Gourmet Food at Home

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

Meat loaf is dandy, and chicken is nice, but don't you miss getting a nice gourmet restaurant meal? If so, you can learn to do gourmet at home, without being qualified to appear on Top Chef.

Gourmet cooking at home is all in the details. You can adapt one or several of these ideas to boost your regular home cooking into the exotic. Here is how.

Practice presentation

When preparing a meal, give some thought to the presentation. This can make all of the difference in the world between gobbling a meal and appreciating it. For example, you can grate some cheese over your soup and serve it with a chunk of crusty bread in the bowl or top your pizza with three whole basil leaves arranged in a circle. Instead of serving a bowl of sauce on the side of your meal, drizzle it into a pleasing pattern on to the side of the plate. Have some consideration for color when you plan your meal. Make sure that the colors and textures go together beautifully. And as for that meat loaf, why not cut the loaf on a diagonal and serve triangular slices with a pattern of ketchup dots?

Add a little richness

Sometimes just a touch of a more expensive ingredient can make all of the difference in a meal. A touch of cream or a few shreds of coconut can elevate your meal to a new level. You can reserve the rest of the cream or coconut for future meals. Purchase just a few exotic mushrooms and mix them in to your meal. Try some new combinations of foods. You can take your cue from gourmet cookbooks at the library. Lower cost options can also boost flavor and richness without the price. Substitute canned evaporated milk for regular milk in mashed potatoes, for example, or use olive oil instead of standard vegetable oil in brownies for gourmet taste.

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog, caring for little ones in the Baby Blog and now relationships in the Marriage Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here or subscribe to the blog using the subscription box on the right.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, online content manager, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania in the middle of the woods but close enough to Target and Home Depot.

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