A Year in the Kitchen
12 Ideas to Spark Your Culinary Creativity
I can very easily get stuck in a cooking rut. Sometimes, I don’t mind the repetition so much (in those cases I call it a “rhythm” instead of a “rut”). But other times, I grow tired of the same old recipes and crave more creativity in the kitchen. I want to use the cookbooks that sit on my shelf collecting dust, and I want to learn more about the ingredients I’m using in the kitchen. I talk about learning certain culinary techniques, but I so rarely carve out the time to practice. I keep telling myself I’ll have so-and-so over for dinner, but life gets busy and I forget to invite them over.
Cooking, just like any creative endeavor, requires practice and intentionality if we want to improve, try new things, or share those gifts with others. In order to do that, I think a bit of structure and guidance can be helpful.
Below, I’ve come up with 12 different cooking activities. You can do one per month for a year, or just pick and choose a couple to tackle whenever you want. Hopefully, these will spark your creativity in the kitchen—and leave you with some delicious food in the process!
Cook with an ingredient you’ve never cooked with before. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy or strange (although it could be). But maybe you’ve never used scallops or fennel or a certain cut of meat in your own kitchen, even if you’ve eaten them elsewhere. Wander the grocery store aisles and see what ingredients sound inspiring and interesting. Then Google a recipe and get cookin’!
Do an olive oil tasting. Buy 3-5 extra virgin olive oils and test them side-by-side. What do you notice is different? What do you like about one over the other? Is there one you'd like to cook with regularly or a favorite for dipping bread into or using in a vinaigrette? Do you notice any difference between the place of origin—like a California oil versus an Italian oil? If you want to go all out, you could host an olive oil tasting party. Williams Sonoma has a great blog post on their site that tells you exactly how to do it.
Cook with mystery ingredients. Go to the grocery store with a friend, child, spouse, or whomever. Split up and each of you pick out an ingredient without telling the other person what you’re choosing. Cook a meal incorporating both those ingredients. My husband and I used to do this for budget-friendly date-nights-in, and it was so fun!
Create your own recipe. Find a mix-and-match recipe. Create your own recipe using the mix-and-match guidelines. Here are a few ideas from Food Network:
Move to the front yard. When we moved into our house, our neighbors next door regularly hung out in their front yard. They always welcomed us over and offered us a drink. When they redid some of their landscaping, they chose to do the front yard first so that they had a place for people to get together. They've since moved away, but I've never forgotten how they prioritized the front yard and brought our neighborhood together.
Sit out front (or wherever you can be seen). Maybe it's a front yard or a public park or a sandy beach. Consider inviting your neighbors. Bring out a pitcher of iced tea or some appetizers to share. Eat in view of everyone else, where people aren't quite so divided by fences. Heck, order pizza if you need to. The point is to connect with others, and eating together is a great way to do that. (If you feel really brave, try setting up a table in your building hallway or another common area like this beautiful video shows.)
Craft a really good drink. This could be a cocktail or mocktail. Or learn to brew great coffee with a pourover or Chemex. Maybe make matcha, try your hand at latte art, or make a new recipe like Grapefruit + Watermelon Agua Fresca.
Practice a cooking technique (searing, poaching, grilling, etc.) This post from Bon Appétit lists every basic cooking technique home cooks should know, and it has a two-minute video for each. Learn anything from how to perfectly fry an egg to how to debone a chicken to mastering pâte à choux. And if you want to teach your kids while you’re at it, this article lists seven techniques all kid cooks should learn.
Grab a cookbook you already own off the shelf. Pick out 2 new recipes and cook them this month. Too many of my cookbooks collect dust, but I always have the best intentions to actually cook through them Julie & Julia style. Maybe cooking through every recipe in the book is a bit ambitious, so this month, pick a couple new and fun recipes to make. You may even find that this give you enough to get some culinary momentum to keep working your way through that book!
Recreate a restaurant favorite. What’s a restaurant dish you love? Try to recreate it at home! Either try it from memory or do a quick Google search for your favorite restaurant dishes. Here are a few ideas!
Cook with someone else. Speaking of teaching your kids to cook, I have to admit, I'm terrible about bringing my kids in the kitchen with me. I think it's valuable for so many reasons: teaching them new skills, family bonding, learning about food, etc. But gosh, I can just make everything faster and better if I don't have four-year-old hands trying to mix and pour.
Yet faster isn't always better, right? Sometimes the flour on the floor and the extra time it takes to cook are worth it. Other times, having a friend over to bake or cooking a meal with a spouse create lasting memories that go beyond simply eating the food together. When you spill the flour, there are two of you to laugh about it and clean up. When the cake doesn't turn out right, you have a friend to help you troubleshoot. When the meal tastes perfect, there's someone there to share the fruits of your labor.
This month, get in the kitchen with someone else—a friend, neighbor, your kids, spouse, anyone. As you cook and bake, savor the people in your life and the food you get to make with them.
Cook a back-of-the-box recipe. Ever seen that episode of Friends when Monica tries to replicate Phoebe’s grandmother's famous chocolate chip cookies? She comes to realize the renowned recipe was from the back of the bag of chocolate chips. Peruse your pantry, fridge, or freezer, and find a recipe on the back of one of the packages, and give it a try.
Throw a terrible dinner party. A while back, I read this article from The Kitchn, and it helped me let go of a bit of perfectionism that keeps me from inviting others into my home. With three little kids running around, hosting a beautiful, perfectly cooked dinner party (as much as I’d want to do that) is just too hard for me right now. So instead, why not invite people over on an ordinary night, tell them to bring their leftovers, and just have fun!
