I love to be spontaneous when it comes to planning dinner. If I am having guests over...that's a different story, then I put on my proverbial chef's hat and go out to the store with my prepared grocery list on my Droid X (I run into people I know at the store that can't get over that). That mode is smart and safe, usually I am making a dish that I know will knock the guests socks off. More than not though...I make dinner planning playful. There are several ways I do this, one being just pulling up a google search screen and typing in an ingredient that comes to mind such as Asparagus. Usually, something will pop up that doesn't take three days of marinating and three days of hanging outside your back porch. Another good way to search google is to type in "the best recipe for ___________), I have pulled up some amazing recipes that way. It is quick and easy, as long as you are the type that can make a quick decision, go with it and boom 9 hours later, dinner is served!
Another fun way is the cook book game...(my fetish for cookbooks will be an entree one day I am sure) I grab one of the multitudes of cookbooks I have, trying to make it one I have neglected for a long time...this can be highly adventurous (don't be afraid to let out a good guttural "yee haw" if the mood strikes you during this mode) and whether it's this way or the google way, make sure you do this early enough to allow for enough time to go out to the store or stores and get anything that recipe calls for. If you are feeling like really letting your hair down and becoming a mad cook in your kitchen tonight, purposely grab your African cook book or something far from mainstream Betty Crocker or Better Homes and Gardens, but be ready the only rules are:
1)No matter what you close your eyes and open up to, commit to making it even if it means frantically searching for frozen Ostrich Claws...
2)Start early in the morning to give you plenty of time to get organized...you might have to shop at several stores
3)Stay positive in your new culinary vision for the day. It might be some way of food prepping you never even knew existed, but try to stay with it...it will only become overwhelming if you let it! And remember Julia and her glasses of wine...but remember the Dan Aykroyd skit too...don't be a drunk cook for safety reasons...
4)Buy some Stouffer's frozen macaroni and cheese - one box for each family member just in case a fiasco brews and compels you to throw your creation down the drain in despair
So with the cookbook method, you open the book and place your finger on a page without looking and choose a meal. If your collection is minimal, take yourself to your public library stand in front of all the cookbooks, close your eyes and reach out and touch one...(just be careful not to touch old man Grayson, or old lady Gertrude while your eyes are closed!)
One fun way I really enjoy is to either use the vintage cook book handed down from your grandmother's mother or perhaps you have one from an estate sale. I acquired a collection of those Betty Crocker cards with pictures that were advertised all over the airwaves back in the early seventies...that can be fun. Not necessarily healthy but fun. You're assured of creating an ultra comfort food type dish with those.
Ok, you can play it safe and open a cookbook's table of contents or open your fridge and see what ingredients you find but that's just that...playing it safe. Taking a walk on the wild side could broaden your culinary horizon, it could make your mate salivate in ecstasy at the Moroccan lamb stew you conjured up, it might even be the start of a whole new you...who knows! The skies the limit! Heck you might even rent Julie & Julia again and debone the duck!
bon appetit!
robert
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