In case you were worried my lack of posting meant that I’d stopped cooking or, heaven forbid, eating, the above photo should quell your fears. A few days ago I noticed a great sale on jumbo shrimp and couldn’t stop myself from stocking up. I sauteed several with some fresh red bell pepper and some frozen peas, along with a few tabs of habanero compound butter. This piquant stirfry went on top of some leftover pasta with lemon velvet sauce. This last week at least I’ve been eating very well.
You see, I’ve not been posting due to a food block. Over the last few weeks it seems everything I made was a disaster. Some things were so bad, in fact, that I think I somehow made myself sick. Or I caught the flu. Either way, last week, my food boredom/disgust hit the fan and once my appetite came back after I started feeling better, I hauled out and got some gorgeous fresh produce. If there’s one way I know to boost an appetite it’s by finding the most beautiful foods to stimulate as many senses as possible. I went on a sort of spree, which was absolutely necessary if you saw the food we had in the house the two weeks prior.
The good food seems to have worked because this week everything has been golden. That dish above was so good, I’m about to go out and by another pound of shrimp to have all over again just looking at that picture. If I can bring myself to do it, I might post some of the failures to see if we can figure out what went wrong and how I can do it better next time. Either way, I’ve been cooking again and I feel like I’m almost ready to start posting some new recipes again.
I say almost because another thing has been nagging me that has caused my perfectionist side to shy away from posting. I’m disappointed in my photos here on this site so far. Since I started this blog I’ve learned quite a bit about food photography. I’ve adjusted my lighting, my composition, my colors, even my bowls and backdrops. No matter the changes I make in front of the camera, however, the fact is that the camera I’m using is not very good for what I’m using it for. I’m trying not to let this bother me, and I’m going to do my best with what I’ve got for now, but I’ll just say right now that I must rectify this situation one way or another and SOON.
Tell me though, what do you do when you can’t think of anything to cook? Do you have any tricks you pull when the food you’ve been making has left you uninspired? Do you give up and just eat out, or do you tackle some new exotic and different dish? Do you have a favorite dish that you turn to whenever you’re experiencing food boredom?
Get Cooking 