The problem with time

Time has been passing without my notice lately.  This is bad because there is usually something in my oven. Something that burns.  It's not as if I have a lot of other things on my mind. I just seem to fail to remember to set the timer. So far I have overcooked a roast, a pizza, a loaf of bread, a chicken breast and some nachos. I almost overcooked scotch eggs tonight but passed by the stove a few minutes after I put them in the oven and saw what time it was. Then it hit me, if I can see what time it is on the stove, I haven't set the timer. Less than 5 minutes had elapsed since I put the eggs in the oven, so I was safe.

I don't know what is the matter with me. I prep the food fine, no ingredients overlooked, no step undone. I get it into the oven at the right temp & I look at the clock and think "Ok, at such and such a time this should be done" and then I walk away. Normally while I am thinking that thought, I set the timer, but not lately. Lately I have been behaving as if I will not only remember that at 4:30 I have to take the bread out of the oven, but that I will also realize it is 4:30 in the first place. 

Perhaps I have subconsciously decided to try cooking by smell.  There is, with many things, a very brief window of 'wow that smells wonderful', right before 'wow what did you burn?' Problem is, that once you hit that window, your food is already a bit overcooked. Add to that you are in another room, need to wade through the piles of folded & unfolded laundry, find some oven mits and then shoo some small children out of the way of the stove, before you can remove the thing that had been smelling wonderful and lots of things are a bit more than overcooked.

It does make for a change though.  For most of December everything I cooked somehow was undercooked.  Maybe next month I'll get it right.