What are we doing here?

So, what's all this about? Well, I've long been a fan of Mark Bittman, the Minimalist, cookbook author, New York Times food writer, and most recently, blogger. His recipes are simple, delicious and satisfying to make. His cookbooks are easy to follow, and he writes recipes in such a way that following them is an educational experience. They lay groundwork to be altered, improvised upon, and speaking from experience, they can make you feel like a pretty damn talented cook.

Bittman is the author of the Joy of Cooking for today's generation, How to Cook Everything. Yes, the book is exactly what it sounds like, but it is also so much more. It is not just full of recipes, but advice, techniques, pointers, tips, and words of encouragement. It balances traditional recipes with far flung meals from around the world. It is a nurturing guide of a cookbook, and every time I made a recipe from my copy I felt like I had learned something huge about food, whether it was something I didn't know I liked, something I thought I couldn't do from scratch, or something I thought I needed fancy gadgets to do.

It got to be so rewarding that I decided I should literally cook Everything. And I figured, while I'm at it, why not blog my results for the world to share? I want to spread the word of how wonderful this book and its author are, and maybe some of you can learn from some of my mistakes. Hopefully we will all learn something on this personal journey. Please, let me know what looks delicious, what I'm doing wrong, how you'd do it, or anything else in the comments of the posts.