Q: How do you come up with new recipes? Response by Elena O'Brien

Seeing new creations happens when you think about flavor combinations you want to explore. It's a lot like an ice cream shop where you can combine all kinds of items to reinvent what you already know and love.

ANSWER: The world of cooking possibilities is only limited by your imagination. Here are a few things Foxy Cuisine would like you to consider when trying to design something new.

1) Try using what you have around.

A lot new combinations often come with exploring what you have around the house and trying to make something for a meal with the ingredients you have on hand. It could also be items that need to be used before they spoil.

For example using up older items can make unexpected ingredients come together. Let's say you have some old raisins in the pantry, ground sausage you bought a week ago in the fridge and a few older potatoes that look like they're about to sprout heads.

They can come together in a new soup or in a roasted sausage meatloaf with raisins and herb potatoes. You could even make a delicious breakfast with them such as raisin pancakes with sausage potato pancakes.

Start to think about recipes you know and incorporate different ingredients to make a new creation.

2) Mix sweet and savory combinations.

It's often just fun to collide something sweet and savory. Someone once looked at bacon and said, "You know what this needs? Chocolate." Or it could have been the other way around. But the point is someone brought it together.

Chinese orange chicken could easily become any other type of citrus for a new experience such as mango, strawberry or raspberries.

Glazing isn't just for ham. I make a glazed burger that really captures that sweet and salty combination that sends your taste buds into overdrive.

3) Experiment with a new ingredient.

One new ingredient that you normally wouldn't buy can result in a making an entire new dish or create an amazing new flavor to another standard recipe. I remember buying Chinese 5 Spice Powder years ago for the first time. That powerful spice has become an exciting additive in my cranberry sauce or special rubs for grilling such as pork shoulder.

4) Present something you know in a new way.

Nowadays we're seeing recipes we've always eaten but presented in new way online. Like when some creates an apple pie dish but makes it look like a rose or they take a frozen pizza and roll it up to make a pinwheel serving slices.

Although the ingredients are often the same, the way something looks can really take a meal you've always made into a whole new stratosphere of cooking simply by presented it in a fun or exciting new way.

5) Stuff a food inside another food.

There's something fun about finding that extra bit of goodness hiding inside another super yummy food. I'm sure it has something to do psychologically with childhood. It's like getting an extra unexpected present. The older we get the less we become surprised.

I think it's why we like lava cakes, jelly donuts or cheese filled anything. I giggled out loud the first time I heard about a Turducken, but it's pretty dang tasty.

6) Be creative.

Don't limit yourself to what you've seen or heard. Think of things you wish were together in a dish and just go for it. Don't forget to tell us about it too. We love hearing stories about new creations in the kitchen. You can reach us through our social media channels or through our Contact Us page.