I don’t know how to express my love for water enough.  It’s like my love for God and my love for my daughter and all the pleasant things in life all rolled up into one love.  I guess I love carbon too. the building blocks of all the skin and muscles and organs and I love the plants but water is somehow particularly important to me..  it is me and then it also exists out side of me, like a concept, yet it is very very real to me, real like a kiss from the ocean, like an insight...

Here is what I wrote to the guy from the Sierra Club -- he said I could add my thoughts or feelings, so I did:

Mountains aren't something you think could be stolen.

I never even called them mountains-- they were always hills, "the West Virginia Hills how majestic and how grand.".. that's our song... "is it any wonder then that my heart with rapture thrills when I look upon my homeland and those West Virginia Hills... Oh those hills... those beautiful hills.. how I love those West Virginia Hills...

When I flew over the land I know as home (after  about 30 years of being in the world) and saw these atrocious scars mind boggling in size and scope.  I was going ballistic in the plane, basically WHAT IS that?? And no one on the plane would even address it. Huge black lakes surrounded by bleeding scars that seem to go on for miles. Yes affects me directly. I cry everytime I drive route 119. The edges of almost every highway are lined with skags, because trees that are disturbed can't stay standing straight.  The top soil is like a wet paper towel laid over gravel, a living thin delicate sheet held together with roots of dancing trees.  The world's oldest and largest living Oak tree lived in West Virginia, down in Mingo county, and they put a slab of it's trunk in the museum in D.C.  I went where it stood and there isn't a tree there-- the younger trees that would have surrounded it are not there. It's a parking lot.  I would think they would have collected it's acorns and gone to planting them everywhere, but not one tree said, I am the off spring of the largest living oak tree in the world.  Something is wrong with that and it's the same thing that is wrong with everything. What was I doing when I should have been doing something?

I feel like I can hear trees screaming sometimes at night but what is worse is to see birds searching for the nest in an area that's been recently evacuated/devastated-- 

Big Coal comes onto an area with a road first, then huge wide loads carry the components of these moving sky scrapers, earth eaters, marked vans of explosives in convoys and big boys in big, new, dust covered trucks (on credit, probably). You have never seen as many f150 trucks in your life. They race each other down the highway after work. They act like they own the roads. And they do. MTR mining is road building technology scaled to create the world's largest parking lot.  They even dress in the same uniform, miners and road workers all wear these horizontal strips of reflective material on their clothes.  I was told FEAR THE CORP-- the Corp of Engineers, I think, is a largely unregulated body of big money and big guns that can do whatever they want and answer to no one.  I think they furnished the technology for what we call "cut throughs" and for the blasting and the valley fills-- but valley fill isn't the right word-- the valleys-- Hollers-- are our headwaters.  Mining operations smooth over tributaries without a thought or a word. They have a mission and they aren't stopping till they pave all the way to hell.

You have possibly heard about how to cook frogs; if you try to throw them into a pot of boiling water, the will all jump out, but if you slowly raise the temperature, they just sit there and cook.  Well, I think the EPA is stepping in because we are at a boiling point.  Our country can not afford one National Disaster after another compounded by a multitude of children retarded with mercury poison, or the health costs of kidney failure, gall stones and cancer caused by toxins in the water.  When you only have two minutes to try to save the world you know, I can find myself lying awake at night thinking not only about the boiling frogs, but about seventh grade and West Virginia studies classes. 

In WV studies we all learn that WV has the surface area of Texas if you stretch it out, lay it out flat, (not flatten it)-- and with 78% forest cover, I like to think WV is supplying the entire Eastern Seaboard with filtered and oxygenated air (albeit along with the  acid rain and such from the other type (processing, chemical) plants).  When you google this fact you get a couple Texans with cone formulas who say that there is no way WV has mountains with slopes of 57°--- our mountains are so amazing as to be utterly unbelievable by flatlanders.  Texans have a size issue anyway, and insist that if you get to stretch out WV then you should be able to stretch out Texas too and then sure, it couldn't be true.  the incredible steepness of our mountains is in part responsible for the diversity of life here.  It's called an aspect by ecologists, and the steepness creates a shaded spot even at noon in the summer and there are things that live here that can't live anywhere else.  And lots of Caves are dens for fox and bear, the rock outcroppings are beautiful, "they are MINE", says my four year old daughter,  "they belong to me and my bobcat".  I believe in American Heritage.  I think it's important.

