Is this not one of life’s great mysteries?

True confessions: I’ve written 4 cookbooks with a 5th on the way (about which, more soon) and I have a personal library of 560 cookbooks. YOU’D THINK I’d know what to cook for dinner, like for the next 2, maybe 3 years?

As many of you know, art is a big factor in my life. Whether composing a gloriously vibrant plate of food or a painting in my studio, the process seems the same to me: a playground for curiosity, an openness to inspiration, and a love and respect for the materials I’m working with.

How many times have you attempted to make a recipe and gotten to the end only to find it’s not quite what you’d hoped it would be? And then not known how to fix it? It’s frustrating! It’s like, wait a minute! I did everything I was supposed to do, now what!
 

My friend Andrew Faulkner, a painter, digital artist, and printmaker, works down the road from me, but I met him on an island in the middle of the Pacific at a painting retreat! While on retreat, he expressed a desire to eat in a healthier manner. Not surprisingly. People often share such aspirations with me, perhaps even make them up on the spot when they hear what I do. But Andrew seemed in earnest. 
 

Do you struggle with cooking for one? This was BY FAR the number 1 topic request resulting from my recent reader’s survey. Strategies. Practicalities. How to overcome fatigue and inertia to cook just for yourself, when it’s all too easy to stop for take out on the way home. Are  you looking for a way to get in a solo healthy cooking groove?

Have you watched my recent Soup Session videos with my soup sister, Julie Burford and her granddaughter, Julia? They give you a lovely feel for the joy of stirring up soup with friends. This one is different; it’s a work session with my colleague Marti Wolfson, a gifted chef/educator who teaches chefs and health care professionals, offers corporate seminars, and workshops and, to the point here, is a very special personal chef.

Every chef has a specialty, a food realm in which she has unique creativity. Mine is soup! And the good news is I love sharing my secrets.

When I first started my cooking career and I was cooking for clients, the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was cook for myself. But knowing the value of healthy foods, I made a pact with myself to make a delicious and nourishing meal after coming home from my busy day. How did I do it? I learned to be prepared. 

Do you like to be told what to do?
Do you like to be told what you can’t have?

This certainly applies to food, and making adjustments in your dietary world, right?

Years ago, I had a tug-of-war with a very smart nutritionist, who was ahead of the curve in her knowledge about gluten sensitivity. She reviewed my health concerns and announced that in her opinion, gluten was a problem for me. I, who studied cooking in Italy, who made my own pasta! I was not going to be told what I could eat and what I could not! I said NO THANK YOU.

Am I lucky! I have made amazing culinary friends in my life, from my adopted Italian nona to a delightful array of cooks and chefs. One of my most cherished cooking buddies is Andrew Weil, he of integrative medicine fame, who has just come out with a new cookbook, Fast Food, Good Food, that you MUST know about. (And not only because I helped!)