"Just Season It" by Mr.Lovenstein
"Just Season It" by Mr.Lovenstein


"Just Season It" by Mr.Lovenstein
I used to hate asparagus, but turns out it's because my mom and grandma would always boil it.
Pro-tip: don't do that, it's awful.
Yup, properly cooked veggies are awesome.
But, children's taste buds are different from adults. Iirc they taste things more strongly, so the bitter notes are more pronounced.
Also, they've been breeding stuff like brussel sprouts to be less bitter for a while now, so veggies might actually taste better than when we were kids.
Brussel sprouts are still terrible
I didn't even think you could do that to asparagus. That's seriously demonic.
Whoever invented canned asparagus belongs in extra hell
Same with Brussel sprout. My step-dad would boil them. Tastes like a soggy sulfur fart. But cut them in half, toss them in a bit of oil, salt and pepper, roast them until crispy in the oven with, and they're delicious. Oddly sweet, even. Try with other seasonings to enhance further.
Actually it's best to roast, then add the pepper. Roasting burns the pepper.
Lightly drizzle some balsamic vinaigrette on them before the oven
You can also steam them (without the oil), fry them (with oil), or put them on a grill (oil optional)
Boiling is just not a good way to cook veggies, it's just the lazy way
Yes. The crispy bits get caramelized. It's amazing.
Some might say that it makes them less healthy, but a very light drizzle of honey before you cook them, and it becomes one of the best things you'll ever eat
I love getting the steam bags of sprouts. So easy to steam them and then toss them in some oil and spices. Super easy and very tasty.
Blanche and shock are the only way I actually like asparagus.
I can tolerate a baked or sauteed spear, but the margin for error is too damned small, and either side of it makes it unpalatable.
boiled (or steamed) white asparagus is quite good, but green asparagus, yeah you should absolutely roast that instead
I love steamed (not boiled) asparagus. Though for most of my life, vegetables were just a vehicle for butter and salt. I’ve pulled way back on how much I use in recent years.
My buddy makes the most delicious grilled asparagus. He’s a real pro and it’s a treat to bbq with him.
I dunno about asparagus, but it turns out the Brussel sprouts we ate as kids were bitter and didn't taste as good as the ones they sell now. But yeah, with asparagus, you gotta broil those bad boys with garlic/olive oil, etc
Blanche and shock.
Yeah boiled here too. I liked it sorta but discovered much later that roasted is way better.
Same thing with Brussels sprouts. Don't boil. Toss in salt, pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar, bake at like 425 for 20 minutes, you're welcome
The real reason is that unhealthy food contains ingredients that were rarer for our ancestors to obtain. Dense caloric food meant surviving a winter, but our winter never comes.
but our winter never comes
Sad George R. R. Martin noises
sad season 7 noises
My mom after feeding me canned green beans for years watching me wolf down green beans at my house
"You hated veggies when you were a kid."
...sure, mom
I looked my mother in the eyes after a long day once and responded to a similar statement with "No, I hated your chilli when I was a kid."
She really does make the absolute worst chilli I've ever tasted. It's so bland. There is almost no chilli powder in it, just some salt and a little bit of pre-ground pepper from a packaged salt/pepper shaker. The recipe amounts to "throw some hamburger and tomato sauce with canned beans in a pot and cook it for an hour and then add random amounts of all THREE seasonings"
It's a wonder I survived to be able to cook on my own.
Was the chili really that bad you had to hurt your mother's feelings about it? I feel you hated more than just her chili...
Ahhh the Midwest classic of I don't need recipes I just throw impossibly small amounts of seasoning in despite there being literal pounds of vegetables and ground meat in it.
Don't forget to cook your venison through with only a little butter so you don't get sick! A fucking alligator couldn't bite through that shit.
My kids are the opposite. We can sauté up some fresh green beans and make them so good, but the kids only want to eat the canned ones.
Lol there's just something so fun about the canned ones when you're a kid I guess
My mom was a hippie and made her own bread and we always ate homemade food. When I went away to camp, I was the one pigging out on the sugary breakfast cereals like Froot Loops etc. while the other kids were busy being amazed by the eggs and pancakes and whatnot.
i used to be anti meat except ham and chickfila chicken (specifically), turns out my parents made super dry chicken...
i now eat 2x the meat to account for vegetarians and my lost time
No! Salt kills you, cooking kills vitamins and when you think you do everything right, then your vegetables don't have good enough quality and don't have enough nutritients. Eating healthy means to suffer, deal with it!!! /s
Or just dont overcook/boil your veggies. Everything in moderation.