For West Virginians who have never been out of the state, sometimes a cleared and smoothed mountain looks pretty.  they will say, "oh, it's beautiful" because they've never seen Montana or Wyoming or prairie and they like seeing some open land.  Some will say, "You'd never know that a mine was ever there-- it was Nice" and I say, "I know old growth forest when I walk into it-- I can FEEL it" and they say, " ahh well, there's not the trees".  Not the trees, not the living soil, not the fungus-- when we had this massive red spruce exploitative industry, they had no idea that a symbiotic relationship between the tree, the fungus and the flying squirrel existed, now the flying squirrel hardly exists.  How many coal companies does it take to figure out the symbiotic relationships between water and children? Not the structure of the mountain, the stone that holds the water in ponds close to the surface, giving us fresh water springs and seeps and headwaters for more watersheds than any other state our size-- maybe even Texas.  We have fresh water leaving our state in every cardinal direction, and I feel it is our responsibility to ensure that the water we release is clear of toxins.

If you have to sleep in the bed you make, we need to Rethink our bed, and our bedfellows-- and get big coal out of our homes! Ideas like this left my mind when I approached the Civic Center and saw the massive men with matching death threat t-shirts.  I guess it was something like crossing a picket line and I heard them saying "ahhh these tree huggers want to shut us down" and people of all uniforms wearing the fiends of coal logo badges on their suits and sweaters and jean jackets and hats and executives with brief cases and shiny shoes asking another if the investor man from Kentucky had come up to speak, and all my ideas about boiling frogs and bedfellows flew out the window-- They are going to make this Hearing about jobs, I thought.  then they told me I would be speaking in the first twelve people-- I thought holy crap-- I have an opportunity to set the tone for this meeting, and I had brought a couple of index cards with me and I scribbled, standing, about the checks and balances...

I had been crying in line to get in, waiting to go through the scanners, tuning-in to the energy of the women worried about no shoes on the children, about winter in that damn trailer with no heat, about the clothes and the dog and no pig like mama had for us when we were small and no wood lot and no eggs.  this state isn't ready for coal to grind to a halt--- the people don't have the resources we had two generations ago, if we did, then Coal could not have taken it's place on the throne.  Coal has made the carrot and the stick both bigger to take from WV.  I could feel the history of my homeland, the gattlin guns letting loose on a tent community from the safety of a train, the Matewan massacre was there in that room, Mother Jones was in jail waiting for the new elections to go through, the men were dying on Blair mountain, and even the red bandanas that would later label us rednecks and forget it meant Union, and I am standing there mute whimpering, wet eyes and face swelling, with my history surrounding me, my people here in this pot of hot water, and the EPA down here-- what for? Do THEY WANT something TOO?? they must want something.

This country and these compnaies have always used WV as it's personal pantry -- the doors shut and the lights off-- and they only open the door to take something.  They call it exploitative industry.

