Everyday Creativity

by | Feb 1, 2015 | Creativity, family, writing | 16 comments

Table is set.What shall we have for dinner?

Whether you cook for yourself or for a crowd, if you’re the person responsible for dinner, you have a daily creativity challenge. The meal you cook doesn’t have to win awards, but it should be appealing, and it must be edible. Most of all, it has to be there … Every. Single. Day.

But what about those days when you can’t think of anything?

laptop and tabletIf you were a writer, you could plead “writer’s block,” that dreaded illness writers sometimes fall prey to. Some writers complain that it can last for weeks, months even.

But, no. There’s no place in the kitchen for a creativity block. Eaters gonna eat, as Taylor Swift might say.

 

 

Sometimes, though, nothing sounds good. That’s the way I was feeling the other day at QFC. My daughter and I were shopping for some basics for my grandson’s upcoming visit: milk, Crispix, applesauce, chips. But we still had to figure out what to fix for our own dinner.

Walking past the beef and pork, chicken across the aisle, nothing jumped out at me.

Then … an idea. A small one. “How about fish?” I say. “It’s fresher here than at your place. (My daughter lives across the mountains in Eastern Washington.)

We peer into the glass case at the striped prawns, red salmon, and beautiful pale slabs of halibut. Sadly, my daughter doesn’t like prawns. We had salmon recently. And the halibut is too expensive. She points at some rockfish. “It’s on sale,” she says. “Only six dollars a pound.”

Sometimes that’s all it takes. The fish is on sale. And it looks good.

IMG_0757The salesclerk weighs two pieces and wraps it. Then off we go to fill our cart with avocados, cilantro, limes, tomatoes, chilies, cabbage and tortillas. Suddenly we’re creating. What a wonderful dinner it will be! Fish tacos.

I don’t always feel creative when I’m writing either. There are times when nothing sounds good. In my head, I walk past one idea after another, and nothing jumps out at me. Eventually, though, a small idea may strike my fancy, and I’ll try it out, hoping it will lead to another idea and another. Hoping that when I put them together, I’ll have a story, a chapter, or a scene. Even a blog like this one. The writer’s equivalent of a delicious plate of fish tacos.

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16 Comments

  1. suzicate

    Fish tacos is what I have planned for tomorrow! I don’t always plan ahead. Sometimes I just buy lots of veggies, meat/fish and then figure out what I can put together with what’s on hand.

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      I usually don’t plan ahead either. Years ago, when we lived in the Philippines, we had household help, so I wrote weekly menus complete with recipes. I had a box full of recipes then. Now I usually invent as I go along.

      Reply
  2. Silver in the Barn

    It’s the having to come up with something every night that qualifies as drudgery to me even though I love cooking. When I visited Colorado last year my brother made fish tacos and I promised myself I’d try the dish again. How’d yours turn out?

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      I agree. Almost everything else we do on such a regular basis requires almost no thought. Put the toothpaste on the toothbrush and brush. Turn the water on and take a shower. The other problem is coming up with a meal that suits everyone’s taste and food sensitivities. I confess to being a problem. Even though I used to eat everything, I’ve developed some food sensitivities in recent years.

      Our fish tacos were very tasty.

      Reply
  3. Marilyn Armstrong

    In this house, we default to one of three things: soup, sandwiches, both, or frozen pizza. For dinner, we are grateful for Paul Newman’s fine crispy crust pizza and the Campbell family for their mediocre, but affordable, chicken noodle.

    We suffer from culinary boredom. We have food. We just don’t feel like eating it. I don’t feel like cooking it, probably because I am so totally bored with it. And I’m a good cook, when I care enough to try. Too many years of daily meal prep.

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      I do have a breakfast routine composed of about four meals. And I can usually think of something for lunch and dinner when it’s only me. But when I have to cook for a crowd, sometimes my mind goes blank.

      Reply
  4. Paddy

    A yummy blog much like the lovely details in Tiger Tail Soup.

    Reply
  5. nrhatch

    Glad you had a stroke of inspiration. Cooking isn’t as much fun as “creating a meal.”

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      Cooking can feel like drudgery. Creating a meal is art.

      Reply
  6. Jill Weatherholt

    I’ve never had fish tacos, but I’d love to try them. Maybe you can post your recipe sometime, Nicki. It sounds delicious. 🙂
    Deciding what’s for dinner can sometimes be a challenge. We love when we discover a new meal to add to the “rotation.” Perhaps it will be your fish tacos.

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      It’s an easy dish, Jill, and you can make it to your taste. Use either flour or corn tortillas. We used rockfish. You could also use mahi mahi, cod, snapper, or tilapia. Season it according to taste and then fry or grill it. Warm the tortilla, and add some cooked fish, salsa, avocado, a squeeze of lime, and shredded cabbage, tomato, onion, and cilantro. Fold the tortilla around it and eat.

      Reply
  7. Mary Weibling

    Where in Eastern Washington does your daughter live? I’m in West Pasco.

    Reply
  8. Kate Crimmins

    I can so relate to this on both levels. Sometimes I start out at the grocery story with one idea for dinner but hey, there is a sale or something looks good and everything I planned goes out the window. (It’s easier to do that when there are only 2 of us). As for writer’s block it’s the same thing. Sometimes I start a story and by the time it’s done, it’s about something else so I need to go and fix the beginning to make it all match. Now you made me hungry for fish tacos! Unfortunately, I’m having ribs for the Super Bowl.

    Reply
    • Nicki Chen

      As we say here in Seattle, “Go Hawks!” Mm. Your ribs sound good. We’re having pizza and also meatballs.

      Reply

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