I've grown tired of the Scotch game, which was usually my answer against 1...e5, I'm not a fan of the Spanish either and the Giucco Piano puts me right to sleep.
So I decided to try something different. I was reading that to beat stronger players you had to attack and make them make mistakes. Playing normally means you're certain to lose.
So here's a game I played today against a stronger opponent on chesslive.com. I'm pretty new to the site so my rating is probably lower than it should be (1528) and you increase really slowly too. My opponent was 1740 and I only got 12 points for the win. Time control was 15 15 and after he played 1...e5 I went with a Danish gambit in which you sacrifice not one, but 2 pawns for faster development and strong lines for your bishops.
My opponent not looking to get in trouble against a weaker player refused the gambit and found himself way behind by move 4!
It was also interesting that by the end I had only about a minute left, while he had over 10.
So here's the game:
http://www.chessvideos.tv/chess-game-replayer.php?id=99059
So the lesson here is that players stronger than you make mistakes all the time, it's much easier to force those mistakes if you put them in uncomfortable positions and having to be on the defensive the whole game is certainly uncomfortable.