Someone suggested Obama wants to nationalize the mining industry.  When I saw that room stirring against the Obama administration I started thinking maybe he's figuring if he will need the National Guard to close that mine.  It does seem like a clue that one of the smaller mining companies doing one of the biggest mining operations would be the one to approach with the veto. It might be a strategic move and you can't ignore the power of or the motives for strategies. Since I can't see them, I try to feel them, but there is so much going on and sometimes even intentions aren't clear and well, I can't feel a muddled intention as being anything but a huge current-- and everybody can feel that.  the MTR mining industry is like a huge snowball that grows exponentially, crushing everything and everyone in it's way. Don Blankenship is so crazed and belligerant he would stand up against the Obama admin and start a full scale riot if they tried a direct hit to Massey, but while we were at the EPA hearing, union miners were in Richmond protesting to get him removed from his position. And I heard that Chase manhattan withdrew it's commitment to MTR financing the next day.  With a decent role model, our politicans could all urn on a dime too, I bet-- like Byrd said, MTR when it has negative impacts on the lives of our people should be  "halted and abated" (this is pro-coal speaking????). The point is that the tides are turning-- with a push, we could get our water together and this country back on direction of priority and decency.  that might be the wrong word in California, like Science is the wrong word here.  coal keeps it simple; they use words like lights, entertainment, and America's fuel.

The way Coal acts is like the behavior of a drug addict. Only drug addict acts like this-- doing what they want even when it displaces mamm'ah and pap'ah, after they have lived in the home they built, where their children were born.  Only an addict throws stuff in the water that will make his own children retarded.  Only an addict will say that science isn't real cause if it were, there would be climate change and there ain't that cause that would be bad for coal and I am coal.  I am a friend of coal.  I am third generation coal.  I believe in Coal... like an addict, there is a loss of identity that is replaced and replenished with false pride and short term sense of power.  But I don't blame WV at all.  It is the country that is addicted to electricity, driving this push to destroy my home.  And Coal has thrown a netted veil over this beautiful land, and they put signs everywhere to make you think you can't live without power-- we keep the lights on!  You're going to freeze to DEATH in the dark (without Massey).  I think Electricity hasn't really even been around that long, and not in my family-- my great grandparents raised the house without it and my grandfather too, but my mom remembers the icebox being replaced with the refrigerator. What we can't live without is WATER.

The Spruce mine permit veto really isn't about Coal at all.  None of this is about coal.  It's about WATER. 

WATER is a world issue, much more important than power-- and we will find that WATER is POWER-- much more power than coal or any energy, really.  It is life.

Of course, I am not talking about water in plastic bottles or tap water enriched with chlorine, but about the living water, the living ground water in the water cycle of our planet.

It is true that West Virginia needs freedom from the grip of coal on our land and our people.  Our land has been stolen from us and destroyed. Our ancestors were wrong fully robbed of their mineral rights.  There are thousands of West Virginians whose families have been here for five to eight generations who don't have an acre to squat upon and that's not right.  Thousands of wells were destroyed by highways and coal mines.  Shale Oil drilling threatens our water coming and going.  Our country uses more power than we create at the cost of our lives -- the balance is off.  Can we create energy without the destruction of water?? and can we stop using it until we do? The current mining practices reminds me of stealing bones from children to make bread for the fat king-- and more than half Americans want to be fat kings. 

A lot of people think I want to lead the country backwards-- that I am trying to go back to another time, that I am throwing away years of progress, but I am not.  I feel that I am out in the yard, picking up the babies that got thrown out with the bath water, and I am saying that I know what is important in my life, and it's not stuff and it's not power-- it's clean water, wholesome food; it's family and community.  Then I am attacked, as if it is about me, and it's not.  My weaknesses, mistakes and shortcomings are pointed out-- and people say, well you're a hypocrit because you wear Levi's and they were sewn with electricity, or you take a bath in hot water that is heated with gas, or you use a iPhone that is created by coal, or you eat carrots from California-- and I have to say, hey.  I support the notion that when I strive to the highest agenda, even though I make concessions, I am still moving in my preferred direction.  

Even my best friend says to me, "you have to remember YOU ARE IN COAL COUNTRY" and I have to say, "Actually, that's not how I feel about it.  this is MY country, and MY home and I feel reluctant to stand by and watch it be destroyed-- and FOR WHAT??? 

IF coal was making WV any money, we'd be the richest state in the Union, not the third poorest. 

