got over the problem. I find it helps to be hungry when the food hits the table. I thoroughly enjoy the food I make these days, although I'll admit that Thanksgiving dinner usually tastes better as leftovers.

 
Plus the cook is always more critical, so it's harder to enjoy. (Please don't tell me I'm

alone.) If I cook a dish, I can always find some way it could have been better, and think, "All that for this?!" But if my partner cooks dinner, I'm all, "OMG this is so good I give up you can take over the kitchen please anytime be my guest oh are there seconds when did you go to Cordon Bleu and not tell me?"

 
Repetition

My husband will rarely eat a left over. Even if it was good and he liked it, he never wants it again the next couple of days. Neither do I for the most part. I agree that tasting, while necessary, is detrimental because it takes the edge off the later taste experience. Is it the repetition of the flavors so soon?

 
Happens to me too on the rarest occasion DH cooks. Last week he made scrambled eggs for me

for breakfast, and I swear on a stack of cookbooks, those were absoLUTEly the best scrambled eggs I've ever tasted in my life. It really was all about the fact that he was doing the cooking. Made it so special somehow, even something as simple as eggs.

 
My favorite Thanksgiving meal was the morning afterward. So much work

had gone into the prep, shopping and cooking for Thursday's dinner that I was tired and didn't enjoy it at all.

But...there it was: 10:00 am Friday morning and I pulled out the (already) carved turkey, the stuffing, mashed pototoes, the yams, the cranberry sauce, the gravy, the peas--and zapped us a breakfast that probably required the plowing of several fields to burn off.

So quick, so easy, so good...and only two dishes to wash! No wonder everyone loves Thanksgiving.

 
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