Ginger ale perks up diet peach tea like you wouldn't believe.
The only thing I seem to be able to focus on these days is cooking. Inspiration for dinner generally comes from one of three cookbooks: one giant "Food of the world" book, a Rachel Ray book, and the Passionate Vegetarian. The "food of the world" thing gets on my nerves, because it's really only food from France, Italy, China, India and Mexico. A rather limited definition of the world, but at least the recipes are fun and complicated and it's full of gorgeous pictures. Even though Rachel Ray is really annoying and all over the goddamn place, her book has helped me get comfortable in the kitchen. Because I was incredibly spoiled in my father's house, I had no compulsion to learn to cook until I moved out after graduation. It hasn't been as useful since I've been avoiding meat. I'm not a real vegetarian, but I pretend to be one a few days a week. The recipes in Passionate Vegetarian are always time consuming, but the results have been fantastic. I recently found a giant international grocer in Metairie with whole aisles of different spices and curries. Between my tiny library and that store, I'm pretty much in heaven.