Cooking can either be incredibly relaxing or incredibly stressful. It depends on the setting. If I’m home alone, with nothing but time in front of me, and a plethora of good ingredients, cooking a good meal is like having a nice massage. You can unwind, get out mind off of whatever’s going on, maybe dance a little. I always have a little cooking music going on. 

But if you’re having friends over, especially friends you don’t know that well, and you have just over an hour to get everything together… that’s when cooking is stressful. You’re running around hoping the timing works out, chopping so fast you’re afraid you might cut off a finger, accidentally burning the lasagna you worked all day on. And if you’re on the TV show Chopped? Forget about it. That’s the most stressful kind of cooking you could ever dream of. Cooking up a meme list, though… that’s pure pleasure.