On cooking vs. outfits

  I've been wondering something lately: what do style enthusiasts do when we cook?

  I've seen recipe and cooking blogs, but they always feature immaculately clean, macro shots of photogenic ingredients with diffuse white lighting on tastefully coordinated pale backgrounds.

  My kitchen does not look like that.

  This is our kitchen. My equipment is a hodgepodge of thrifted gadgets. And when I cook, my clothes are definitely in a hazard zone, because there are always steam, oil and as often as not, pungent Asian sauces flying through the air. Also, we have way too many refrigerator magnets.

  One day I would love to live somewhere with a working dishwasher, unbroken shelves, and counters that aren't warped and peeling, but until then, this is where I do my work, and I love being in this room.

  Sometimes I am tempted to invest in a safety mask, particularly when throwing water or tea onto a hot pan to steam dumplings, or when chopping a particularly feisty onion. (My roommate refuses to use my lab goggles. Maybe he thinks they are tears of penance for chopping aromatics.)

  I been competent enough since a young age to feed myself, but it wasn't until I went back to school and started cooking every night to save money that I loved cooking. Prepping ingredients became calming, and when a dish turns out right I do a little happy dance, thinking I am awesome.

  Things I have learned:
  1) Lamb fat does not come out. There will be a subtle greasy spot on the abdomen of my Pure + Good hoodie and my Old Navy dress forever. Surprisingly, I have not tried layering the two items to see if the grease stains match up. Future outfit idea noted.

  2) Green tea can be substituted for water in pretty much anything. Cook rice, steam dumplings, and make ginger beer with it. It's very nice.

  3) Cut the cooking times for all meat in recipes you find online in half, and check on it. I swear, people on the Internet overcook *everything*.

  Recently, after owning it for a mere two years and forgetting I had it neatly folded up in a box, I started wearing my apron. It was a gift from my mother. It cracks me up because it looks very much like a country-style apron that I'd imagine well, not Asian people wearing, but she got it for me because I was born in the year of the rooster. I can tell people it makes me cocky.

   Now I don't need to change out of my day clothes quite so much.

  If you cook, what do you do to protect your outfits? Do you change? Wear a full body apron? Both? Please tell me if you wear a safety mask.