Fellow blogger/author Gayla Trail's new book, Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces comes out today, and it's just one of several things that The Universe has directed my way to say, dude, (yes, The Universe calls me "dude") you don't have to be a master chef, but it might be good for you and your family if you learned some basic things about food and cooking. You know, so that you don't kill them with two-year-old salmon fillets.

It started when my entire family gave me nothing but cooking utensils for Christmas. And then I started reading cooking blogs, and then I started looking up recipes, and now we're actually COOKING DINNER EVERY NIGHT. A long way from heating up the frozen pizza every meal.

This is a fantastic collection of information on how you can grow your own food in really small places. From beans to herbs to fruit. I'm particularly interested in the section on herbs, mainly because I'd love to grow our own and save the fist-wad of cash they cost at the grocery. The photography is stunning, and everything reads so that a total novice like myself is not throwing her hands up in the air. Excellent work, Gayla! Also, Jon says THANK YOU.