Favorite words

I need to add some new words into my vocabulary. You know that feeling when you've been cooking the same recipes over and over again? Time to try something new ... It's nice to know recipes by heart, but it's also fun to try a new dish. (Make that, was fun when I wasn't only cooking for persnickety children. This morning, Graham told me he wanted to start eating more healthy foods, because the school had its Jump Rope for Heart pep rally, and he was fired up about heart health! Here's what he requested today: "Mom, for breakfast, why don't you make me, uh, a salad, and, uh, some, some, some BOILED meat. And flour."  I shared my p.o.v. on FB: "Coming right up! Who doesn't love FLOUR for breakfast?")

Anyway, this is about recipes as a metaphor for vocabulary.

I've been writing a ton lately - schoolwork, personal stuff, blog posts, descriptions of songs - and I've started to recognize some familiar faces in the sentences, my old stand-bys. I sure do like me some sprung rhythm, Gerard Manley Hopkins' term for juxtaposed words that pop together, although I'm sure Mr. Hopkins, a priest/poet from a previous century, never used the word "pop"!

Words I use/say frequently:
Yikes
Nifty
Indeed
However (and loads of other transitional expressions)
Noted
Stuff
+ I add -y to words all the time, i.e. announce-y.
+ I like to use a shortened form of them - 'em.

I need a few new recipes vocabulary words to start rotating in. That's where thesaurus.com serves a purpose, but it's kind of a solitary exercise. I would also like to know your favorite words. Maybe I'll pull a few of 'em  out of the cookbook.