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An #ActuallyAutistic thread. I don’t normally do this but I was cooking earlier and thought a thread about me cooking would also be a good way of showing why I ask so many questions. This for cooking a @goustocooking recipe. Without them the chance of me cooking is close to zero.
This is the recipe. I’ll explain what I’m thinking about all the tricky parts.
Step 1 - a drizzle of oil stresses me out every time. How much is a drizzle? What’s the difference between this and a large drizzle that’s asked for in some other recipes? Have I ruined the dish by using too much?
Step 5 - cook covered, stirring frequently. This is impossible because I can’t stir when the lid’s on, but if I take the lid off to stir it isn’t covered. Also, how often is frequently?Throughout the 10mins I’m stressing about whether I’m stirring enough or keeping lid on enough.
Step 6 - while orzo is cooking grate cheese and chop basil. But how can I do this when the previous step tells me to stir frequently? I solve the grating cheese part by just eating the cheese while cooking.
Step 7 - as above, how can I wash and dry the spinach while I’m stirring the orzo? It says pat dry with kitchen paper, but I’ve patted it with four wodges of paper and it still isn’t dry. How dry is it supposed to be? Now I’m distracted from stirring and the orzo is sticking.
If I did what it said and patted until it was dry I’d still be patting that spinach now and the dish would be ruined so I’m thinking I can’t get it completely dry, but am I going to ruin the dish if it still has water on? Why did it need to be dry? Is spinach ever really dry?
Step 7 - It says no pink meat (chicken), but how do I know if the meat is pink when the dish looks like this? I can’t see inside the meat. Should I take a piece out and cut it? But it doesn’t say to do that. Spend time during and after eating worrying about food poisoning.
This is why I can only cook when I’m fairly relaxed and have lots of time. On a school night there’s no way I could cope with the stress of following those instructions and having to make all those decisions when I’ve got lots of school questions in my head.
This is why I need routines - when I’m following a routine I don’t have all these questions clogging up my brain so I have space to think about other things.I also need really clear instructions and a chance to ask follow-up questions - when I’m cooking I can tell myself it
doesn’t matter whether I do it exactly right because it’s just me eating the food, but in other situations it’s more important to make sure I do exactly as I’m told, and if I’m not clear what that is it’s really stressful. Something that seems really simple can take a long time.
When someone tells me to do something and I respond with ‘but what about...?’ people often think I’m objecting or criticising, when I’m actually just trying to make sure I know what to do so I can do it.
