Cook for Good Blog

Climate Warnings: Let's Talk about the Cow in the Room

2013-05-19T14:46:56Z

The op-ed piece Climate Warnings, Growing Louder in today's New York Times starts:

The news that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, the most important global warming gas, have hit 400 parts per million for the first time in millions of years increases the pressure on President Obama to deliver on his pledges to limit this country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The safe level is 350, so reaching 400 is a big deal. It's causing big storms and droughts now and will cause more misery for our children. The Times calls for Obama to ...

Focusing on Real Change Now at the Nutrition Assistants' Conference

2013-05-17T12:25:25Z

I didn't expect to rock out, much less to rap, at the Multi-State Nutrition Assistants Conference this week.

Yet rap and rock out we did, plus share new ways to help children and their families stay healthy. Here are the top tips I brought home:

Focus on having fun and great results now. Jill Jayne, who calls herself the "world's only Rockstar Nutritionist," urged us to immediate benefits. Kids (and adults) start to

Making a Difference: Catherine Watson, my Mother-in-Law

2013-05-10T20:44:11Z

It's taken me eighteen months to be able to write about my beloved mother-in-law since she passed away at 92. I think about her every day, especially during the flurry of family birthdays in early May which lead up to and sometimes land on Mothers' Day.

New Making a Difference series

Mother is the perfect person to kick off the new series of Cook for Good profiles on people and organizations who make a difference. Please contact me to nominate someone or some group for a future Making a Difference profile. Feel free to share your own story.

Through the power of home cooking, Catherine Watson brought people together, helped them become happy and healthy, and made the world a better place. Most of all, she showed us we were loved and gave us a chance to show our love for each other, week after week.

Mother told me once that she felt that the gift she'd been given to share with others during her time on Earth was the gift of hospitality. She didn't mean "whoo-hoo, look at me, I throw such great parties!" She was referring to decades of bringing people together for ...

Making Monday Different

2013-04-29T18:57:37Z

I felt energized and inspired at the Conscious Capitalism conference earlier this month, but what the organizers really wanted was change. And not change later, someday, but change on Monday. How, we were asked, was Monday going to be different because of what we'd learned?

The answer is more personal than I'd expected

I thought the sessions would focus on creating what John Mackey calls win6: seeking winning situations for all the stakeholders in a business: the business itself, investors, customers, team members, suppliers, and the community and environment. Yet the conference focused largely on making it a win7 situation, with the unmentioned winner being ...

7 Highly Green Habits of Wildly Good Cooks for Earth Day

2013-04-22T12:52:00Z

Wildly Good Cooks save money, eat fabulous food, and help save the planet, even on a rock-bottom food budget. Celebrate Earth Day by adopting some of their habits. You'll find it makes eating green easy as well as delicious!

Buy organic. It which outperforms conventional farming during droughts, builds the soil instead of exhausting it, and uses 45% less energy. See how ...

Fabulous Earth Day Dinner at Meredith College

2013-04-19T17:30:54Z

What fun we had last night! We thriftily fed the Meredith freezer with food made to quantity test recipes for our Mansfield Middle School lunch last month. Here are some quick pictures, with video coming soon.

This event wrapped up Rebecca Holmes' practicum (center in blue) for Meredith. She and Ashley Bradshaw (in yellow) are both new Wildly Good Cook teachers. Other Meredith friends helped with the test cooking and dinner. Thanks to everyone!

I married adventure!

2013-04-12T21:14:44Z

One of the biggest gifts we can give ourselves and our loved ones is encouragement and support to follow our hearts. I feel so lucky to have married my Taster, who says he likes to "wind me up and see where I'll go." I've had a crazy-quilt of a career that's about to come full circle in a way I never predicted. As long as he's known me, he's encouraged me to do what's right and what's fun.

Here's how good I feel about everything right now. Did I mention that my Taster is also an amazing photographer?

This image is from the shots we did today. On the Summer Solstice this year, I'll be doing the first reading from my new book, ...

Meet Cookbook Authors and Food Bloggers at IACP's Book and Blog Fair

2013-04-04T00:35:53Z

Come to the IACP's book and blog fair on Sunday to meet your favorite food authors and bloggers. Get signed copies of the latest cookbooks, including award winners. Add other classics to your cookbook collection and library. This is one of my favorite parts of the International Association of Culinary Professionals' annual conference. Imagine meeting a dozen or more of your favorite cookbook authors and TV celebrities in an hour or so! I've met Rose Levy Beranbaum, Ruth Reichl, Michael Ruhlman, Madhur Jaffrey, Deborah Madison, and more.

I'll be at a table from 1:30 to 3 and then will be wandering about at the fair and the Culinary Expo.

Conscious Capitalist Cooking?

2013-04-03T21:38:23Z

I can't wait to go to San Francisco this weekend, where I'll be with kindred spirits devoted to making the world a better place. We'll mostly work to transform a core human activity, but the food alone may be worth going for: an "amazing farmer's market style lunch with lots of local purveyors."

Am I talking about the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference (April 6-9), the huge gathering of food writers, publishers, and chefs? Sadly, no. This year's conference has several presentations on sustainable food, but completely overlooks the most encouraging food trend of our time: the move to plant-based food. Many studies show it's the healthiest way to eat and a significant way to slow global warming. The IACP's banquet menu doesn't give attendees that choice amid the pork cheeks, pork belly, brisket, halibut, crème fraiche, and caviar. The lone legume will be garbanzo beans buried under "lamb lollipops," with no mention of options for special diets.

Even though I'm a cookbook writer, it's the Conscious Capitalism conference (April 5-6) that has my mouth watering. Caterer Laurel Timms tells me that one of the three featured entrees will be "Roasted Beet and

Wildly Wonderful Earth Day Event at Meredith College

2013-03-28T18:05:39Z

Celebrate Earth Day with a behind-the-scenes look at how YOU can save the planet, one meal at a time.

Be part of the change as you eat dinner prepared by Meredith College students, watch the world premier of a new Wildly Good Cook video and my live cooking demonstration, and get tips for creating your own exciting, useful career.

Meredith students and new Wildly Good Cook teachers Ashley Bradshaw and Rebecca Holmes get ready to serve samples to Meredith WOW participantsThursday, April 18, 2013, 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Meredith College Kresge Auditorium, 3800 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC 27607
Free for Meredith College students, faculty, and staff and just $5 for others.

Reserve your seat today!

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