Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Odd. That public television schedule isn't the same as what we saw locally (KQED) this weekend.

For instance, Julia and Jacque did Roast Chicken, Ruth visited some farm with Francis McDermott, and America's Test Kitchen was making cookie jar favorites.

Serious Eats, Simply Recipes, 101 Cookbooks and Smitten Kitchen. Orangette and Steamy Kitchen from time to time as well.

But, having just discovered The Pioneer Woman Cooks, I have a new cooking blog to check out. That site looks amazing.

Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. I really appreciated the concept of minimalist cooking, especially when starting out. Ingredient lists or cooking instructions can be simple and still produce tasty food.

Now of course I'm much more open to complicated and convoluted recipes, but for just starting out, it was a great basic primer.

Had I been born earlier, I'm sure the Joy of Cooking would have been my first cookbook. As it were, I bought a copy for my collection and really enjoy it.

It would have to be anything involving chickpeas. Smashed chickpea sandwiches, chickpea salads, chickpea and potato stews. And of course, hummus.

I absolutely love the nutty flavor of it, and it provides loads of good nutrition as a bonus.

I've made Jamie's version of carbonara before and it's delicious. I also never understood the whole cream in carbonara thing.

For regular carbonara, I follow Marcella's recipe. No cream, no half-half. That's fettuccine alfredo, not carbonara.

Although I have to admit that my mom makes a mean carbonara with half-half, and if anything ever badmouths it, they'll have a problem with me. =)

I'd say the biggest change to my own diet that can be attributed to Mark Bittman is the lowered importance of meat, and meat-products, in my diet.

Far from making it the center piece of my diet, it is now acts to complement to exciting new grains and vegetable dishes from around the world. Something to highlight other flavors, and to be used sparingly. Meat is expensive, both in terms of health and environmental damage. Increasing the vegetable and grain quotient in my diet, and decreasing the amount of meat, is a dietary change attributable to Mark Bittman.

Indeed, for other cultures, this is the norm in the daily diet. We in the United States have taken things too far with meat, and the consequences for our health and our environment are now manifold and manifest.

Cook's Illustrated's Roasted Brined Turkey is definately my pick.

It's the star of the show, so why not do it right?