The truth is, for the last few weeks I’ve been a little bit out of my culinary element and acting like a gastronomically befuddled tourist in a strange land, like Paul Bowles dragging a microwave through the Algerian Sahara. I’ve been faced with the prospect of eating differently--really differently–for a variety of reasons. My primary guide on the early parts of this trek through the unknown mostly has been Deborah Madison, that omnivorous vegetable genius, and her Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone; if I had to give up absolutely every single book on my shelf, hers would be the one I’d most want to keep hidden in the floorboards. There’s also been Lorna Sass‘s Whole Grains Every Day Every Way; and Roy Andries de Groot’s Auberge of the Flowering Hearth. The reasons are pretty simple: sure, it’s easy to steam, broil, or roast seasonal vegetables every day, day after day, and toss them with the ubiquitous olive oil, garlic, and a bit of sea salt. But it’s another thing entirely to put them at the center of the plate and to learn how prepare them in exquisite but simple ways I never thought possible, and then, to turn meat into a side dish, and that’s really what Deborah’s work has done in my home. She dashed the fear factor for me–that feeling that emerges when you find yourself at a farmer’s market staring at a burdock root and thinking what in the hell? As for Lorna, she’s been teaching me that grains aren’t just limited to the kasha varnishkes I love (and grew up with) or the millet I’ve loathed (and equated with bird seed). And Roy? His often forgotten book was the first that told me “keep it local, keep it seasonal, and treat it well” long before I fell in love with the work of another of his fans, Alice Waters.