You don't have to stick with these recipes. They're guides. As I say, they're a way in. Have fun with them. It's an easier way to cook in a busy life, once you get the hang of it.

After Schneider visited a ramp (wild leek) festival in the town in the early seventies Sally Schneider returned yearly to document and write about the compelling and unexpected culture that Sally Schneider found there a mix of Swiss and Appalachian that manifested in unique foodways art music architecture and story-telling. She developed these ideas in her long-running Food & Wine Magazine column “Well-Being” and her ground-breaking tome “A New Way to Cook”. She began her career in food working in restaurants in the in 1970’s.

Sally Schneider is a journalist and Founding Editor of the website 'the improvised life'. She is a columnist for The Atlantic Monthly Food Blog as well as a radio commentator for the national public radio show "The Splendid Table". A former chef Schneider is author of The Improvisational Cook A New Way to Cook and The Art of Low Calorie Cooking.