Some of us grew up with terrible cooks. Properly cooked broccoli was a religious experience for me.
I always snort cocaine with moderation.
Kills some of them, but guess what happens when you enjoy it, and therefore eat a lot of them?
Oh my god. You’re saying the vitamins are going extinct???
Breathing KILLS you! 100% of people who breathe die, so stop breathing RIGHT NOW to live a healthy life!
And have you heard about this dihydrogen monoxide stuff? It's apparently just as bad!
White people conquered the whole world looking for spices and then decided they didn't want to use any of them
Im of Scottish, Irish, and South German descent my ancestors didnt conquer shit beyond the whole bursting into flames under direct sunlight problem.
They conquered that?
How?
.... you know, out of scientific curiosity.
Nova Scotia was going well until king Charles gave it to the French.
Darien was going well until... the everything... Ok, Darien was never going well at all.
I suppose there's modern capitalism, public investing, and one of the most iconic holidays ever. Cultural victory?
You forget the legend of Gregor MacGregor and his conquering and settling of Cazique. And his freedom fought for the Republic of Florida.
Unnecessary racist comment but it's OK since its against the one group that its OK to be racist towards. This wouldn't fly if it was about black people and a similar gotcha line
Because you are designed to seek out salt and sugar as a survival trait; then decided to mass produce it and put it into everything. Now your tastebuds have been ruined, even the standard apple/banana has been genetically modified to have more sugar
Genetically modified? That's a stretch.
Like many other cultures, bananas and apples were selectively reproduced to obtain fruits with more to eat. Corn, carrots, every single kale and cabbage, potatoes, oranges and even strawberries can go into this basket.
The wild banana has almost nothing to eat, being filled with large seeds and we can still find wild apples, by nature very tart but still edible. Every single cereal we plant and harvest today was originally nothing more than a wild grass.
But to call the work of millenia and who knows how many generations of farmers genetic modifications is a bit over the top.
GMOs are very recent introductions and normally for obtaining pest, drought or disease (more) resistant plants.
We absolutely genetically modified pretty much all of our food. We just did it by selective breeding.
The only difference with modern GMO is we've learned to do it directly much faster. We don't need a random mutation to add a trait anymore.
Selective breeding and grafting modified the genetics
Bananas all being clones
There’s no reason to separate the terms
GMOs are very recent introductions and normally for obtaining pest, drought or disease (more)
Those bastards!!!!
resistant plants.
Oh...ok.....
The wild banana has almost nothing to eat, being filled with large seeds and we can still find wild apples, by nature very tart but still edible. Every single cereal we plant and harvest today was originally nothing more than a wild grass.
I cannot help thinking about the first proto-human that started munching on the tips of wild grass.
iirc the modern banana is actually a less flavorful variety than centuries past, but not for selective breeding reasons. The more popular variety, the Gros Michel, was susceptible to a certain fungus that wiped it out by the 60s. Those apparently tasted closer to the artificial banana flavoring that is still used today and in fact are what that flavoring was based on (albeit probably quite a bit more sugary and concentrated since it's still a candy flavoring).
And then you have other produce like apples and tomatoes being bred for size and yield, since that will both net more profit and feed more people. This often necessarily means that the produce will lose flavor in the process, as well as nutritional value by weight since the size/yield increase is mostly just the crop taking up more water. (I think the genetic modification you mentioned is in some part meant to correct that inverse relationship between yield and nutritional density, but I'd have to read up more on the subject.)
So I think you can just as much argue that it's not our tastebuds being ruined so much as produce itself being considerably less appealing to them.
You can buy Gros Michel bananas still you just have to put in some effort. If you are in the USA and have the cash the Miami Fruit Co ships them when they grow them. I haven't checked but I believe they are in banana season.
The gros Michel is also not a natural banana. Those were also all clones of each other. Natural bananas have big ass seeds throughout them.
"Oh my God!"
Who is God's God?
Super God, duh
Dog
Lauren Faust
Her holy icon:
The author.
Bill Murray
The infinite regress of creator's creators.
I
God.
"Oh my God!" - God
I think God is, by definition, an atheist, though, since God must not believe in a higher power.
