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I cooked yesterday. It has been a little while since I have cooked anything. Well of course I have made eggs and salads and sandwiches and tacos and soup and steaks that don’t require a recipe. It’s hard for me to follow recipes … I am not sure why. Because I’m blonde. Not! Maybe it’s because I tend to put the cookbook on the table and the ingredients on the counter. I look at the directions and by the time I have turned to the counter I have forgotten what the ingredients are, where to put them, what comes next, how much, what temperature. So I turn back, look at the cookbook and guess what? The same thing happens. Where has my memory for detail gone?
I told my doctor about this recipe phenomenon. This highly trained movement disorder specialist neurologist who is at least 20 years younger and has ten more years of school than I suddenly becomes my freshman Home Economics class teacher. Her white lab coat turns into an apron right before my eyes. The exam table is the counter and the computer is really a cookbook on a stand. Tongue depressors are utensils and the blood pressure cuff, hmm, the hand held mixer? By golly is this a hallucination, my imagination or just too much Sinemet?
She says:
Place your cookbook near your work area. Check for your ingredients and gather everything before you start. Get out the measuring spoons and cups, mixing bowls and anything else you may need. Check the recipe book for the oven temperature and set it. Now follow the directions one step at a time. Be sure to add ingredients in the order they are listed…and on goes the cooking lecture…
I paid $250 for 20 minute visit about following recipes?
Dr Amie, I wanted to say. I have been cooking for years. I was quite good in Home Ec. I even won the Betty Crocker Homemaker award. Mind you that was a paper and pencil test and the judges weren’t there to actually see me cook. They didn’t hear about the great saltwater taffy debacle which someone photographed and memorialized in the high school annual. Lucky for them they weren’t present when I didn’t get the beaters in quite right on the mixer. Bad thing about that, when I cleaned up the mess and I started over, I still hadn’t placed the beaters in the mixer properly. Ugh. But I could out cook anyone (except maybe my mom) at the hamburger grill and a was super speedy at milkshake mixing. Does that lower my points on the Parkinson’s severity rating scale.
I didn’t say any of that to Dr Amie. Yesterday I followed her advice and the recipe didn’t take 3 hours more than usual to make.
It’s nice to have a recipe to follow. If you do things a certain way you can expect certain results. If you do not follow the recipe you get certain other results. So, my Parkinson’s recipe for success is as follows: check your internal temperature. If it’s somewhere near 98.6 you are good. Next is your heart beating? You can move then. get moving. Get up to or exceed 8 hours of sleep in 24, no matter how. Take the medication at exactly the right time. Watch what you eat, drink plenty of water, stretch, walk, ride a bike, work out. Gather friends for support and fun. These things are my recipe for success, I can do this thing called Parkinson’s.