A great cooking magazine

I have many favorite recipes. I clip them from magazines and the newspaper, intending to cook them as soon as I can -- but some of the recipes just don't fit in with my busy lifestyle. Others are just not healthy and I think better about cooking with ingredients I know are bad for me. Most of them don't make it to my dinner table, but wind up in "file 13."

That is why I really appreciate one of my favorite magazines, Everyday Food. I have never received an issue that has not included at least one recipe or technique I have tried right away. Many of the recipes I have used repeatedly.

I like that the recipes don't have many ingredients. If there is an ingredient that is unusual, they generally explain it and most recipes are quick, easy and healthy. That is a combination I don't often find.

I like that they have recipes for vegetables that are in season and give you a number of ways to prepare them. They give you a week's worth of menus and a shopping list to help make it easy. Also, you will find mini cooking lessons using kitchen tools. All in a very convenient digest size that fits easily into a bag and doesn't take up too much room on a kitchen counter.

They also are not afraid to use grains that are not mainstays of the American diet. This is really great since so many people are becoming allergic or sensitive to gluten.

You can even sign up online for a daily email to help plan your meal each night. How helpful for me, since I don't always plan my meals ahead. I should, but I just don't always do it.

I have to go now because I need to find some new and tasty ways to cook with eggplant, which is in season right now.