I feel like God would have the capacity to realize he is the higher power. Nothing says there has to be a higher power at each level.
Nothing says there has to be a higher power at each level.
Sounds like you're just about ready to join /c/atheism
Well in that case I'm not atheist. I belong to species of higher power on this planet.
im an atheist and i believe in a higher power.
that sun will fuck me up if i get too close
Depends on if he's having a bad day, or if he believes in himself. Wait, is that why faith is how you get into heaven? God having shitty self-confidence and not wanting any haters around makes as much sense as any other I've heard.
who's the creator of god and the realm he resides in? hm? hm? hm?
checkmate, theists!
Checkmate? Ha!
Those fools aren't but throwing rocks at a wall, hoping one sticks!
I'm lazy so here's lazy delicious veggie tip:
Get a rice cooker. Get rice and FROZEN pre-processed (chopped) veggies. These are still very inexpensive, require no preparation, last forever in the freezer, and are actually FRESHER than "fresh" veggies, since they are picked when ripe and then flash frozen rather than picked prematurely and sprayed with a ripening agent. Your rice cooker should come with a veggie tray so you can cook the rice and veggies simultaneously. Drop them in there and fire it up. Get yourself some "simmering sauce" and heat it up in a pan for ~15 minutes and baby you got a stew goin'.
Can you elaborate on where the stew is going?
It's chasing after their refrigerator.
Can you elaborate on this so called simmerin' sauce please
It's just like a pre-mixed (typically middle-Eastern) sauce with coconut milk and spices and thing like that pre-prepared. It shouldn't have any preservatives or anything you can't pronounce.
There's many options for sauces, depending on your preferences and dietary requirements, but there are a few key common steps.
For example many Indian curry type sauces can begin with frying diced onions, some ginger, garlic, chillis, coriander seed powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, black pepper, and tomato paste, then coconut milk to form the main body of the sauce. Don't worry if you don't have access to all of these, mix and match. Then finish with fresh coriander leaves.
Or a simple marinara type sauce begins with frying diced onions, garlic, tomato paste, followed by a glass of wine and a can of tomato to make the main body of the sauce. Add basil at the very end, as the flavor is delicate and destroyed by heat.
Notice in both cases we begin with aromatics - onions, garlic, spices - that get heated up to release the volatile flavor compounds. Then deglazing the pan and simmering with something that constitutes the main bulk of the sauce - e.g. canned tomato or coconut. Then finishing with more delicate herbal flavors that get desroyed by extended cooking. This is a general pattern that appears in foods from all over the world. The crucial part is learning how long each ingredient requires to cook for, and therefore what stage it gets added.
Once you get used to this you can begin to enjoy the creativity and rewarding nature of cooking, and explore the world through food. Like the Indian example above can be quite easily modified into a Thai green curry with a few substitutions such as extra green chillis, galangal instead of ginger, and finishing with Thai basil.
I'd say another crucial aspect is appreciating the importance of emulsions - a colloidal suspension of small fat particles in water - which results in a rich and unctuous mouthfeel. Many of our favorite foods and sauces are emulsions (butter, mayonnaise, pesto, curry). But I don't want to overload you with information as I've already written a lot. Good luck.
Any packet sauce mix like curry or gravy'll work too
I've also heard you can cook a chicken breast on top of the bed of rice
Veggy tray? Do you mean the steam "table"?
Sure, let's go with that.
WTF are you me?!
and are actually FRESHER than "fresh" veggies
As an adult who thought that they hated pretty much all veggies (especially broccoli and corn) and found out that I absolutely love them when prepared fresh and that the bagged versions tasted like ass, I'm gonna call bullshit on that.
It might work for you, but nothing beats freshly-prepared corn, whether grilled in the husks or cut and sauteed.
You can call bullshit on whatever you want but it's a scientific fact.
The foodtuber Adam Ragusea happens to have two videos addressing these specific topics:
The superiority of flash frozen foods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_PMnCpaJiQ
Food starts rotting the instant it's harvested, and continues doing so while it's packaged, transported, and stored on the shelf. Modern flash freezing techniques preserve foods perfectly, halting the microorganisms that cause decomposition, and avoiding the damage caused by large ice crystal formation that's inevitable with slow domestic freezers.
