What little ingredients or things will you add to a "regular" meal to kick it up

Tweet

I love to add something small, whether it's a specialty cheese or a bottle of wine or something and make an otherwise "average" meal come up to "spectacular". Here's some tricks I have that I use to make my cooking taste "Gourmet" when it's really not! 1. Use fresh ground pepper. McCormick now offers fresh grinders with salt and with pepper to create a little hint of gourmet to your dishes. Nothing like a fresh grind of pepper over a salad to make it seem "special". 2. Use smoked cheeses for a little special flavor in many dishes. Add a smokey cheese to some rice for a rich flavor on a dish that's normally just "plain". 3. Serve a dish of ice cream in a pretty specialty dish as a dessert. Nothing fancy needed but to create a dessert in a fancy dish suddenly makes your family feel "special" and as if you thought of this dessert all day! 4. Add a flavorful bread to a meal to make it seem complete and well rounded. Some of my favorites are created by Panera Breads, and include their Asiago Cheese bread but any local grocery store tends to carry some specialty breads anymore. Have a garlic and olive oil bread instead of plain old Italian bread with your pasta. Create your sandwich on a big huge round bread with jalapenos or cheese baked in. Serve some "homemade" cornbread baked from a box with that chili next time. So what do you do to put a little zing into the "average" meal?