Others come and approach me and say thank you for speaking up-- we all feel that way about it but no one has the balls to speak.  there is something beautiful and humble about a West Virginian that doesn't want to point out the bad behavior of another, doesn't want to interfere with another man's work, and God knows regulations came in and shut down so many farms that a lot of people had to work in coal, cause it was the only jobs, so inviting regulations really is a gamble-- we know we can't trust the government (ask any Indian), so it goes against our natures to stand up against a workforce and our coal based communities.  But it's more like an intervention to me, we can't let this addiction to power destroy our water. 

well I have to get back to the garden

thanks for listening to me, I really think the emphasis on coal is coal talking; I don't have anything at all against coal, my mother used to have a pair of coal earrings that I always loved, I just love life and I don't want anything destroying it, mine, yours or the potential for it. It's the blatant disregard for life, for people, for water, for the ecology of life and the structure of the earth that has set me against coal mining companies, and oh the outrage that my tax dollars supplement there evil efforts! that my bank uses my money to invest in them! that my governor would go to DC to lobby for them! that my environmental protection departments would issue them permits for this!   West Virginia.  The whole state is beautiful.  It's nice enough to be a park-- Seneca Rocks, Gauley Mountain, New River Gorge, Dolly Sods, Canaan Valley... Greenbrier... it could be really nice and they tax us so hard and take everything, it is so hard to make money here and it's hard to live here, and the people are not well, not happy, not excited about living like they could be. There is a big black cloud  hanging over this land that says, You don't matter, Nobody cares about you, Your lives don't matter.  Coal has been saying that to us for so long that a lot of us are starting to believe it, but I know it's not true.

I am raising angora rabbits for the wool because I believe that heating costs will only go up in a post peak oil/ peak coal world.  I am trying to build a cordwood construction house, and I live most of the year without electricity.  This year we plan to over-winter on the farm with the rabbits.  I use the computer, the hot bath and laundry once a week when I am working a part time job I have with one of my family's companies.  I think it's okay to use coal-produced electricity to build a solar panel, but I don't want to use it on the farm for the daily stuff because I just can't see giving them money to destroy my world, and I don't want to let the concessions grow and grow until they are the plan. As for water-- I collect rain water for the rabbits and have a spring where I haul water.  I don't even shit in my own water, I have a composting toilet and a humanure separate compost-- but you best not write that cause I have yet to apply for the innovative permit for that.

anyway-- love that you have a place in Vermont.  If they destroy WV, Vermont will be the only place left to go for me.  Or maybe Ithica.  I lived in SF and I loved the Metro Cafe and Clementine's and the crepe place in the Mission.  I miss the lumiere and the Red Vic and the one in the deep mission, the Four star and even the kabouki  h when  I went to SF in 1986 December, and I left in early may 2000

I can't remember how to spell anything.  I loved Suppenkuche and mad magda's russian tearoom for the borscht, and Juliano's Raw organic vegan gourmet-- oh the food!!! and thousand year old eggs

I loved running through the park and along the great highway/ ocean beach

and around the lake and the pond and up strawberry hill and in the presidio... but then I moved to maui and lived in the jungle off the grid without power or phone and on rainwater until I knew who I was again and suddenly felt like it was time to come home, but I am native West Virginian.  I was born in Charleston and I'm seventh generation American from West Virginia (the Taylors ), the Old Dominion (the Barnards), and Maryland (the Broadwaters). My fathers side is from England and came over early after the Mayflower, a woman with her three sons... 

there is a story about my grandfather-- Everett Hale Barnard, dairy farmer, and one year was particularly bad for flies and they were bothering the cows something firece and interferring with production so he went and brought something home from the store and sprayed it and it killed all the flies like nothing he had ever seen and so he put on his glasses and read the label and the next day he took it back to the store-- returned it and my mama went ask him, "why daddy, when it was working and now the flies are coming back", and he said, it gets into the water-- it's no good for the fish or the birds.  it was DDT. Our family doesn't want to destroy our world.  We know better.  It's part of my heritage.  Doing the right thing is part of who I am. so thanks for listening to me, cause when you do, you keep him alive.

