Variety

C-Fresh asked me the other day why I am so into trying new recipes and cooking different things for dinner every night. The answer is pretty basic. First of all, pepper was considered an exotic spice in our house growing up let alone trying to get my parents to use basil or curry powder. Second my parents had a repertoire of about 10 dinner items. Those 10 items would be rotated so that any given week we would be eating 7 of the 10 items (think High School Cafeteria menu rotation). The sides for the dinners did not even vary. . .ever. Even going out to eat they would always go to the same restaurants and order the same dishes from each restaurant.
On that note, though, I am not afraid to use canned vegetables or bottled sauces now because I know you can take those ingredients and give them some oomph. Not every meal needs to be created entirely from scratch. Hell, the frozen green beans I can get at the grocery store are a lot better than the "fresh" ones they are hawking at exorbitant prices. So while there was not much adventure from my dining habits as a child it has at least given me the sense to know that I can use pre made ingredients or canned vegetables or processed something or other and still take that and turn it into something good. After all, there is no law saying you can't add more garlic and basil to a can of Ragu.