Every year I make the same resolution: to get out of my cooking rut,
try new ingredients, try new recipes, have people over to dinner more.
(The resolution isn't necessarily for new year's. Usually I make it
after visiting my in-laws who have been eating the same, plain,
perfectly good, recipes for 50 years.) Every year I keep the resolution
though not to the degree I would have liked. I do try new recipes, but
not at the rate of one/week the way I promise myself.


Here's my version of the weekend-get-out-of-your-rut challenge: I
counted the cookbooks on the shelf in the other room. I have roughly
86. I'll use 2 decks of cards to choose a book at random. Then I'll use
the cards again to choose 5 recipes. I'll choose a recipe from those 5.
(That's just to prevent me from making something that I'm pretty sure
I'll hate.) I should do this today so I have time to shop for the weekend.


--Lia