According to A Good Day for Salads, (in a section entitled A Short Course on the First Course) the advent of the salad as the first component of a meal came in this country when the first European settlers arrived. They were amazed by the abundance of fresh, edible vegetation. While they waited for their meat to cook over open fires, the couldn't help but nibble at the young greens growing all around them. Thus a tradition was born.

This book, written by Louise Fiszer and Jeannette Ferrary, attempts to take the simple salad to a far more sophisticated and tasty place than those plain greens that the founding fathers plucked from nearby clearings. They start with dressings and other tasty toppings and move forward through chapters devoted to bite-sized salads, salads as starters, folk-y salads (mostly the traditional salads associated with particular ethnic cuisines), salads for parties and potlucks, picnic salads, salads that can serve a full meal, fruit salads, salads for dieters, wrapped salads and lastly, salads you can make from the pantry.

If you are looking for a fresh approach to salads, this is a lovely book to look at. Their combinations and pairings are interesting and occasionally surprising (with happily tasty results). They don't just focus on the lettuce-based salads, also offering up pasta, grain, meat and alternative veggie mixes. If your garden is producing overtime or your CSA box is delivering more each week than you know what to do with, this could be helpful.

I had no idea that taste buds were inherited. I always thought that while we are born with certain likes and dislikes when it comes to food, we can learn to like various foods (or dislike - I often go through long phases where I don't like a food I usually like).

Over at Esquire.com, Dr. Mehmet Oz (he's the guy in the scrubs you see on Oprah a lot) explains that we get our taste buds from our parents, and that half of us fall into an extreme category. There are supertasters, who have more taste buds, and undertasters, who have less and have to eat more flavorful food. He even gives us a test to see which one we are. Mix one packet of Sweet 'N Low in half a glass of water. Put a spoonful on your tongue. If it's sweet, you're an undertaster. If it's bitter, you're a supertaster.

I don't have any Sweet 'N Low in the house so I can't try it, but if you do let us know in the comments.

A couple of Friday nights, I took a break from school work in order to make a big pot of beef stew. I needed to retreat to some deeply comforting food and in cold weather there's nothing like beef stew (at least in my mind) to warm you up. It had been awhile since I had made it and but it's one of those recipes that always comes back to me when I have the ingredients spread out in front of me.

You can adjust this recipe to your tastes. I used about a cup of red wine to deglaze the pan when the veggies have picked up all the caramelized brown bits that come from browning the meat, but if you can use a little water instead. I always use parsnips in mine, but if you find them objectionable, feel free to leave them out. Instructions on how to make my version of beef stew are after the jump.

Have you guys discovered the blog Wasted Food yet? I ran across it about a month ago and it's become of the sites I look forward to seeing pop up in my reader with a new post. It's not always a happy site, in that it is devoted to raising awareness about the amount of food that we, as Americans, waste. But it is always interesting, well-written and helps me look at food from fresh perspectives.

Earlier this week, Jonathan wrote a post about how he made a pot of stock with some leftover chicken bones and a few aging veggies. He decided to make stock because it was one more way in which he could walk his talk and attempt to reduce the amount of waste in his personal food cycle. I thought it was interesting, because I rarely think about making stock as a way to reduce wasted food. I make stock because it tastes good and has the power to improve the taste of nearly everything you add it to. It was nice to be reminded that I was doing something right each time I turn the remains of a roasted chicken into a pot of stock or chicken soup.

When it comes to these short, dark winter days, there's nothing better than putting a little effort into a dish and then have it spend the rest of the day filling your home with the delicious smells of cooking. The weekends are perfect for these long braises, soups and stews. Many of these dishes don't need a recipe and can be created by feel. However, for those of you who need a little inspiration, here are eight recipes that are perfect for this time of year.

