Michael Pollan is carving out a place for himself as the nation's food guru. The author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan is an advocate of food — real food, simple food, fresh food, local food, pleasurable food. (He's not real big on factory farms.) There was a grassroots effort to have him nominated as President Obama's Secretary of Agriculture, but Pollan prefers to do his advocating from the outside. His newest book is Food Rules (Penguin, $11), a pocket-sized guide full of easy-to-remember rules.

Some of my most enjoyable moments in the kitchen are when I decide to make something different using whatever I find in the pantry. At other times, I am inspired to try to duplicate a product that I can no longer find in the supermarket. Such was the case with an herb seasoning that, after being used for several recipes, seemed to disappear from the supermarket shelves in our area.

Anyone who has ever opened a Julia Child cookbook has seen the work of Judith Jones. Jones was Child's editor, and her grace with the written word helped Child's stories come to life. In recent years, Jones' own cookbooks have gained attention as books that are good enough to sit down and read. Her recipes are top-notch, but it is the stories and style that make a Judith Jones book worth reading.

On a cold winter day, it is great to hear someone say, "Soup's on!" because nothing seems to warm us up quite like a bowl of hot soup. In addition to being a good "warm-me-up" food, soup can also open an avenue of creativity in the kitchen. You can add just about anything you want to a pot of soup.