ChattyCathy > wrote in
:

> So what kind of cook are you? The 'clean up as you go along' type or
> the 'do it all in one go when you're finished' type? Or somewhere in
> between? Just wonderin'.

I tend to clean what needs to be cleaned to make space (we have a
restricted counter area) but when I'm finished serving, the last thing
may remain where it was last placed.

My wife, on the other hand, needs the entire space of the kitchen to
make a simple cake for which she needs her standard cookbook.
Afterwards, the sink will be filled with dirty bowls, pots, and a few
things that really are not needed for mixing ingredients for a cake but
which she can never actually explain...but this is the person who thinks
the pasta fork is a great salad fork too because she wants to serve
salad with only one hand (don't ask).

The mess she can deal with, but I can't hack it when she gets an idea to
bake a cake when I'm in the middle of preparing a meal for six. A few
years ago, facing a Christmas dinner for eight, I told her she had to
get her baking done the day before. She did and that worked out
beautifully. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case.

Me, I make a cake from a mix of organic wheat free ingredients, add an
egg and a cup of soy milk, mix, pour into a greased round pan used for
that only and Bob's yer uncle. Good enough for folk music, and I only
need to clean one bowl and a wooden spoon. I don't get why it's
necessary to make such a mess. One of these days, I should get her to
walk me through it.