I love food and I love eating. It’s an important social aspect in my life, and the food I choose to put in my mouth 3 times a day 7 days a week says a lot about me and my outlook. So I peck away at this keyboard trying to put into words the connections I see between life and the foods we eat. I enjoy sharing the foods that define my attitudes.

But food is not strictly entertainment you know.  Our bodies require food in order to thrive. So I feel a responsibility towards you and the foods I present here. After all we are talking about the health and vitality that allows us enjoy life to the fullest.

So I am here today to cajole you with every mother’s mantra: EAT YOUR GREENS! Eating greens does not need to be a chore! I don’t understand why people resist.

Fortunately “going green” seems to be catching on. I think American’s long past due interest in the environment may finally make it cool to eat your greens too. And I am not talking about vegetarianism. Vegetarians choose to forego meat for all kinds of complicated reasons, not all of them are related to health issues. Because as I said the foods we choose to put into our bodies does help define us.

Meat & Potatoes. I promised a week of Meat & Potatoes. 6 recipes in 6 days. That's a week in my book. So this is the last of these recipes.

My meat is sausage. Spicy Italian sausage. My potatoes are potatoes. Is that clear enough?

If not I should also say this is a recipe for flatbread. Meat & Potato Flat Bread with Mustard Greens. I added the mustard greens because spring has begun to sprung here in So. Cal and the hills are alive! Every spring the first things to come alive in the hills near my house are wild mustard plants. That means urban foraging to me.

I live in the Hollywood Hills. My street backs up to some L.A. County conservancy property, which bleeds into Lake Hollywood and the land owned by Department of Water and Power, and culminates in 4200 acres of Griffith Park. That is a lot of wild land in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world.

As I said, winter rain makes spring come early in California. Julie Andrews has nothin’ on these hills, because they really are “alive” right now. That means the tasty young leaves of wild mustard are everywhere. So I was out bright and early today gathering a big bag of mustard greens. Naturally I just had to use them within hours of picking them. So they make an appearance here in the last of my Meat & Potato posts. Meat & Potato Flat Bread with Mustard Greens serves 8 CLICK here for a printable recipe.

Carrots are a year 'round item at the Hollywood Farmers Market. But this time of year particularly beautiful carrots can be found in an array of colors, sizes and shapes. I love the little round French carrots; so sweet and carroty. They are the perfect size to pop in your mouth like a little carrot bon-bon, and that’s exactly what I do with them.

So this week I chose carrots for my Market Matters post. Not just any carrot however, I chose a variety of the most unusually colored carrots I could find. Because once you get out of the PigglyWiggly you will discover that there is way more to a carrot than orange. There are red carrots, purple ones, even yellow, white, and two-toned varieties.

You needn’t be frightened of these carrots. They are not some mutinized hybrid with a lot of genetic hanky-panky going on. Nope, most of these carrots are heirlooms.

Sometimes I wanna make silly food videos. There is just no other way to share some jokes or visual references that I find funny. So, occasionally I build whole cooking videos from the seed of a silly idea. Sometimes a particular recipe is called for to make the joke work (like my Brussels sprouts video) so I do that recipe. Other times, most any recipe will support the theme and I just pick something I want to cook. Click here or on screen grab below to watch today's video.

This video recipe started with a serious editorial I read in the L.A. Times by Gregory Rodriguez. He usually writes about cultural issues like race relations, ethnicity, and other complex human qualities detailing what it is to be part of the “New” America.

Well in this particular editorial Mr. Rodriguez stretched his parameters and talked about kimchi, and the Korean national identity. Now, I am not Korean…I’m not even Asian. But, it touched a chord in me. If you’ve read this site before then you know I can be a bit nostalgic about food, tradition, and culture. Mr. Rodriguez hit me in the belly with all three!

I live in the Hollywood Hills. My street backs up to some L.A. County conservancy property, which bleeds into Lake Hollywood and the land owned by Department of Water and Power, and culminates in 4200 acres of Griffith Park. That is a lot of wild land in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world.

Which means I have eagles, deer, rabbit, hawks, bobcats, coyote and the occasional rumor of mountain lion as neighbors.

It also means easy access to hiking trails and the peace and solitude that comes from being in nature.

But whenever I hike these hills I find I have an annoying little habit. I am constantly scanning the trails for edibles. I have some tried and true areas where I collect citrus, figs, herbs, cactus fruit, blackberries and wild greens. But you never know when that lone indigenous Blue Elderberry tree will reveal it’s hiding place.

These edibles can be easy to find too, if you know what you are looking for.