All-- I need some cooking help. I am someone who gets a tremendous amount of joy out of cooking and strive to learn and practice, I watch FoodTv religiously, I have an 8' high bookshelf full of cookbooks, and take pride in my interest/abilities in cooking. However, I always seem to just settle for something quick (fast food-yikes) or only make food a few times a week. I love looking through gourmet and reading my cookbooks and making food, but sometimes I lose the motivation. I feel like my head is too cluttered with all of these books and ideas I see, but I can never settle on things. I don't even know how to really put meals together (the meat, veg, starch thing) in a continually innovative way. I also have trouble with just pulling together something simple with the ingredients I have on hand. So my question is two-fold, how do all of these people on these chats seem to cook these elegant, yet simple dinners, different ones every nite (timing is an issue with me--work like everyone else) w/o having to go to the store and shop every nite? And, what types of things should I have in my pantry/fridge/freezer that enables me to make these different dishes every nite and keep the variety. Or even this mentality--people have told me it just takes time--when planning, I look at menus and then go to the store, which means I'm a disaster when it comes to farmer's markets or fresh (or on sale) items at a store b/c it's not on my list. "Wow--butternut squash is looking great--but what do I do with it?" One of the things I've started to do is buy the more gourmet pasta (like stuffed toretellini) and making simple all-in-one dishes with asparagus and EVOO and garlic to make a simple, yet tasty dish. But that gets old. Please advise, thanks