Today on Earth Day I am cautiously dreaming about what I'll plant in my new garden this year, what will go in my "foster" garden, and which clever new ways I can organize my herb pots so that they keep me supplied with cooking herbs throughout the summer.

All that, and I am also thinking about food, summer, and recipes - most specifically for my next e-cookbook, Nourish: Summer, which is due out June 1st.

One thing that has changed for me this past year has been paying greater attention what goes on in a typical kitchen for a family with school age children in my neck of the woods. Eleven women - most of them moms - and two men - both dads -have been my recipe testers for the three cookbooks I've written, and am writing, thus far. As I've received their feedback on the recipes, I've used it as a benchmark to write about cooking in a way that makes it so very practical and doable in a regular kitchen with the busy schedule that most families maintain.

This is why I get even more excited when I hear voices who command a much larger audience saying things like, "Cooking is probably the most important thing you can do to improve your diet. What matters most is not any particular nutrient, or even any particular food: it's the act of cooking itself. People who cook eat a healthier diet without giving it a thought. It's the collapse of home cooking that led directly to the obesity epidemic." That is from Michael Pollan, and it is the message at the forefront of the new book he has just written called "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation."

Without Pollan knowing it, I consider myself part of a big team doing "work on the ground" in communities across America to implement a similar message, by educating about food and how to cook in front of groups 2 to 32 in size.

As a result, I'm pretty darn excited to go and hear Michael Pollan speak live in Minneapolis next week as part of the Inspiring Minds series at Beth El Synagogue, with proceeds to benefit an excellent organization in North Minneapolis called Appetite for Change.

I'm so excited, in fact, that I bought two tickets. So, if you'd like to join me next Thursday to get a taste of what inspires me and hopefully get a little inspired yourself,

(...read the rest of the blog HERE and get the full instructions!)