Imaginative Meals

I spend a part of every early morning thinking about what I want to make for dinner.  It should be as simple as looking in the freezer or pantry and seeing what I have but it’s not.  Every day I wake up with the goal of making a dinner of pure artistry.  Of course, I also have to take into consideration time constraints, nutritional needs, likes and dislikes, expense, variety, etc.

I have studied nutrition since I was in college and have studied cooking most of my life.  My Mom was an amazing cook and was always concerned about budget and nutrition and the likes/dislikes of my father and the rest of us.  She cooked from the viewpoint of two cultures: traditional English and traditional American.  My Dad was also an incredible cook and his specialties were grilled foods and a few oven dishes.  I built on their training by adding to those foods a love for Asian, Mexican, German, French, Italian, and a bit of Middle Eastern cuisine.  And still I find myself adding on to my repertoire.

Anyway, for about a half hour every morning I give a hard thought to how I can make an amazing dinner to please myself and impress my husband.  Sometimes I base the meal around meat but not often.  Generally I pick a protein: fish, eggs, beans, legumes, or meat, then decide on flavor such as Italian, Mexican, traditional American, etc.  Once that is decided, the rest falls in line.  Occasionally I have a craving for a particular vegetable like broccoli or green beans or snap peas or pumpkin and then I base the meal around that.  Sometimes the whole meal is based on what was on sale at the store that week.  And sometimes I follow up a complex meal with something very simple the next night like soup or fruit plate or omelet.

I think of this planning in a way as a painter might.  OK, I have a good size tube of red but very little blue right now and can’t afford more.  What can I paint with minimal blue and maximum red?  And what can I throw in to make it more interesting?  Yes, I have some yellow and a bit of green and lots of black and white.  Bound to be able to make a very nice painting with this variety.  Might not please everyone but it will certainly please me and my husband.  And since I painted a 4 foot by 6 foot canvas yesterday, I’ll do a 5 inch by 8 inch today.

I wonder if I am such a frustrated painter that I have to express myself creatively through cooking.  Or, am I just an artistic cook and haven’t fully accepted myself as such.