1. The Minimalist makes Beef Bourguignon from chuck, reminding us all that the cheaper, tougher cuts of meat have the most flavor.
2. Food and Wine offers three recipes for winter stews. For those of you who don't actually have all day to let your dish cook, these recipes are for you, as they all should be ready in about an hour.
3. Florence Fabricant went to Greece last year and brought back with her a recipe for Slow-Cooked Beef with Cracked Wheat. It gets browned on the stove for flavor and does a long, slow braise in the oven.
4. Elise has a gorgeous looking recipe for Spicy Lamb Stew with Butternut Squash.
5. Want a rich, veggie-filled chicken stew? Try this one from Orangette, it sounds quite yummy!
6. I love white beans. And I really love roasted garlic. So I do believe that I will adore this Garlic Lovers White Bean Soup from the Farmgirl.
7. I still have a single pomegranate rolling around my kitchen, which may inspire me to try this Pomegranate and Spice-Braised Pork from the The Splendid Table (even though the recipes doesn't call for fresh pomegranate. I could always use it for garnish).
8. Eclectic Edibles invented this Roasted Root Vegetable Stew as a way to use up already-roasted veggies. However, roasting veggies is so easy that it would be a simple thing to do in the stew making process.

Usually this days are "National This" and "National That," but here's one that includes the entire Earth.

It's World Vegetarian Day, and here's the official web site so you can figure out how to celebrate it yourself (besides eating vegetables and not eating meat). I'm not really up on the different types of vegetarianism (in fact, I'm not even sure if "vegetarianism" is a word). Aren't there different types? Some that don't eat fish or eggs? Some that don't eat plant life or something? I'm sure one of our readers can give a quick course in the comments.

October 1 is actually the start of Vegetarian Awareness Month.

And that headline is your first answer in this quiz over at AOL Food (via The Smoking Gun). Match the contract demand with the singer that makes the demand on their contract.

All the same names seem to pop up: Britney, Christina, Mariah, Celine, Madonna, and Paula Abdul. I didn't realize that Abdul even toured anymore, but she actually seems to have some reasonable demands when it comes to dressing room food. One diva demands NO TOMATO, APPLE, OR GRAPE JUICES. And another wants only Diet Coke - IN CANS!

For the record, I only got 3 out of 10. I guess I don't know my divas.

We already know that not all kids like vegetables and that preferences may even be genetic when it comes to overall eating habits, but that doesn't explain why kids entering adolescence eat fewer veggies than they did when they were younger.

In a report that appeared in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers noted that there were two big drops during a five year period in the amount of fruits and vegetables that teens, both jr. high and high school students, ate. One dip occurred early in adolescence and another occurred late. In both cases, consumption dropped by 1/2 serving - which could be a substantial percentage if the kids were not eating the recommended minimum number of servings a day to begin with. Researchers don't yet know why these drops occur, although it is possible that access to vending machines at jr. high schools (not present in elementary schools) and access to cars/fast food in high school may contribute.

Even though the ban on fresh bagged and loose leaf spinach from this past September's E. coli scare is long over, the shake that it put on consumer confidence in leafy greens is still there. Even now, consumers are avoiding greens, or buying them less frequently than they otherwise would. A study done at Rutgers found that part of the problem lies in the fact that spinach and other greens are considered to be healthy and that consumers almost feel betrayed by the fact that something wholesome could actually be harmful. This new suspicion is what is keeping sales down. In fact, only 2 out of 3 consumers contacted during the survey knew that the recall was over.

Farms and government agencies alike are looking for ways to mitigate the worries of consumers with oversight at both farm and national levels being discussed. Whether a new standard will be enough to boost consumer confidence to the point where the average diner doesn't look askance at a salad with baby spinach in it remains uncertain. Would it be enough for you?

In light of the E. coli and botulism problems over the past few months that have been linked to California growers, there has been a proposal that new standards should be implemented to ensure that consumers will feel safe and comfortable buying California produce. Most growers have already increased the amount of oversight that their produce recieives, but the new plan involves the creaton of a "seal of approval" for all leafy vegetables. The standards for the seal have not yet been determined, but growers and lawmakers plan to iron out the details later this spring. Issues being considered are how to more effectively test irrigation water and how to keep livestock, primarily cattle, away from cropland.

In spite of the fact that there is no actual plan in place yet, the idea of a "seal of approval" is already being met with opposition, with critics saying that "the industry's proposal relies too heavily on policing itself." This could be a strong argument in other industries, but when it comes to food safety, no one wants to make sure consumers are protected more than the growers whose livelihoods depend on consumer satisfaction with, and confidence in, their products.

