What about cooking?

[not tonight]

Cooking has always been a creative outlet for me. I don?t relish making diner every week night, however I love to cook. Cooking time was also one of the first signals in the day that it was okay for me to start drinking. I would begin the preparation of any meal with the ceremonial opening of a bottle of wine to accompany me through my culinary mission. Now I have worked hard to get past this potent trigger, and I am getting used to cooking without drinking, however I have been avoiding making anything that calls for wine in the recipe, especially if it only call for say a cup, as you are then left with the rest of the bottle. I wanted to find out how others deal with this. Do you just not make dishes that call for alcohol, or do you keep a small supply, locked away for the sole purpose of cooking?

[mollyka]

Hiya Not!
I am EXTREMELY lucky that the one drink in the whole world that I never liked except in cooking was red wine - all it ever gave me was a headache and a taste in my mouth so, sorry I'm no use to you, there is always an opened bottle of red wine in our house for cooking and I couldn't look at it!!
Molly

[Johnny]

This is a question that also interests me, I love cooking and loads of recipes that I know use alcoholic drinks. I think it would be useful to perhaps consider creative alternatives to this problem. I know that in many situations wine vinegars and various good quality vinegars in general are incredibly good flavour enhancers! I think there may be a cooking forum on this website somewhere, I'm off for a look!

[Johnny]

You may have seen it already guys but there is a forum called recipe corner in the daily living section!

[rubywillow]

Many recipes will specify using wine, or substituting chicken broth in any recipe calling for wine. Never really noticed a difference since I started using it! That half bottle of wine is TOO much temptation, even though I don't like wine!

[KateH1]

Great question! I do have several recipes that call for wine. I do notice a difference in the final product when substituting broth. I completely abstained from making any recipes containing wine during my first year AF. Yes, I was fearful of having the beast unleashed in my kitchen! But, these days,I do make recipes containing wine, I do not keep the remaining wine in the house, I either have Dave drink the remainder of the wine with dinner, or I immediately poor out the remaining wine. Ruby said it perfectly, I do not even want to be tempted to have a glass!

[Determinator]

Not Tonight, these are great questions, and near to me heart as a 'hobby gourmand' myself.

in my early AF days I would avoid red meat (especially lamb) as my red wine association with that was very strong. I concentrated on ethnic foods from regions of the world where wine is not common. I've enjoyed the brilliant flavors of India, China, Thailand, Turkey, North Africa, the Middle East etc etc....really there are so many wonderful cuisines that don't use wine at all.

I found that many of these cuisines use fruit juices and vinegars of all kinds in their creation. Instead of being a 'downer' this whole process has made me a significantly better cook and broadened my horizons.

now, fast forward some time and I don't even think of wine when cooking. I'm just thinking about the symphony of flavors, colors, textures etc. also I can taste/smell much better now that I don't drink.

yours in good taste