The selective breeding and genetic engineering of sweetcorn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIVG54wNPd0
Interestingly with the sweetcorn, it used to be that it had to be eaten immediately after harvest, so much so that you'd have the water boiling before even picking them. However with modern developments they can remain fresh much longer.
Never forget, wars were fought for spice. people died to not have to consume bland food.
and yet you pass the spice aisle every grocery visit, shame.
;)
The spice must flow
Because who buys spices at the regular grocery store, it's like $4 for a 50g bag. You gotta go to the Asain grocer or Indian market for those delicious half kilo bags for $6.
Then put them in an old pasta sauce jar and shove them in your pantry and let them get old and off gas their aroma until they're just bland sawdust....but act like you're still better than other white people because you own spices.
The obscure and unassuming the specialty store is, the more incomprehensibly low their prices are
God saying "oh my god"
Guess he needs an imaginary friend for comfort aswell
The bible actually says there are other gods beside the main one; he's the king of kings, god of gods. But maybe there's an emperor of emperors, God of gods of gods? It's gods all the way up.
I still don't understand why the cooking skill of my parents sucked this bad. I started cooking on my own when I moved out and even after just a bit of practise and good recipes you can cook tasty meals. How do you go on 50 years failing this, I don't understand. If I see another bowl of dry rice, canned peas and ready marinated chicken from some discounter I'm going to throw up.
Boomers came up as fast food franchises and convenience foods began to dominate. The equal rights movement meant more women in the workplace and less in the kitchen and instead of spreading the burden, capitalism filled in the gaps.
Another explanation is that American cuisine got wrecked by the Great Depression. Everything that had flavor was expensive. People's inability to purchase and make certain foods stopped generational transfer of knowledge on how to make certain things. Thankfully, after several generations it's finally recovering.
"Ethnic" food (non European) wasn't as affected as much.
I heard an interview about a book on it a few years ago but now I can't find it.
Because they did cook well at one point. It took hours, it involved a lot of cleanup, and 4 year old you whined and complained for some chicken nuggets and the fucking candy bar your aunt gave you without talking to your parents first.
So they gave up. The tantrums, the rejection, the effort. None of it was worth it. Like pretty much every skill in life it atrophied.
I loved to cook and I'm good at it. My 5-year-old won't eat a burger I made and asks instead to go to the "burger store". I don't want to cook much anymore.
Too many people order shitty delivery so that they can save 15 minutes cooking while spending 3 times more
And damage the organs with the much higher salt and sugar content.
So the question is...
Who was he referring to when he said "oh my god"?
I would have written that as "oh my me"
His son.
Semantics aside, Jesus is supposed to be the physical embodiment of god, so wouldn't it still pretty much just be the same guy?
I just spent Thanksgiving with my family, and was reminded how much my parents love boiling things. Fucking disgusting, no spices either? Fuck bland potatoes. It takes almost no effort to just toss a bunch of fucking spices on them and then put them in the oven.
My dad does this, just boils vegetables and potatoes so long that they're reduced to their component quarks and then serves them in a bowl with nothing on them. For bonus points, he makes sure they've cooled off to room temperature before we eat. I want to blame the Great Depression for this style of "cuisine", but he was born after that shit.
No excuse for bland potatoes. Even boiled, they can taste good. Low effort, throw some dill on those bastards. It's that easy. My mom is diabetic, and down a kidney, so salt and sugar are not really things in the food she makes, but it always tastes good.
Isnt thanksgiving a month from now? Are you like from the future? Why did you suddenly come back? Is the whole world doomed and you came back to warn us of something terrible?!?!?
Canada also has a holiday called "Thanksgiving", and it was last week
Are you of norwegian ancestry?
Anybody trying to tell me that sauteed veggies taste as good as a hamburger has lost from the beginning.
Honestly fresh veggies sautéed right are better than any hamburger, and I love to eat meats
Top tier, fresh, sautéed, and properly spiced asparagus as pictured in the comic over a conventional burger? Count me in.
Or a good artichoke. Yum.
I feel too many people grew up eating overcooking mushy veggies that weren't properly seasoned.
Insanity.
I'd take those over some greasy burgers any time of the day
Greasy burgers? Sure.
Good, craft burgers? Naw
Maybe you just need to find the right veggies or the right seasoning. I wouldn't say I love veggies more or less than a burger, but they add much needed variety.
