RULES

- Shop at farmers markets. Know who grows your food, where, and how.
- Taste everything, if only one bite.
- Waste not. Almost everything has a use. Good cooks are also frugal.
- Eat more fresh fruit.
- Try growing your own food, even if it's only a pot of herbs, or a whole vegetable plot.
- Salad dressing should always be homemade.
- Buy food products with recognizable ingredients- asparatame is not a recognizable ingredient.
- Spend more time cooking.
- Own a good knife.
- Salt your pasta water liberally.
- Know how to utilize your freezer.
- Never buy frozen chicken cutlets.
- Buy ingredients you've never heard of and figure out what to do with them.
- Know how to deglaze a pan.
- Always buy plain yogurt (if you want fruit in it, add fruit at home).
- Roast and eat a whole fish.
- Learn from what you cook.

These are a few of my approach-to-cooking rules I brainstormed recently. What are yours?