I like to cook, and yet I hardly ever do, because I like to follow a recipe or at least use one for a guideline. That means I have to pick a recipe, then go to the store and buy ingredients, and then come home and cook. Or -- ha ha ha -- plan the menu days in advance. But I never plan menus or pick recipes before I go to the store. And there I stand in the produce section, looking at lots of colorful, nutritious, and tasty vegetables, knowing that if I buy them they will rot in my refrigerator while I wonder what to do with them.

All that has changed with the Vegetable Challenge.

It began with my zucchini craving. I asked E to pick up some at Safeway. Four days later, the helpless little squashes were softening in the crisper and I was in a panic. Then I remembered my new cookbook; it's arranged in chapters, each chapter about a vegetable, you see. I flipped to the end and picked the first thing I saw that didn't require me to go to the store. One hour later, E and I were munching on curried zucchini cakes.

Et voila! The Vegetable Challenge was born.

The beauty of the Vegetable Challenge is that I still do not have to plan menus or read recipes before going to the store. Instead, I can buy produce on impulse, and pore over possibilities later. So when I spy fresh green broccoli or mammoth sweet potatoes, I will put them in my basket with confidence, and know that I will cook and eat them before they rot.

The corollary challenge is to keep our kitchen well-stocked with spices and other cooking staples. If you don't cook regularly such a kitchen becomes pointless and, literally, stale.