January 14, 2013
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Procrasti-cooking
Sometimes, when I know I should be doing my homework, I cook instead. There’s something about chopping, dicing, searing, boiling, steaming, or roasting that is very satisfying. It’s probably because all these things are terribly VIOLENT. Yet, they make everything so tasty. It’s probably the stress relief.
It’s in these I-really-should-be-doing-something-else moments that I feel the most adventuresome and creative. A couple days ago, for instance, I made a stir fry out of some leftover lemon-lime soda and corn starch. It was pretty good! It was also in this mentality that I added a little honey to my chicken tortilla soup, which, while not bad, is not something that I’ll do again. Also, yesterday I think I made hummus the way I (basically) will the rest of my life. So, that’s an accomplishment…even if I don’t quite understand the marital deduction vis-a-vis community property and partitions by operation of law.
But of all the activities one can undertake to procrastinate, why all the food prep? Why not something more exciting? I think the answer to that question is twofold: 1. I’m not exciting. (But what I eat sure can be!) 2. At some point I’ll have to eat, so it’s not a complete waste of time.
Anyway, I have a lot of taxing homework to get done (it’s funny because I’m in three 1/2 tax or impost classes currently). However, I find myself overcome with the urge to perfect arrabbiata sauce. Hmmm…what to do.
Comments (7)
Love the concept of procrasticooking! Finally, I have a name for it.
To cut food ingredients is an art. Can be cruel for the veggies you’re cutting, of for the meat ( mostly is already dead anyway), but you have to use delicacy, gentleness: I would say love.
Making food is like making love, some violence involved? can be.The problem is that whatever great you food, it always come finally out as shit. Frustrating.
Ha. Procrasti-cooking! Love it! I’m very guilty of procrasti-cleaning and for the same reasons you’ve mentioned: a) it has to get done and b) I’m not exciting, either. Cleaning is also satisfying to me because … well, I like clean things. Simple enough? haha.
@christao408 - Good. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who does it.
@carlo - Hah! Like Gaga says, “If it’s not rough, it isn’t fun.” The last part of your comment is still making me laugh. Thank you very much for that.
@light_blue_fables - I too procrasti-clean, but not as much as I used to. Usually when things are clean, I feel like there’s nothing left to do but homework.
OK – I would love to have your hummus recipe. I try not to procrastinate – it only makes things worse.
@murisopsis - For me, procrastination is anti-obsessive mechanism. If I start working on a project at the appropriate time, I end up with a tortured, arcane product that’s little use to anyone but me. When, I procrastinate, though, I’m under threat of deadline so I can see more easily by necessity what the “big picture” is.
The real problem is that I feel the need to be so thorough that I can’t summarize effectively (because what if I miss a critical detail!).
The hummus: in my food processor I basically pureed 5 or 6 cloves of garlic, 1 (packed cup) of curly-leaf parsley, a large roasted red bell pepper. Then I added the juice of two small lemons (I probably should have used more), about 1/3 cup of (regular yogurt), a splash of sesame seed oil, and what was probably the equivalent of 2.5 cans of chick peas. I also added about 2 tsps of both Cavender’s all purpose Greek seasoning and ground cumin. While I was pureeing the chickpeas, I added olive oil through the spouty thing until the consistency was right.
All told, the ingredients exceeded the capacity of my food processor so I had to puree things in phases and then mix everything together by hand in one big bowl at the end.
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