I’m also a meat eater but have to disagree with you there. I prefer variety because eating the same salty slop gets boring. Maybe you have abused your tastebuds . If you take a break from certain foods it recalibrates the taste buds.
Also don't boil your vegetables. I was raised in boiled broccoli and sprouts, and steaming baskets changed my life!
Never "just" steam your veggies. Do a quick stirfry in oil with garlic then use the residual steam to finish it up!
Seriously though I’m amazed at how many people don’t understand basic cooking and how easy and necessary it is to take interest in self health and basic nourishment. But then get shocked when their organs start to shut down before 50. Like “omg they are trying to kill us all with salt and sugar in fast food” shouldn’t be a shock anymore. It’s capitalism. That’s how it works. They don’t care about your body.
Sauté it in what, God?
...
Sauté it in what?
In the pan, duh.
Steam broccoli and cauliflower together in a microwave or steamer of your choice with butter and whatever seasonings you like. Toss in a wok with ripping hot olive oil until golden brown on the edges. Make sure to be rough with the broccoli and cauliflower, you want it to be crushed a bit. Shit slaps and it so easy. Idk if it's healthy anymore after all the butter and oil but whatever. you can adjust the butter levels as needed but make sure there's enough oil in the wok
Butter isn't bad for you per-se, it's the quantity that gets you. It's a pretty calorie dense food, and it has a lot of other things in it that, when taken in large quantities will clog up your cardiovascular system.
Used in proper moderation and it's wonderful. Throwing a whole stick of it into a single serving at every meal is probably too much.
Disclaimer: I am neither a health professional, nor a nutritionist.
Yeah of course but I use a shit ton
All these air fryer, broiler, sautéing, and other methods...
Y'all forgot about microwaves. Microwaves and veggies are amazing. Broccoli, carrots, etc. Microwave until a fork still has a little resistance. Add a spot of sour cream or honey and dill... Or something. Tada. So fast. So yummy.
Okay I microwave veggies a lot because it's convenient but we cannot pretend that the fart cloud created by microwaved broccoli is in anyway close to the delicious crispyness of stir fried or baked broccoli
Try microwaved beets. Mmm.
And it retains the greatest amount if nutrients
Image Transcription:
A four-panel Mr. Lovenstein comic titled "THIS COMIC MADE POSSIBLE THANKS TO EELS OF WOOD"
The first panel shows an angry pink humanoid standing on a green circle, holding a bunch of asparagus spears and speaking to a yellow-skinned, bearded humanoid barely in the panel. The pink humanoid is saying "HEY GOD, WHY DID YOU MAKE HEALTHY FOOD TASTE BAD?"
The second panel shows the yellow-skinned, bearded humanoid in more detail. It has a halo and is wearing a white robe. It's rolling its eyes angrily as it responds "OH MY GOD! DO I HAVE TO SHOW YOU EVERYTHING?"
The third panel shows the still-angry yellow-skinned humanoid cooking the asparagus spears in a frying pan over the open flame of a gas stove as the pink humanoid watches on amazed. The yellow humanoid is saying "SAUTÉ 'EM AND DON'T FORGET THE SEASONING! STIR AND TASTE AS YOU COOK!"
The final panel shows a close-up of the pink humanoid holding a half-eaten asparagus spear with its mouth full and eyes wide in awe as it says "IT'S... DELICIOUS!" A response from off-screen replies "OF COURSE IT IS!"
[I am a human, if I’ve made a mistake please let me know. Please consider providing alt-text for ease of use. Thank you. 💜 We have a community! If you wish for us to transcribe something, want to help improve ease of use here on Lemmy, or just want to hang out with us, join us at !lemmy_scribes@lemmy.world!]
Why not link the actual artist's website so they can get some revenue? Plus, there's usually a hidden panel for his comics.
OK, I will link the artist's website. I usually provide source link to where I found the comic.
Oh, god's one of those assholes.
Correction: Why is tasty unhealthy food so much easier than tasty healthy food?
From what I understand, it's that foods containing lots of fats, sugars, salt etc aren't normally unhealthy, out in the wild. When you're worried about not starving, foods with energy storage substances like sugar are a good thing, and the amount you'll get in some wild fruit or something isn't bad. Salt is an essential thing to get enough of, and overabundance of it in food isn't common. So, rather than evolve some ability to know exactly what substances we need and only want to eat food with those exact things, we have the evolutionary shortcut of "sweet things are good, fatty things are good, salty things are usually good, etc". Our biology hasn't really evolved to for the possibility of us farming stuff that contains sugar on an industrial scale, extracting and concentrating that sugar, and then putting unnaturally large concentrations of it in everything.
