Cooking rut

Yes Oprah, you are right. It is an amazing thing- getting dinner on the table every night. I listened to her speak- in amazement, about how incredible she thinks mums are; being able to whip up dinner every night, 'it's an incredible thing, its a miracle- something new every night! wow!' Yes it is incredible, I agree, but I wouldn't say 'it's something NEW every night'. I don't want to admit how many times I've cooked spaghetti bolognaise in the past fortnight...But the fact that I have now got two CANS of leggos spaghetti sauce (mince-meat included) in the cupboard is testament to the fact that I am in a serious cooking rut!

I do enjoy cooking and it is probably the household task that comes most naturally to me, but every now and then I need some major inspiration to keep me going. To keep the passion alive! It is hard work keeping passionate sometimes. I love how we can inspire each other though. I love how you can be feeling so flat and hopeless about something and then spend time with someone and suddenly have a whole new outlook on things. That is what happened tonight. I went and hung out at my friend Mia's place. We chatted and worked on our own little projects. Mine tonight was getting out of the cooking rut. I took a few cook books and began poring through them. I found lots of recipes I would love to eat, but not many I would love to make...You know, like lamb shanks and slow cooked legs of ham and fish laksas with a million ingredients. PLUS a lot of these gourmet looking recipes were probably not going to get my girls coming back for seconds. With a sigh, and wondering if I was ever going to get past spag bol I opened my recently purchased 'How to Eat' by Nigella Lawson. Yes, it's no secret that I love Nigella, but I had just put down another of her books that hadn't helped me much so I was a bit dubious. The book has ravingly good reviews about it being the cook-book of the decade and great reading as well as great cooking. I began to flip through.

I was finding myself a little turned off by the fact that there are no pictures of recipes, just annoying shots of partially unwrapped butter, solitary leeks, an unpeeled potatoe and perhaps my favourite; a half-opened (apparently empty) tin of sardines. Hello, I KNOW what a jar of uncooked rice looks like, It would be nice to see a picture of the risotto you are talking about here....Gah! Anyway, before I became overwhelmed by the frustration these photographs were stirring up in me, I stumbled upon the chapter 'feeding babies and small children'. And then I rediscovered why I love Nigella. Not only does she have great, no fuss recipes that are delicious, but the way she writes is so hilariously entertaining in its passion and uplifting in its honesty.

for example, here's a quote from page 457;

'You do need to be able to feed babies promptly. If you can prepare baby food in advance, freeze it and then microwave when needed, you reduce the time you are subjected to outraged, hunger-crazed screaming. But the practical advantage is the least of it. If you slave away cooking from scratch, trying to create some perfect morsel for you baby's edification, you will inevitably take it much harder when she spits it out in disgust or wipes it all over the walls. It isn't wise to put so much emotional pressure on either yourself or your children at mealtimes. If you slave and then freeze the product of your stove-bound slavery, the memory of the effort will inevitably recede and you won't take rejection so badly. This goes for feeding older children too.'

I was not only entertained as I read but I was also (as I had hoped) re-inspired to cook for my family. I found a number of recipes in this chapter that were perfect for the girls but would also be a welcome change for Shane and I as well. To name a few; Macaroni and cheese (from scratch), marinated drumsticks, fried rice with omelette, chicken patties, fruit crumble as well as some more good ideas for next week. Ok, so they aren't exotic but a change is a good as a holiday (even if the holiday is going camping in the backyard). More importantly I feel my creative juices flowing again and as I shopped, (I stopped at the supermarket on the way home) before I came up with some more ideas of my own that I want to try out this week. Yay!

So if you are like me this week- a house wife in a cooking rut. Or even if you aren't a housewife, Iwon't be prejudice, I would be happy to share my recipes with you and would also LOVE to hear your favourite thing to cook. What might be a cooking rut to you may be an exotic new venture for me, so do share!