I came across the RAW format for the first time while working at Creative Marketing as a graphic designer, but didn't really know what it was other than a HUGE image file. Chris just emailed an article from Wired magazine explaining what it is and why we should use it. Pretty helpful! After reading the article Chris so thoughtfully emailed to me, I decided I'd give it a try. I am very happy with the results; a juicier image. I think I'm going to make the switch. I guess I need to go to Fry's and get another SD card. . . . . . Recently I've been thinking to myself, I do not get enough vegetables in my diet. That thought came mostly after my sister had me record my diet for a 24 hour period for an assignment in her nutrition class. Since then, I've been somewhat perplexed as to how to solve this problem. I don't really like steamed vegetables, because they're so mushy, relatively flavorless without loads of butter and salt, and the nutrients are pretty much stripped in steaming. Salads are wonderful, but salad makings seem to go bad so quickly in my fridge. Also, raw vegetables are often bitter, and a lot to chew. The solution to the problem came when my mother-in-law shared with me one of her issues of Cook's Illustrated: roast them! How utterly genius! We had some fabulous roasted green beans while she was here, and after she left I was thinking I'm going to have to buy more green beans it was so good. THEN, in a cooking class that I went to last week, Sheryl shared with us that pretty much any vegetable can be roasted, even romaine hearts!! For those of you who have already discovered this, kudos. For those of you who have not, here's the secret to fabulous, just right, tasty vegetables:

1. Cut up vegetables of choice into bite sized portions and place in a large bowl
2. Sprinkle just a little bit of olive oil, you could probably spray it with a light cooking spray if you want to spare some calories
3. Add some garlic, fresh or powdered
4. Salt and pepper to taste
5. Mix together
6. Spread on cookie sheet and place it in the oven at 400º for about 15 minutes, turning the vegetables over so you cook them evenly
7. Serve!!

Broccoli is great when roasted; it becomes slightly sweeter and the flowerettes become slightly crispy. MMmm. . . I was so excited to discover a new way to eat vegetables. If anyone has any ideas on other ways to have veggies daily, I'm all ears!! *I have to give a shout out to my friend Rachel and her husband, Knute for making the chicken and Quinoa salad. It was delicious.