Back in another life, I was an art student.  If you know a lot of pastry chefs, it's not unusual. I went.  I think I made it through a year though I wasn't in class at all the second semester.

Having to tell my parents that I had a back up plan, I decided culinary school sounded cool.

No one back then went to culinary school, there weren't that many of them and at the time I was in Philly and there was one not far from my apartment. Yes, I went into it for all the right reasons.

Early on, perhaps still in art school, I fell in love with Ethiopian cooking. Today at the Union Square farmers market, I saw that Hot Bread Kitchen was selling Injera, the bread that is used as the utensil. Rip off a piece and grab the food with that. Here's an Ansel Adams quality photo of the bread that barely made it through the day in my bag.

Injera is usually served round and flat, covering a big plate.

When I got home, I started looking for the African cookbook I bought back then. Still have it. Always will. Love this book.

Really, more cookbooks should be published this way.

I've see this book around quite a bit over the years.  Same design, same spine. I like that a simple book like this that probably was someone's baby and took not a lot to publish, has lasted in the universe.

So many big, fancy books come and go now.

Here's a sample recipe of the Eggplant Chuney

Yes, I'm getting lazy. Photos of recipes. Last week it was a drawing of eaten food...photographed.

When we talk about traceability and sustainability and all the other hot abilities right now, it's also good to talk about the traceability of culture and traditions.  I think this is where we lose the tracing.

New things come out all the time. Seems not so special anymore. So much of what was really special about finally having your own cookbook, is now quite often, just special to you.

They publish and then they don't. We use the recipe and then it's over. I've been going nuts these days trying to find my aunt's struffoli recipe. It's the traditional Italian honey balls that you see a lot of around Christmas.

I'll post it when I find it. I think it's lousy of me not to know where it is, with her handwriting. Like everything else, I still want to tell my daughter that I know where it came from.

On that note, I'm off to the TEDxManhattan conference today.  The sub-title is "Changing the Way We Eat".

You can view it in real time online. www.tedxmanhattan.org Tweeters and the like will be going social media crazy in the back row keeping everyone up to date and we'll be sitting there, watching the speakers, getting inspired, eating sustainable food and listening to music. If I'm not mistaken, it's the only TEDx about food.

So get your Birkenstocks, get your butt to a viewing party and get those idea flowing.

Happy Snow Day,

Heather