A kind of everyday cooking, in a really tasty way...

Hey Marianne,
I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was mostly snow covered. We had nearly a foot of snow fall, but not that much stick from Thurs-Sat. Sunday it started to melt and the roads were nearly flooded. We don't get that much moisture and the weekend's snow was exactly what we needed. Our garden is bursting with little spinach, broccoli, broccoli rabe, brussel sprouts and arugula. The lawn is a gorgeous pea green with tulips bursting out everywhere. I love spring!
I hear you loud and clear about Monsanto. It's really scary what's happening, but what I find really hopeful is that people like Alice Waters and Michael Pollan are becoming true rock stars. Imagine... ten years ago - no one would be having these conversations about GMOs and food from China. And, to think that our children are growing up understanding how important it is to buy locally and to cook foods from scratch...
There was a great column in Sunday's NYT's by Maureen Dowd. She interviewed Alice Waters and talked about her vision, etc. One of the quotes from Waters really struck me. She said, "that a recession is a time when people need to learn the basics - a kind of everyday cooking, in a really tasty way." She went on to talk about how it is more expensive to go to the farmers' market and to buy organics, but how ultimately it will benefit us all.
Oh - and Waters has another idea that we can tackle when the kids are a little older -- "She imagines a high school where the kids could run the whole cafeteria themselves, learning math, nutrition, art and food."
Have a great Monday!
Annie
PS - I put the broccoli rabe pic up b/c it really has become my number one favorite veg.