Tip of the Day: Try something new

It isn’t hard to find that you are in a rut…either of fixing the same stuff over and over or finding that you are throwing something, anything, on the table because it seems like every day it’s dinner time before you know it. What is the home cook to do about that?

Well, I have tried the fix and freeze method, to an extent. Yes, it’s convenient and I personally don’t find much difference in the flavor…but, when you watch cooking shows (as Chris and I do continuously…we are hard core foodies), the chefs would rather die than eat something frozen or out of a can. So, I have been wondering if maybe I’ve just become accustomed to it. So, I’m trying to cook fresh every day.

Here’s what I have found that works:

1) plan your day around your dinner

2) utilize those cookbooks and websites.

Those 2 tips may not be earth shattering…but, they work. I have started getting ready to make dinner around 3:30p…and it’s worked out SO much better. Now, school is just around the corner, so I will have to move that to 4p, but the premise is not to wait until 5:15p to start browsing the fridge. I must say I haven’t been a menu kinda gal…but am becoming one slowly. If you have children in sports/after school activities…maybe cooking dinner earlier in the day or the night before would work. You may be reheating it, but it won’t coming from a frozen state.

I have mentioned in another post that I believe I have a cookbook addiction, or, as I prefer to call it–a collection. I have over 40 cookbooks and have actually weeded out some I no longer use. I browse through them before I go shopping, and try to incorporate at least 2-3 new recipes during the week—either a side dish, dessert, or main dish. I have tried the dinner of a brand new entree, side, and dessert…and that is VERY risky because if they bomb, the whole meal is a bust. So, go slowly. Aaaand, we’ve had that happen.

This week my plan is a new way of cooking the same thing every meal. For example, we’ve had beef ribs before…but this week I am going to braise them and then slow cook them in dry red wine with veggies. Yum, right?! And, tonight I am making a fresh cobbler (or grunt, as it’s also known), with fresh blueberries, strawberries, and peaches from our local farm stand. All seasonal until the end of summer…that’s my new personal challenge.

So, have fun trying something new! In the words of Marty, the zebra from “Madagascar”, “Don’t love it ‘till ya try it!”