Book excerpt: Instead of limiting the cook to exacting recipes, Joanne Saltzman, founder and director of The School of Natural cookery in Boulder, Co., explains the underlying principles of flavor and texture in sixty different vegetables, a dozen grain dishes, and twelve plant-based proteins - and unlocks the mystery of what makes for delicious food combining. This simple but powerful primer on how various cooking and preparation methods transform foods enables cooks to utilize ingredients they already have on hand and create unique, perfectly balanced, impeccably seasoned dishes. More than 200 recipe "sketches" demonstrate how to cook and flavor without precise measuring and complicated instructions. These sketches range from simple winter squash to an elegant spinach-leek soup, and will encourage and reward any cook's creative and innovative spirit.