Cooking Is Emotional #SOL

Before Ashley left to start her nursing clinical rotations as a junior at UW Madison, we decided that we would meet over Zoom on Sunday evenings to prep a meal for the week.  We have had two sessions so far.

I sent 3 to 4 recipes for her to choose from a few days ahead and make sure she had the ingredient list before the weekend started.  Unfortunately, she waited to do her shopping the hour before our meetings, and each time there was a phone call from the store.

The first time:  "Mom, they like have no chicken!"  

This shopping experience resulted in the purchase of a rotisserie chicken, which should have made the work much easier.

The second time:  "Where do I find parmesan cheese?  What is poultry seasoning?"  

After discussion and pictures sent via text, she came home with a few things she should have been able to keep in her pantry for other recipes.

I thought that would have been the end of the problems as she had taken 4 different foods classes in high school. I never could have guessed that those cooking sessions would be so emotional.  There were tears, frustration, anger, and even violence.

In our first session, we prepared one of her favorite dishes - a Weight Watchers chicken and broccoli casserole.  I like to prepare all of the ingredient before we start the actual cooking.  The last ingredient we had to prepare was the chicken, and that should have been quick for her because she had a rotisserie chicken.

She took the chicken out of the container, looked at it, and said, "What do I do with this?  It's gross!"

After a couple of close ups of the chicken in front of the camera,  she had the chicken right side up, but she would not touch it.  She tried to cut the meat off the bones, but that did not seem to work.  She tried to take it off with her hands, but immediately started to complain.  

The next thing I knew she was crying - I mean literally crying.  

Eventually, she was able to get the meat off by hacking it with a chef's knife.

With a lot of patience and deep breaths on my end and tears and whining on her end, we created the casserole she loves.  

for our second session, she chose a recipe from Skinny Taste's new Simple cookbook.  All of the recipes include 7 or less ingredients.  This seemed like it would be much easier.

Very early in our preparation, she calls out, "I do not understand why people thinking cooking is relaxing!  I don't understand why people like cooking!"

After I explained that we were not cooking for relaxation but for preparation, she yelled, "I can't open the poultry seasoning!"  She continued to wrestle with it for a few minutes, and then she stated, "Well, I'm going to hack it apart with this knife!"  And that is just what she did.  She took her anger out on the container and destroyed it.

Eventually, both cooking experiences ended in smiles.  And I have to say that this time spent with her is worth all of those the emotions!  I get about almost two hours of one on one time with her, and I will take that even if it is through a screen.