Be Brave in the Kitchen

Recently I overhead two friends talking about trying new things for dinner. One of them said, “You have to be brave in the kitchen."

I couldn’t agree more. When Beverly and I started writing together 15 years ago, we were both decent cooks. I mean we weren’t poisoning our families, but we struggled to feel creative and have any energy left for bath-time. (All our kids were in pre-school at the time.)

That seems a lifetime ago and in many ways it was. What was our struggle then, is not really our struggle, now, or is it?

Is it not the same that we find we don’t have energy at the end of the day? Forget that menopause is draining us not toddlers?

Is it not the same that we feel as if we lost our creativity, not because we don’t have the resources, but because we’re bored with cooking?

Back then we were both daytime food journalists with a wealth of knowledge and experts at our fingertips. Now we’re syndicated columnists and cookbook authors, but still find ourselves bored.

Cooking at home is still the most economical way to feed your family. We know this, we wrote a whole book on it. But the fact remains that if you are not willing to be brave in the kitchen, you’re going to go no where and do nothing. But you still have to feed your family.

So I’m suiting up, heading off into the test kitchen, hoping I hit a homerun, but realizing that bravery means failing sometimes and that’s OK. If I don’t try something new, how will I ever feel creative again, right? I’ll let you know how it goes ...