Signs of cooking obscession

[Peachcreek]

Hi Foodies. We all know why we are here. We love food or work with food or wish we could work with food or wish we could love food more and all that. But do you think about it too much? Do you wile away with thoughts of you next great meal or anxiously await the sequel to your favorite cookbook? I was cleaning up at the restaurant today and pondered some of the symptoms of the truly cooking obscessed.
1. You remember significant events by what you ate or prepared on that on that occasion. By the same token you meet someone for the second time and don't remember their name, but can remember that they don't like mushrooms and are allergic to tomatoes.
2. You keep cooking utensils in your car "just in case". Or if you are like me, you can't understand why everyone doesn't go camping with an espresso maker, wire whip with copper bowl and a nutmeg grater.
3. You come in to work and tell your co-worker something like " I went home last night and did'nt really feel like cooking. So I whipped up a little Rissoto Milanese and Clafloutis, a bottle of Chianti Reserva and called it good".

[Kimmie]

I'm a combination of numbers 1 and 3!

I would also adhere to your camping style if I could...at hubby's dismay

[Svadhisthana]

You're thinking about lunch while still eating breakfast.

Trips to the grocery store excite you.

Cookbooks have replaced novels on top of your nightstand.

You plan your vacations around food not locations.

You check the posts on Cheftalk more often that you check your e-mail.

You spend more money on groceries, kitchen appliances, cookbooks, and kitchen utensils than you do on rent each month.

[nancya]

How about if you aren't satisfied with one perfectly nice cooking forum and so go start one of your own? Now spending hours trying to balance your life with your need to find interesting new recipes?

Very cute guys. Peachcreek...I thought I was the only person who takes my espresso pot camping. At least I'm sure I was told that I was.

[Pete]

Wow! Our very own "Cooks Anynomous". Hi. my name is Pete. And I am a cooking addict. It started innocently enough at age 3 when my mom first let me help make cookies. My addiction blossomed by age 10, when I started preparing whole meals for the family. By the time I was in my late teens, my addiction was running my life. Cooking at home was no longer enough, so I went and found a job doing it. Even that wasn't enough. I eventually went on to spend thousands of dollars to satisfy my cravings, and go to culinary school. To this day my addiction controls me. I take vacations to "food destinations". I plan meals and party menus weeks in advance. I lie awake at night contemplating new dishes. I drive miles out of my way because so-and-so has the best German salamis or this person has the best produce. I spend more time surfing the web looking for food related websites than I spend with my wife (sometimes, until she threatens to hurt me). Cooking has taken control of my life!

[Kimmie]

Pete,

Lets hook your wife with my hubby!!

[marmalady]

I have trained my hubbie so that whenever he goes to some grand poo-bah event that I can't attend for whatever reason, he memorizes the dishes, what they tasted like,and brings me a menu if he can!

[W.DeBord]

Hi, my name is Wendy and I have a baking addiction.

[Suzanne]

ALL OF THE ABOVE, plus:

Planning DINNER before I can get out of bed in the morning.

Giving hubby a list of places to eat at when he travels, so that he can bring back menus. (such a dear!)

Computerizing the list of what's in the freezer, fridge, and closets, so that I can rotate better.

Markets count the same as museums when traveling.

The previously-mentioned 500 cookbooks.

[Isa]

Someone went on a trip, ate out. All you want to know is how was the food.


Of all the addiction one can have, food and cookbooks is my favourite.


Please don't try to cure me.

[chiffonade]

10. You can't pass a cooking catalogue without picking it up and immediately thinking, "Where is my credit card?"

9. Every conversation to which you are a contributor, one way or the other, sooner or later, turns to food.

8. You find yourself regaling someone about a meal or dessert you prepared in the past, then realize you're talking to your probation officer.

7. You flip through the channels (and with satellite, this can take awhile) in search of an overhead shot of a saucepan with something in it simmering away.

6. You watch a show broadcast in a language you don't understand because it's a cooking show.

5. Television Food Network is in your tv remote's "favorites" menu; along with PBS, Discovery and HGTV (they occasionally run a cooking show).

4. Your computer bookmarks all involve either cooking, where to buy cookware, or where to buy ingredients.

3. Your pulse quickens when you anticipate cooking for a special someone or a party.

2. "Field trip" to you means visiting a gourmet store or a kitchen supply store.

1. You watch Martha Stewart and think, "Enough of this gardening ****, get in the kitchen, woman!"

[Svadhisthana]

When watching a cooking show you talk back to the screen when the T.V. chef does something incorrect.

[shroomgirl]

my tribe!!!
except for not having a personalized parole officer I fit everything so far....oh yeah I don't computer catalog my shtuff, but I know what I got....welll the majority of it.
When my boys were in scouts we had garlic bread, sirloin, sauteed onions/shrooms, green salad and crisp of some sort...lot of drooling from Dads who brought cans of bleck. Shoot I made shiitake risotto for 200 on camp stove....or porcini tagelltel....etc....
It amazes me when people won't go to a much better grocery store because it's a few more minutes away.
I set up a market just to insure that gorgeous produce remains available.....that is obsession.

[monpetitchoux]

And the ultimate proof that you are truly addicted to food...

Folks recruit you to be on their trivia contest team as soon as they find out that food is a category. Out of ten questions, the only one I couldn't answer was how's an In and Out burger cooked if you order it animal style? Hey, but now I know.

[marmalady]

Svadisthana - Yes, yes, yes! especially when it's Martha Stewart!!!!!