Improvising in the Kitchen

You can't improvise if you are tense. Or thinking too much. You have to really let it go. Joy Bryant 

I have a feeling that the author was talking about acting but the same sentiment is true in the kitchen.

 I have a friend (and friend you know I really am very proud of you but I’m writing a blog here) who tends to follow the recipe to the letter and is not the greatest fan of cooking so they get tense and upset when things go wrong. Actually I know a few people like this. To me, baking is the one science I can actually _get_ (don’t ask me what I scored on my one and only chemistry test – Epic Fail doesn’t begin to cover it). But cooking is like expressionist painting. You add a splash of red, a dash of green until it looks – or in the case of cooking tastes right.

Why am I writing about this today? Well I was chatting with my BFF Rina through email while watching The Pioneer Woman – my new favorite cooking show. I like that she uses things like bouillon and store bought cheats… but I digress. So there I was, watching Ree and chatting to my BFF. Rina said she was making chili for dinner and lo and behold, the Pioneer Woman talked about chili and I suddenly had a craving. I’ve been under the weather this weekend and it’s been cold and rainy – a true fall weekend – and chili suddenly sounded just perfect.

I did a mental tally of what I had on hand. Celery –check; onions and a pepper – check; ground beef, tomato paste, pickled jalapeños, kidney beans - check and… oh crap, I only had crushed tomatoes on hand, no diced!

Ahhh… but I had a huge tomato in the fridge and a bunch of cherry tomatoes. So I didn’t panic or decide no I can’t make my chili without diced tomatoes. I improvised. I chopped up fresh tomatoes and Eureka! The chili was saved.

So in my short and sweet blog today my suggesting is to let go in the kitchen. Improvise, think outside the lines – or along parallel planes of existence. Just because you don’t have a can of diced tomatoes doesn’t mean you can’t have chili, just add some diced fresh tomatoes in with the crushed and Bob’s your Uncle.

I’ll let you know how my Improv Chili comes out!

Temptingly yours,

Tracey

And if you want to know who the Pioneer woman is – she blogs too! Go here:  http://thepioneerwoman.com/

Or here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/the-pioneer-woman/index.html?vty=pioneerwoman  to learn more.