Overhiser - A Couple Cooks, pretty simple cooking: 100 delicious vegetarian recipes to make you fall in love with real food

Learn how to cooktry new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun.

JULIA CHILD, MY LIFE IN FRANCE

Ten years ago, my husband Alex and I set out on a journey. We wanted to know how to cookand to find food that tasted good and was also good for our bodies. And we knew nothing, not one thing about what it took to get there. Fast-forward ten years and we know a thing or two. But whats more important than knowing how to roast a sweet potato or chiffonade basil are the lessons weve learned along the way. The most important one:

Cooking is not a one-time transaction, where ingredients go in and food comes out. Cooking requires surrender. It demands expanding your mind to new habits and possibilities. Living in the face of failure. Thinking on your feet, being resourceful.

And the only way to make the kitchen part of your life in the face of these challenges is, really, to fall in love. You must fall in love with the process, the tastes and smells: the fragrance of sizzling garlic, a nutty cinnamon wafting from the oven, the tang of fresh lemon. You must fall in love with making something from nothing.

But challenges abound. Cooking takes time and energy, especially after a long day. The only way youll keep going is if you start to fall in love with the process. And at the same time, you must also do something else:

About food, that is. You have to believe food is worth the time and energy spent preparing it. Worth the money to purchase wholesome ingredients, worth messy kitchens and hungry moments.

Because it is worth it. Food has the power to transform your body, your mind, your relationships, and the world around you. Cooking can be one of the most life-giving, fulfilling parts of your day.

Weve heard it many times: nourishing, seasonal home cooking is inaccessible, expensive, and impractical for the modern man and woman. Were here to say that with the right attitude, cooking healthy food at home truly can be pretty simple. And so worth it.

Speaking of falling in love, thats what happened to Alex and me. We met as awkward, wide-eyed freshmen on the first day of university. I was a young music student from Minnesota, he was an art student from Indiana. They say that love at first sight is real, and though we couldnt articulate it, we found it that day. When he finally asked me on a date, I said no. But he was very, very persistent. And I knew in my gut that I would eventually say yes.

I did, and the rest is history. We got married a few years later and bought a little 1920s bungalow in Indianapolis, with a white picket fence and a tiny galley kitchen. (And a dog, naturally.) After settling in, we decided the next step in life was to invite guests for dinner. The problem was, we didnt know how to make dinner. Our normal rotation of cheesy microwave meals, breakfast cereal, and fast-food tacos certainly wasnt going to cut it.

My first boss lent me a cookbook, written by a woman named Julia Child. The name was meaningless to me, since this was just before Meryl Streep would portray her on-screen in Julie and Julia. But as I paged through the book, Julias personality burst into life. Here was a woman passionate about the act of home cooking, who assured me I could make an omelet with the ease of a Frenchman. Alexs confidence to try new things and zest for learning made him my perfect teammate, and after hours of planning and preparation, we concocted a fancy French dinner of lamb and mashed celery root for our unsuspecting guests. It turned out, well, delicious. We were hooked.

One meal turned to dozens, and soon we were cooking almost daily. Inspired by Mark Bittmans book Food Matters and Michael Pollans mantra, Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants, we became inspired by the idea that eating more vegetables could have a positive effect on both personal health and environmental sustainability. We began eating one from-scratch vegetarian meal per week, and a new rainbow of flavors gradually came into focus, like seeing in a new dimension. Our local farmers market became a playground for fresh food sold to us by the kindest people wed ever met. The years rhythm of tomatoes and peaches and kale and squash became our muse. We felt better, had more energy and fewer stomachaches. We got sick less. And most importantly, we felt happier and more fulfilled.