Cooking under the influence . . . of fibromyalgia

I was raised by foodies before anyone bothered using that term. Decades ago, people who cooked anything more elaborate than mac-n-cheese or beanie-weenie were often considered "gourmet" cooks. No one used the word "chef."

My mother did, in fact, own and prepare meals from The Gourmet Cookbook; collected recipes from newspapers and magazines; was a cookbook copy editor for a while. My father was a terrific short-order cook whose sandwiches, salads, and omelets were awesome before anyone applied that term to everything.

Try cooking with this going on!

I learned how to cook early and well from both parents. Food prep, cooking, and even kitchen clean-up was always my happy place. It still is...except when it isn't.  And it isn't when I'm feeling core-level exhausted.

Core-level exhaustion comes with fibromyalgia. So does dropping things and spilling stuff. Brain fog. Under these conditions the kitchen can become a dangerous place.

Fibromyalgia is a crazy-ass condition and I got my diagnosis in 1986 before it was called fibromyalgia. You can read my fibromyalgia story on More Meredith Gould. Come back here to read more about how, after decades of denial, I'm finally getting around to dealing with it, especially in the kitchen.