That is my understanding as well. But that wouldn't work in the context of the joke, where god just designed everything.
Have you tried eating those unhealthy food raw/unseasoned? With enough butter/sugar anything will taste like heaven
Adding enough butter, sugar, salt, etc is easy, and makes it unhealthy. Making it taste good without lots of butter, sugar, salt is hard.
That's kind of my entire point
Raw veggies taste great, we're just used to tasting nothing but salt and sugar in our food these days we think veg tastes bad.
I mean food shouldn't be salted to the point that it tastes salty, just to the point that it tastes good
This!
Boiled carrots 🤮
Raw carrots 👍
Boiled broccoli 🤮
Raw broccoli 👍
And so on
Ok but why sugar taste so good
Because natural foods are sweet when they’re the most nutritious.
Fruit, for example, or carrots (which convert it’s starches into sugars to avoid freezing.)
Prior to modern food preservation and heavily processed foods, getting calories was hard enough on its own, so we’re primed to seek calorie rich food.
We’ve evolved- technologically- to the point that’s no longer true, but our biology hasn’t caught up yet.
Because it's seasoned with diabetes
CALORIE
https://mrlovenstein.com/comic/1155
Here's a direct link to the artist's page.
Finally, a comic by Mr Lovenstein with positive message!
This comic is old
So am I. Who cares.
Frying anything makes it taste better. Deep frying makes almost anything edible delicious.
This is what the Bible should have been about.
Cook nearly any veggie in shallots, cream, whisked in egg, top with Parmesan, broil until brown.
Veggie gratin that isn't the most healthy but is better than nothing, and brilliant served as a side to steak. I recommend mushrooms, spinach or zucchini.
Was gonna say, that sounds pretty high in fat. Definitely better than a lot of the alternatives, but I'd only call it just this side of not healthy.
The real problem is that healthy food really is only good if it's fresh, and so it's a lot more inaccessible than shitty, processed either frozen or fast food.
It's unhealthy.
I've had properly sauteed and spiced asparagus and it still tastes awful to me. I'm just very sensitive to the bitter compounds in it.
Cut off the heads off the asparagus. That's where it's most bitter and it messes with the rest of the dish. My wife does this as well.
I have used that trick when served asparagus, it definitely helps. But I would still prefer green beans, or broccoli instead.
Maybe I’m just not prepping them right, but for me the problem I have with a lot of veggies is the texture.
-Raw is perfectly fine for most veggies.
-Steaming is an easy method, if raw is unpleasant or if the veggie is more woody.
-Blanche and shock make a cooked veggie divine!
-Sauteed (with plenty of butter) until fork tender on the stove top also helps.
-Baking on a sheet tray, covered in olive oil and salt / pepper make a lot of veggies shine
The main issue with all of those is understanding cook times, which takes trial and error.
soup is the answer
Or curry! Letting all those flavors meld, you can put any veg in there and it will break down into soft loveliness.
Vegetables taste bad?
My brother in Christ, you're addicted to junk food
And you like to jump to conclusions quickly. Let's both be judgemental together!
Hell yeah, that's the basis of all my friendships.
Tell me stuff you hate, I'll enable your hatred.
Depends on the veggies. I'm very sensitive to bitters, so Asparagus to me tastes awful no matter how it is cooked. Same with arugula and some other leafy greens. But beans, broccoli, carrots all taste nice and I eat a lot of those.
Ok God, then why didn't you make them already seasoned?! God has shitty taste!
nutritionist hate this one trick.
https://youtu.be/ioH53m2cod4?si=4yHlRUfi1MkIN-7h
I feel like this is relevant...
put some salt on the veggies an hour before eating.
salad literally means brined vegetables.
I just discovered a cookbook called Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables by Joshua McFadden while looking up cookbooks to get me to eat more veggies. It's in the mail, so I can't vouch for the recipes yet. Apparently it's very highly rated though and I'm excited for some tasty veggies.
Nope. You can't fix bitter vegetables. Hell, you can barely smother them enough to hide the taste. I'd rather die "young" from eating delicious trash.
As someone who just started liking brussel sprouts because I learned how to cook them right, you're wrong.