I love to cook and I have trained myself to cook to sooth myself, and to meditate while I cook. The thornier the problem the more complex the recipe I choose to prepare. I need to cook.
But as a wife and mother who has been preparing one or two meals a day, seven days a week, for 28 years, I have a secret to share: sometimes I get really tired of cooking.
Sometimes I think that if I have to cook one more meal I will lose my mind.
Fortunately, no one expects me to cook all of the time. My family is patient with my occasional rebellion. So where to go for inspiration when I am bored with the recipes at hand? What to do when I can’t make one more batch of spaghetti or one more chicken-and-pasta dish?
I spoke with Marc Deconnick from Le Bilig about this dilemma last week. Where does Marc, a professional chef, go to refresh his approach to food?
He finds inspiration from other chefs, from a new ingredient, or from what he finds fresh growing at a local farm or the market. Currently he has a menu based on the 100 Mile Diet and tries to source all of his menu items within 100 miles of his restaurant. The menu looks amazing; it includes locally raised lamb, duck, rabbit and citrus.
One strategy I use when I am tired of cooking is to talk to my friends about what they are cooking. It seems that we don’t all get tired of cooking at once, for the most part. We can give each other tips or mention a dish that will inspire and pull us out of culinary boredom. In addition, I look at magazines, newspapers, and my cookbooks. Increasingly ingredients I find at the farmers’ market inspire me.
When Sher from Two Spicy Ladies mentioned that she was making a new spice mix called ras-el-hanout I was really excited. Here is something new to arouse my passion and get me out of a rut. Serendipitously, I recently read about this spice in the New York Times food section. Ras-el-hanout is widely used in Moroccan food and works very well with lamb. Armed with many different spices from the Spicy Ladies, Dan Macon’s lamb, onions from Rodriguez Ranch and carrots from Jim’s Produce, I had the makings of a Lamb Tagine. Honey from Bear River Honey and almonds from V & V Orchards completed my farmers’ market foraging. All of these ingredients melded together to create what my husband called a keeper. He reported that the smells, tastes, textures coming together with the densely flavored lamb created a new favorite dish.
I’ll remember Lamb Tagine the next time I fall into the cooking doldrums.
Carol Arnold is marketing manager of the Foothill Farmers’ Market Association. Reach her at foothillfarmersmarket@gmail.com.

Lamb Tagine
2 teaspoons ras-el-hanout
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon crumbled saffron threads
3 cups water
3 pounds sirloin lamb chops, bone in (you may substitute 3 pounds lamb stew meat)
1 large onion, grated
1 bunch small carrots, cut in half, and roasted 30 minutes at 400 degrees
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 3-inch cinnamon sticks
1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup raisins
1 1/4 cup whole blanched almonds
1/4 cup honey
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Whisk together ras-el-hanout, salt, pepper, ginger, saffron, and 1 cup water in a 5-quart heavy pot. Stir in lamb, remaining water, onion, garlic, cinnamon sticks, carrots and butter and simmer, covered, until lamb is just tender, about 90 minutes. Stir in raisins, almonds, honey, and ground cinnamon and simmer, covered, until meat is very tender, about 30 minutes more.
Uncover pot and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until stew is slightly thickened, about 15 minutes more. Serve with couscous.