Rut-busting!

Today, I was a rut-buster and it felt great! I get stuck in culinary ruts more often than I'd care to admit. I make the same few things for supper. And I know my hard-working honey gets bored with the same-old same-old, too. And I know there are approximately 8.725 billion websites with recipes and ideas. Thus, there's no excuse for getting rut-stuck. Alas, I do. I fall back to the old stand-bys. I forget to look for recipes before I grocery shop. And my pantry, fridge, and freezer seem to generally contain the same batch of items. But today, I decided to be adventuresome.

It started when I stumbled upon a recipe that I already had all the ingredients for. (only one of which isn't a stand-by, but had from a previous recipe.) I ran it by the hubby to get his opinion and give him two options. He said the new one was fine. So I made it (with a couple of tweaks for personal taste.) As we ate (ahem, devoured) dinner, he told me he practically had the pizza place on speed dial after I told him the name of the dish because it initially didn't sound very good to him. (I had absolutely faith in it, having read the ingredients.) Instead of calling back-up, he told me it was probably one of my most successful dishes ever and he absolutely loved it! Yay, me! And double-yay for being able to make dinner with food we already had! (I'm trying really hard to stretch the budget, and space the shopping trips, as much as possible.)

This afternoon, what with all the cloud cover and drizzle, I also felt an overwhelming urge to bake. I haven't baked in a while. There weren't any "desserty" things in the house (although that's probably not a bad thing.) And I just wanted to make some cookies. The only cookies I really know by heart are chocolate chip cookies. And I'll admit, my cookies are pretty darn amazing. But I had no chocolate chips. So, in a fiscally responsible effort, I pillaged my cupboards to see what I had to work with. And I did something I very rarely do. I got creative in the kitchen. I can follow a recipe with the best of them. But culinary creativity doesn't come naturally to me.

To my basic chocolate chip recipe, I added a bit of almond extract and a little cinnamon. Then I divided the dough in half. In half the cookies, I added dried cranberries and glazed walnuts. In the second half, I added some sliced almonds and reconstituted dried mangoes. I was so proud of my brain! And my taste buds were delighted! Both turned out really well. I'm excited to have something new in my baking repertoire.

Yep, I got out of ruts in the kitchen. I may not have scaled Everest, but I feel like a conqueror today!