cook up a storm

Verb

cook up a storm (third-person singular simple present cooks up a storm, present participle cooking up a storm, simple past and past participle cooked up a storm)

1. (informal) To do a large amount of cooking at once; to prepare a great deal of cooked food.
   • When I started to lose weight, she started cooking up a storm.1997, Susan Merrell, The Accidental Bond
   • Karen and Dan luxuriated in the outdoors, and Carrie, too, enjoyed being in a house — small as it was — and cooking up a storm for us.2005, Sondra Gorney, Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?: The Life of Composer Jay Gorney, →ISBN
2. To cause a storm (weather phenomenon).
   • "Sounds like it's cooking up a storm outside." Jennifer nodded.1996, B. J. Hoff, Storm at Daybreak, →ISBN, page 168
   • In the time of the Armada the British witches got together and cooked up a storm. They did it again when Hitler was on the way.2004, Jack Fritscher, Anton Szandor La Vey, Popular Witchcraft: Straight from the Witch's Mouth, →ISBN, page 101
3. (figuratively) To create a stormy situation; agitate or enrage.
   • Given this information, my imagination was cooking up a storm of other disrupting possibilities. I slept badly and woke up sick to my stomach.2009, John Cowan, Hawk Rising: Soaring on the Wings of Desire, →ISBN, page 11
   • Air and water can cook up a storm if left too much to their own devices.2012, Demian Allan, The Astrological Dynamics of the Universe, →ISBN, page 42
4. (idiomatic) To make a big fuss, generate a lot of unnecessary talk or activity; make a scene.
   • Iranians cook up a storm in Harare: Iran's President Ali Khamenei, on the final leg of a six-nation tour in mid- January, became embroiled in what the Zimbabwe Herald termed an "unprecedented diplomatic incident" when he refused to attend a banquet held in his honor by Prime Minister Robert Mugabe.1986, Africa Special Report: Bulletin of the Institute of African American Relations, page 51
   • Well the weather is similar, the hot dang LLVs are still cooking up a storm yet we hardly get the old Hill Street Blues adage of "Let's be careful out there" and any form of liquid is noticable^([sic]) by its absence.2001, The Postal Record - Volume 114, page 49
5. To make a splash; to create a spectacle.
   • Kaffe is really cooking up a storm here, with polychromatic fireworks in shimmering primaries exploding and rioting all over the canvas.1991, Fruits of the Earth: Flowers and Fruit in Needlepoint, page 86
   • A Rogers original, Short Stop has the sax section led by Bill Perkins cooking up a storm.1991, Rapport - Volume 16, Issues 3-17, page 49