AND

Here is some food advice from Liza, who is helping me get ready to cook for my Mom post-surgery later this summer:

Here is a basic list for a well stocked pantry:

Soup stockhome made or store bought, and boullian cubes, chicken, beef, vegetable, fish, lamb, rabbit

Canned and dried tomatoes

Canned tomato sauce

Canned tomato paste

Canned tuna, salmon, sardines

Canned olives

Canned refried beans, canned and dry chili beans, black beans, kidney beans, navy beans, lentils split peas.

Pickles, vegetable relishes, pickled beans asparagras etc.

Rice, brown, white, wild

A selection of different pastas, noodles, macaroni

Barley

Bulgar wheat

Quinoa, amaranth, other grains

Granola and other cold cereals

Crackers, chips, cookies

Hot cereals, oatmeal, wheat hearts, multi grain

Pancake mix, cookie mix, brownie mix

Flour: white, wheat, rye

Rolled oats, rolled barley, rolled rye

Corn meal

Wheat germ

Lethicin

Nutritional yeast

Baking yeast

Baking soda, baking powder, salt

Various vinegars, cooking oils including olive. Peanut oil is the best for frying things, it can take a higher cooking tempurature than other oils, butter, home rendered chicken fat, bacon fat, beef fat, pork fat

Assorted meats, preserved, salted, smoked, canned, dried Jerky, frozen

Lemon Juice, lime juice, orange juice, apple juice, concentrates in freezer( these can be used for many things, some for sweetening foods without adding sugar, and when you cannot get fresh citrus

Teas, coffees,

White sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey

Assorted spices:

Pickling spice mixes

Cinnamon, cinnamon sticks

Spike or similar all around seasoned salts

Dried granulated garlice, garlic powder, garlic salt.

Black pepper corns

Whole cloves, whole nutmegs, (need a nutmeg grater)

Dried soup mixes, onion, chicken etc,

Dried onions

Bay leaves

Thyme

Sage

Rosemary

Parsley

Oregano

Basil

Curries

Dried chilis, chili pepper water, chili sauces

Tarragon( many folks do not like this herb, I love it!)

and any other spices you like.

Peanuts, almonds, walnuts, pecans, other nuts you like

Sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, other seeds

Sprouting seeds (very good to have on hand for winter when fresh greens are scarce)

Apple sauce, apple butter

Fruit jams, jellies

Vanilla, almond flavor, etc

Cocoa powder

Bakers chocolate

Dried fruits, raisons, plums(prunes) other fruits you like

Homemade fruit leathers

Mayonaise, mustards, horseradish, hot sauce, fish sauce, marinades, and salad dressings.

An assortment of canned soups, cream of mushroom soup, tomato soup, etc.

Dried mushrooms

Potatoes fresh canned dried

Sweet Potatoes

Fresh Carrots, Celery, fresh onions, shallots, garlic

Tortillas, corn and flour

Canned, boxed, powdered milk, buttermilk

Cheeses

Yogurt

Other tips and tricks

Your menu for the week is going to depend on what is available in your garden and what you have put away and what is on sale at the grocery. You can have a basic or general idea of what you want to fix for the week being flexible if something you were not expecting is on sale cheap, or you get extra produce unexpectedly.

Every time you cook rice, potatoes, or pasta, cook twice what you need, you can use the extra cooked rice, or other starch in a meal the next day to save time.

Every time you have beans and rice, use a different bean, use a different rice, make the salad different, that way the family does not get sick of beans and rice if you need to eat a lot of it in your diet.Of course any dish they especially like make a note of and you can serve it again, each time you make a dish you learn how to cook it better. The same with rabbit and chicken learn as many recipies of each item as you can.

Most folks love mexican food have a different mexican dish once a week, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, etc. Many mexican dishes are easy to make, and a lot of the ingredients can be in your pantry most of the time.

