New Year's Resolution

I recently had the opportunity to hear Mark Bittman speak to a packed audience about his food philosophy. Happily, the discussion mirrored my own approach to a healthful, convenient and delicious diet. He describes himself as a "home cook", a title to which anyone with a working kitchen can ascribe themselves. His everyman approach (and his love affair with the food processor) inspired me to gift his latest cookbook, Food Matters, to my mom (who shares his unnatural desire for the food processor).

In this latest tome (quite large for kitchen countertop cooking), Bittman expounds upon the necessity of bringing food closer to home, and cooking back into the home. These are simple ways to foster nurishment of our bodies, families, communities and farmland. I challenge you to incorporate home cooking into your inevitable "lose 10 pounds" New Year's Resolution. "By becoming a cook, you can leave processed foods behind, creating more healthful, less expensive and better-tasting food that requires less energy, water and land per calorie and reduces our carbon footprint. Not a bad result for us — or the planet," Mark Bittman, NY Times, December 31st.