I just cut the chard in crosswise in larger ribbons in the leafy part and then progressively smaller as I get towards the thicker stems, and just use them in whatever I’m cooking. The stems aren’t that tough if you cut them small enough.

Breakfast: Steel cut oatmeal (6 minute version), with diced tomatoes from the garden, pepitas, grated cheese, salt, pepper, olive oil; cup of coffee with 1% milk.

Morning snack: Asian pear. Almonds

Lunch: At the local Thai restaurant, a lunch special called Chicken Paradise, which has chicken, pineapples, some veggies, in a tasty chili sauce, served with white rice. Also some hot and sour soup.

Afternoon snack: Almonds. Dried plums (aka prunes).

Dinner: Kimchi stew, made of the last of the kimchi in the fridge, eggplant, pork belly, garlic, onion, chicken stock, seaweed, porcini mushrooms. Served over a brown/wild rice mix.

Dessert: A few almond chocolate chunk cookies.

The future is here. While I haven’t ditched all my cookbooks, I did cull the herd when I moved a couple of years ago. If I hadn’t cooked out of a book for a few years, it went to the giveaway pile.

INSTEAD, though, there’s the fertile ground of Internet cooking collaboration. If I have an inkling of what I want to cook with, I go to one of my favorite bloggers and see what they have to see. Or just start with a raw search, and see what turns up. What usually turns up is not only the original author’s post (sometimes, a recipe recycled from a real book), but also the experience of what others have tried and liked (or not). That interaction is fascinating, and satisfies not just my need for what to cook tonight, but for how I might vary the concept over the next week, month, year, decade. Then, I give back by posting what I’ve tried, on my own blog, and in comments to others.

Books have their place, and are arguably better at telling a longer story of food discovery, but the Internet has found it’s place. As evidenced by those that read your post!

Jeff
http://improbablepantry.blogspot.com