Food is, of course, the most basic of our needs beyond water and air (and toilet paper!). Isn’t it funny how we take these simple things for granted? You breathe in and out, you pull on the roll, you turn on the tap, you pop a Lean Cuisine into the microwave, or answer, “Yes”, to “Fries with that?” Easy, automatic, instant. But of course, it’s not. All of these things, with the exception of air, require a complicated combination of infrastructure and workforce to get to us. We only think about it when the system breaks down (imagine a toilet paper factory worker’s strike!), or when we pay our bills.

20 Minutes to Dinner by Bryanna Clark GroganThe subtitle for this book is Quick, Low-fat, Low-Calorie, Vegetarian Meals. And it should be noted that they are also vegan: no eggs, no milk, cheese, butter, or other dairy, and of course, no other animal products. Most of her recipes include some kind of tofu, or other [...]

Laurel’s Kitchen by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders, and Brian RuppenthalI’ve seen that there is a “The New Laurel’s Kitchen” now, but I’m not familiar with it. This is for the original. Having spent time with a vegetarian family (we were provided food, but no meat, and I had to cook), I got a lot of [...]

Groats to Oats – Why roll your own oats?Probably most of you reading this have never heard of a groat (huh? Is that some kind of exotic goat? or just a typo?). But I was recently introduced to groats and the concept of hand-rolling them into oatmeal. It seems like a lot of work, but [...]