Police Psychology | Thinking Outside the Box

Police psychology would tell us that sometimes you have to “think out of the box.” I wanted meatballs the other day! I got it in my brain to make meatballs, and my 9-year old daughter loves meatballs, so I wanted to make meatballs. I didn’t want to make beef meatballs with spaghetti in tomato sauce one of her favorites; I didn’t want to make Swedish meatballs with gravy, but I had this urge to make a meatball, lighter with a different taste. Maybe in a white wine sauce. I was driving so I had the luxury of being able to think, something that I don’t get to do often (parents will understand that). I got thinking “out of the box” of spaghetti and meatballs and there was a lot of room out there. Veal would make it lighter, and replace most of the parsley flakes with sage, I was on the road to making something totally unique. I ended up with radiatori pasta with veal meatballs made with sage and fresh Parmesan in a white wine, Gorgonzola and walnut cream roux. It was delicious. (recipe below)

How do you “think out of the box?” I mean life is a series of problems that must be solved, how do you go away from the routine solutions and come up with something that is out there? How do you make something ordinary into something impossibly creative? How does a little Italian girl from New York City, which must have a million little Italian girls, all of a sudden have outlandish tastes, wear an egg to the Grammy’s, and become Lady Gaga? It’s summed up in one word…. (more…)