Me, too. I will chop veggies and make a big pot of soup or meatloaf late at night while watching TV in the evening. It reduces the frenetic pace of dinner time when the kids and DH are coming home, doing homework, getting ready to leave the house for an activity.

I hard boil eggs and other things like that at night.

Karen

Sue,

I'm often up all night. I enjoy baking in the middle of the night...especially cookies. I also do a lot of veggie chopping/slicing/dicing at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m.

I'll sometimes put a Dutch oven filled with baked beans in at weird hours also...then they're done by morning.

It's 11:21 p.m. now & I've just finished packaging up a batch of granola made today.

I love pork roast - Enjoy!

/tricia

Unless it's the holiday season and I am on a mad baking spree, I usually like to close things up in the kitchen by 9 p.m. The one exception is to mix up a bowl of bread dough for an overnight rise - which I have just done.

When my children were little and I was working full-time, I always baked and decorated their birthday cakes. Some of them were pretty elaborate, needing lots of different colors of icing and several piping bags. I remember working in the kitchen very, very late to complete some of those...

I bake a lot late at night, in summer it's cooler and all year round it's an uninterrupted time for me...I like to listen to late night radio as I bake and often call in for the late night quizzes; they often ask, "And what's keeping you up this late?" (especially as they originate on the other side of the country which is 3 hours later than here) and when I say, "Oh, I'm making a cake/cookies/whatever" there's often this pause like they're thinking, well _that's_ wierd...
Glad to know I'm not an orphan :-)

I do like to cook/bake in the evening. However, I am curious to know what you do about letting things cool? I hate to put things that are out-of-the-oven hot directly into the fridge, but I can't let it sit until morning.

I like to bake things like banana bread, but of course can't wrap them up while they are still hot. However, if I let it sit unwrapped until the morning, it's a bit stale around the edges.

What do you do about this?

It's not a problem for me, dedtired. I'm up/down all night long. If something has to cool for an hour or so...I just go back to bed & the next time I'm up I'll wrap it up & put it away.

/tricia

I LOVE to cook and bake late at night. I usually get in from work at 11:30. A couple nights ago I made a big pot of chicken soup at 1 AM. Last night I was busy making the unfried rice recipe Deanna posted (it's good btw) at midnight. I've also been known to make a carrot cake or cinnamon rolls at 3 AM. I used to have to be careful with loud appliances late at night since I live in an apartment... but I asked my upstairs neighbor if he ever hears my kitchen appliances and he said no... he never hears my anything! Good news to a baking insomniac. :o)

LOL!!! My husband and I are typically in bed at about 9:30 p.m. Early risers and early to bed. There are times that I am up due to family matters, etc. so to keep myself occupied I will get on-line and read recipes, etc. but I don't cook.

I'm usually falling asleep by 10-11, so I don't tend to do much cooking at night. I just don't know how night owls do it! I used to be able to stay awake until all hours, but now that I'm out of college I seem to have lost that ability. On the other hand, I've been known to get up at 4 or 5am and whip up a batch of cookies before work. I guess I'm lucky my husband is a pretty deep sleeper, he barely notices the appliances (even the food processor!).

If I had to bake first thing in the morning, there would be major ingredients missing and I couldn't guarantee how edible anything would be!

Kari

Depends if I have wine or not. :) No wine and I might be cooking. A glass or two and I am cooked.

Jo

I'm with you, Kari. I am useless in the morning. I have to look down and be sure I've got all my clothes on before I walk out the door. I am a night owl at heart, but since I have to be uo by 6:45 a.m., I make myself go to bed by 10.

I'm lucky to have time for a bowl of Cheerios much less bake something.

I thought I was the the only one with this affliction. Quite often I'll bake bread or a cake late in the evening.

I just pulled the lat of my cookies out of the oven. Does that count as late night baking? :)

I read about cooking in the wee hours, but wouldn't consider that activity myself. I'm up frequently in the middle of the night, but am not productive.

seagrass

Ditto Seagrass!

I did make two batches of split pea soup tonight--one with ham for DH and one salt free batch for my dad. I'm exhausted! But I freely admit that I'm not a morning person either and so most cooking goes on in the evening. W/O wine!

I might put a pot of chicken or turkey broth on and let it simmer on low all night. Or mix up a Biga the night before. But there aren't many things I would cook at night for the next day. I'm an early riser so I sometimes do a little prep getting things ready to cook when I get home from work. Or in the case of a pot roast, having Moe either take it out of the oven when it is finished or putting it in the oven so it will be done when I get home.

I usually make a big dinner most nights so I don't want to clean up from that and start cooking again.

Ann

Nope, we are daytime cookers and bakers. The only time we may do late night is if we are catering something the next day and want to prep for it. If by chance we are missing an ingredient the stores will still be open during the day. Ours close around 9:00pm here. NancyLouise

Nope! Doesn't mix with sleeping.

I am like Bri...I LOVE to bake first thing in the morning. Right after my first cup of coffee!
A perfect Saturday for me is starting bread by 6am, baking one or two other things, getting dinner started or something in the crockpot. By 9am, DH is up and we go to work outside.
By 6pm, it's either dark or we're tired. he turns on TV or computer and I head back to the kitchen to finish dinner.

I usually manage to sit down for an hour or so before bedtime....around 9 or 9:30.

During the week sometimes I make the following night's dinner after we eat purely out of necessity. I don't have 2 or 3 hours to cook something during the week and serve it the same night.

Deanna

Yes, I often bake, cook or can at night, after midnight sometimes.

I'm not a morning person, I just hate mornings. I don't even eat that bowl of Cheerios mentioned above, or make a pot of coffee until I get to work. By the time I get to work at 9, work 10 hours or so, and get home at 7:30, change clothes, pick up and maybe grab a bite of supper, it's 9 or 10 p.m. If I'm going to bake bread or make soup, it's going to be after midnight before it's finished.

Annie