It looks like the news is already out that vegetarians are smarter than the average omnivore because those with higher IQs are more likely to choose to follow the lifestyle. But will switching to a vegetarian diet improve your IQ, as well? This seems unlikely, but if all it takes is gradually increasing your vegetable intake (since some of the "vegetarians" in the study still ate meat), it could be worth a try. Not content to wait for gradual results, it looks like one person took matters into his own hands. He (or she) stole a refrigerated semi-truck filled with $50,000 worth of broccoli. The trucking company seems to think that the truck itself - and not the broccoli - might have been the target for the theft, but if this turns into a trend and trucks full of spinach, squash and other veggies turn up missing, maybe the IQ-theory won't seem so far fetched.

If you recall from September, there was an E. coli outbreak involving bagged spinach that got it pulled from supermarket shelves, restaurant menus and just about everywhere else after a few people became ill. It turns out that there is a connection between that incident and the most recent Taco Bell E. coli scare, where more than 50 people have become ill. Taco Bell already decided to pull their green onions from menus and check the safety of their other ingredients, but as the investigation continuted, it was discovered that the produce in question was processed by the California-based Ready Pac Produce company - the same one that was blamed for that spinach outbreak.

Ready Pac is the green onion supplier to the New England areas were outbreaks were reported at Taco Bells. They stopped production at their New Jersey plant so that federal inspectors could conduct tests. It is reported that the company is also testing their produce in California.

It should be noted, however, that the final results are not in yet and it cannot be said with certainty that Ready Pac supplied or processed the contaminated onions. Green onions are notoriously difficult to clean due to their multi-layered structure and have been responsible for several cases of food-borne illness in the past decade.

That's actually a wiseass headline. I'm sure there are a lot of kids who like vegetables. I loved them when I was a kid, even ones that kids are supposed to hate, like spinach and yams. But I think that a lot of kids like vegetables that you can make more "junk food-ish," like potatoes.

The Boston Globe asked three 13 and 14 year-olds to keep track of what they ate for two days, and then they showed the results to a nutritionists. The results are rather interesting. Their diets seem to revolve around pizza, french fries, mac and cheese, with some chicken and turkey thrown in. But they don't really like vegetables, unless it's corn or potatoes. Sometimes they skip lunch altogether and eat candy that they've bought at the store before school. And sometimes before school they go to Dunkin' Donuts. This is pretty bad in and of itself, but add to the fact that these kids spend several hours sitting at a desk and their computer all day (they're bright kids who do well in school and have a lot of afterschool homework and internships) and you have a recipe for bad health.

Another scary revelation? The nutritionist says that these diets are actually better than what she sees from middle-schoolers. Yikes.

I like my veggies, not love them, but like them. I have to keep coming up with or trying new recipes to make sure I stay an omnivore and amend my carnivorous habit. Like Jimmy Buffet sings about in "Cheeseburger in Paradise." After reading some research from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago about how vegetables slow and stop the loss of memory in old age I have decided to up the ante and start learning to love them. It seems that leafy veggies are the best at helping cure memory loss. Spinach, and lettuce, followed by yellow stuff like squash, and the old dependable broccoli. All of these contain large amounts of vitamin E which may be the explanation. Of course starting to eat them at a young age may not prevent memory loss later, but there are all the other health benefits to consider, as well as forming good food habits. I wonder if they will help with my current memory problems caused by my sinful life as a teen?

Potatoes are the most popular vegetable in the US and most of them are eaten in some fried form, such as potato chips or french fries. One medium potato represents one of the five servings of vegetables that you are supposed to eat every day, and it doesn't take many french fries to reach the size of a single potato. Because of this, it is not impressive to hear that companies like Frito-Lay and Kraft want to add vegetable-based chips and snacks to their product lines. The potato chips are already vegetable-based!

Adding dehydrated vegetables to snacks like Roasted Vegetable Ritz Crackers is just a way of getting consumers to buy more by capitalizing on a trend for an increased awareness for healthy eating. This doesn't mean that people are necessarily eating healthier, but they think that they are/should be. They will opt for the chip that has some additional "vegetables" in it because it sounds like it might be healthier, regardless of whether it actually is. One trend tracking company said "this may replace the whole-grain fad."

And is there anything behind it? Probably not. A fried chip is still not health food, regardless of whether the chip is potato or carrot. And as for adding bits of veggies to other foodstuffs, nutritionist Cynthia Lair explained the benefits - or lack thereof - by saying "once you pulverize and powder vegetables, there's not much left."