SteveB wrote:
> I have a friend in California who is a real chef. She's a dear, and a hard
> worker. They are retired now, and her kitchen is like on TV. Viking,
> Dacor, Wolf, you know. BUT THE WOMAN CAN COOK.
>
> Coming from a medical career, she also is very conscious of fats and
> cholesterol and everything else that tastes good, sometimes being annoying.
> We go visit them a couple of weeks a year, and it is like going to a resort.
> Playing golf, eating good on the hilltop patio, driving around in a Ferrari,
> Maserati, or Porsche.
>
> I come home and have this thing that I'm going to eat healthier, and learn
> to cook like her. Lots of her stuff is very simple, but tasty beyond
> description. Lots of it is Italian or European in nature, as they traveled
> there a lot.
>
> Are there some starter cookbooks and ways I can get headed in a new
> direction away from pork chops and fried potatoes and gravy? I do cook lots
> of more complicated stuff, but at times, I just have a mental block when
> thinking of what to prepare for dinner, and grab what's easy and I know.
>
> Maybe I'll ask for a particular cookbook this Christmas. Which one?


Check out Graham Kerr's cooking show and cook books. He used to drink a
lot and eat all sorts of good food, but somewhere along the line he
sobered up and started eating healthier foods. His show is nowhere near
as entertaining as it used to be but he passes on a lot of good
information about healthy eating.