Saturday, July 6, 2024

Cooking with "new to me" ingredients

 One of the things I am doing with my cooking is trying new ingredients.  I have not done much of that because, being on a budget, I don't always want to risk paying for something that I'm not going to like or don't really know how to cook.  Well, I have decided to let go of that philosophy and just go ahead and try it. If it's bad, I'll eat it anyway LOL  I paid for it after all. 

When I am looking for a new recipe to try, in the past I would often skip over something because it contained something I hadn't used before.  Last Sunday, I was looking for an hors d'oeuvres to make for my weekly get together with Lois on the porch.  I found a recipe for salmon and cream cheese tea sandwiches.  They sounded delicious but they were made with puff pastry.  I had not cooked with puff pastry ever.  I've seen it on tv cooking shows.  I've definitely eaten.  But it always scared me so I would normally not even consider a recipe using it.  I decided that why not.  Let's try it.  It's not like I was going to be making it from scratch, I was just baking it.  Turns out, it was not hard at all and made a great tea sandwich.  I've been missing out on puff pastry for years LOL


For the 4th I was having the traditional burger and potato salad.  I wanted to have a cocktail but didn't want liquor necessarily.  Pinot grigio is my go-to wine these days.  I looked up a recipe that called for frest mint.  I've never used fresh mint before.  I was supposed to muddle it in the glass. Had to look that one up too.  But dang it turned out good and I'm glad I didn't let not using fresh mint before stop me.  So, I am enjoying using new things and going forward I will be more open when something is in a recipe that I have not cooked with before.  I will keep my cooking adventures going!


By the way, the other day I bought a pound of chicken livers that were on sale. Haven't cooked those before either but again....why not?  

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