Have breakfast for dinner now and again, its fun and its easy.

Learn lots of different recipies for salads, fruit salads, vegetable salads, pasta salads, learn different recipies for dressings, sometimes I want herbal vinegrette sometimes I want thousand island. I make all my salad dressings from scratch, they keep well in the fridge. They are cheap to make, and the same salad can be made new with a different dressing.

Learn different marinades for meats, marinades help make tough meats more tender and add a different twist to the dish you are making.

A lot of recipies do not need precise measurements, if you are making beef stew, you can add more or less potatoes or carrots or onions to suit, You can make chicken soup that is creamy or tomatoey. Make stew using turnips or rutabagas, or barley instead of potatoes for a nice change.

Learn how to make a good gravy the technique for good gravy is the same no matter what kind of gravy you make. Good stock, pan drippings from the meat you roasted, butter and flour or cornstarch and water, put together right at the right time and you have gravy, the trick is knowing when to add what, and how hot to cook it and how long to cook it for. It only takes a short time.

Gravy with any roast is a nice tasty treat.

Learn how to make good pie crust, fruit pies, custard pies, savory pies like meat pot pies are easy

to make.

Learn how to make biscuts, they are wonderful with soups and stews and quicker than making homemade yeast bread, you can add herbs to the biscut dough, or grated cheese, smashed garlic, or leave them plain.

Have a late tea with cheese and crackers, cut up raw veggies, homemade ranch dip, to keep the hungries at bay while you are cooking a large meal that is going to be late or not on time.

That way no one is whining at your heels while you cook.

Fruit salads make a wonderful dessert. Sometimes you are going to want cake, pie, or icecream, but if you want a sweet every day, use fresh fruit, or in the winter dried fruit, like raisons, dates, cranberries etc.

A good all around dressing for fruit salad can be made with yogurt, lemon juice, honey. This is great on most combinations of fruit s, sometimes I use maple syrup to sweeten the yogurt instead of honey. The juice from canned fruit mixed with yogurt is great too. Of course just plain fruit is wonderful any day.

If you regularly keep a container of cut up veggies like carriots, celery, cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumbers, or whatever you have there are no rules for this, in the fridge you have a quick low calorie snack. Have hard boiled eggs on hand for a quick protein boost on a busy day. Have home made trail mix on hand. If you regularly make up snack foods to have on hand the Baby can get her own snacks when she is hungry between meals and you are busy.

Dinners can be cold foods too, especially in the summer! Cold sandwiches, salads, soups for dinner on a hot day are wonderful. And you don't heat up the house cooking. Cooked and then cooled meats are good on salads, and sandwiches. Use large lettuce leaves or bok choi leaves to make veggie roll ups with shredded veggies maybe some grated cheese, maybe some finely shredded cooked leftover meats, dip in yogurt and tahini or peanut sauce.

Make and have on hand on hot days more than one kind of cold drink, ice teas, fruit juices, fruit juices mixed with pellegrino or other mineral water with or without bubbles, and lemon is a nice treat. Home made apple cider is a wonderful refreshing drink on hot days. Make tea and freeze in icecube trays use these icecubes in your ice tea, Freeze juice in icecube trays put into your juice drink add fresh mint and mineral water. Yummy if done right.

In summer make cold foods mostly, they are lighter and take less time, get a good vegan cookbook and you will find lots of wonderful things to make with your homegrown veggies. Just add nuts and seeds for protein, sprouted beans, sprouted grains. They are chock full of everything a body needs. Save your heavier meals for fall and winter times. The summer is when you will be canning and making other stuff to place into your pantry and freezer, make sure you have lots of windows in your kitchen so you do not get too hot, or have an outdoor summer kitchen, just needs a roof ,stove, counter space, and a sink.

For all your canning and other big food prep, you are going to need more than one large canning pot, more than one stock/soup pot, several sizes of sauce pans with lids, several sizes of frying pans, more than one set of mixing bowls, several cutting boards, good knives, learn how to keep them sharp get a whet stone, you need a ton of counter space , and plenty of storage space for all your tools and pots and pans jars, containers, etc. for large projects, like canning a whole bushel of peaches for instance, you need a lot of counter space so you can keep foods separate from your sterilized jars and lids and different stages of a food being processed, if you do not have enough counter space next to the stove and next to the sink it will get frustrating, because you will be rearranging and moving stuff all the time, keep your dishes pots and pans washed counters wiped floor swept during the day so at the end your kitchen is not a total disaster, while something is processing and you have a couple minutes clean up your work areas, oh yeah get an instant read thermonator, a candy thermonator, meat thermonater, two at least good kitchen timers, one or two food dehydrators, I know you are going to have a smoke house, you could learn to make cheese, some can be smoked, other just regular cheese.

While you are making jam you can also use that fruit to make up a pie for dessert that night, put some of the fruit in the food processor and spead on wax paper and but in food dryer for fruit leather, in one day you can make three separate things with the one fruit. That is how you get your pantry stocked and that is what I mean by a big cooking day, when the fruit is ready you have to process it the same day you bring it home or within one or two days maybe three if you picked it from your garden, but the sooner after harvest you process the food the better. Whole berries can be frozen in a single layer on cookie sheets, When fully frozen place in airtight bags and put in freezer, that way you can take out just the amount you need. Its lovely to have the berries in the winter time when fresh fruit is not in your garden.

When you have an abundance of herbs pick them, some you are going to use fresh and some you will dry for later, also make up oils and vinegars with herbs.

When you have an abundance of milk make cheese, yogurt, butter, and a custard pie for dessert that night.

With an abundance of tomatoes, cut some up and dry, put fully dried tomatoes in oil, smoke some of them, blanch tomatoes, remove skins and seeds, can the tomatoes, or make tomato soup or sauce then can them, or freeze them. In one day you have made several differnt tomatoe products to use over the year ahead.

Good nutrition is easy to achieve if you keep a variety of foods in the diet. Several kinds and colors of fruits and vegetables nearly every day. Different grains, different beans lentils nuts seeds plus the meats cheeses milk fish and other stuff will give you a balanced diet. Just work on making at least two meals or the snacks a day, contain veggies and or fruits. The more colorful they are the more vitamens they contain. My mother always had two and sometimes three vegetables at dinner, one might be a root vegetable and one nearly always was a dark green leafy vegetable, and we nearly always had a salad, with assorted raw veggies with the lettuce or cabbage. We often had fresh fruit for dessert. Or no dessert. Cakes, pies, icecreams, puddings and the like were only for birthdays and holidays.

Take a cuisine you like and learn to cook several dishes you dont know already, have a lot of mediteranian type meals, very healthful, learn new mexican dishes, learn new vegetarian dishes, learn new asian dishes, learn new indian dishes. Take your favorite food and learn new ways of preparing it. Practice makes perfect. Its all a learning experience.

Here is a small list of good cookbooks:

Joy of Cooking

Tom Browns Field Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants, by Tom Brown

The Fannie Farmer Cookbook

Betty Crocker Cook Book

Veganomicon, The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook

In The Green Kitchen, techniques to learn by heart, by Alice Waters

The Moosewood Cookbook

A Home Made Life, by Molly Wisenberg

The New Basics, by Julee Rosso, and Sheila Lukins

The Four Ingredient Cookbook by Linda Coffee

Forgotten Skills of Cooking, by Darina Allen

The Food Lovers Companion, by Sharon Tyler Herbst

Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, by Judi Kingry and Lauren Devine

How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman

Emergancy Food Storage and Survival Guide, by Peggy Layton

Soup Bible, by Debra Mayhew

Julias Kitchen Wisdom, by Julia Child

Wheres Mom Now That I Need Her, by Kent P Frandsen

Herbs and Spices: The Cooks Reference by, Jill Norman