During my three-plus weeks on a plant-based diet, I’ve learned some new things about cooking, and some of them have nothing to do with the diet itself, but instead come from (a) reading directions that are just the slightest bit vague, and (2) having to interpret them.

Here’s an example. When you’re cutting down a recipe that claims to serve six (I don’t know six people who would show up to eat my cooking, especially lately), it’s fine to cut the basic ingredients in half (three is enough), but when you’re making the sauce (if there’s sauce), don’t cut anything, especially the liquids. If you do, you don’t get half the sauce. You get sauce with half the flavor.

The reason I didn’t learn this before, I think, is that I always shied away from complicated recipes. If it had more than five ingredients, I thought twice. If it had more than seven or eight, I turned the page. Now, because I’ve been trying to follow the menu plan in the book as closely as possible during the trial period, I’ve been branching out and trying more new things. So: I’ve learned.

I’ve also learned how to pronounce “quinoa.” It says it right there on the label: Say “KEEN-wah.” Although, when it was a clue on Jeopardy earlier this week, Alex Trebek pronounced it that way and also gave the pronunciation I’ve been using, in my previous ignorance: “kwi-NO-ah.” However you say it, I just hope it keeps as well as cooked rice, because it cooks up big and fluffy and there was an awful lot left over when I made it tonight. I’m sure it’ll be fine. It’s the holy grain of the Incan warriors, you know. (That’s straight from the book.)

Quinoa cooks way up in volume, and kale cooks way down. There’s something else I’m working on: learning to love dark greens, which are a major part of the diet because of their nutrient value. Apparently they’re nature’s perfect food (and not beer, as I previously believed). I think I could like kale. I’d never had it before tonight, and it has a very rich flavor and texture that I could get used to.

I’ll have to remember to use less water the next time I cook kale, though. The recipe said a quarter cup, and a quarter cup would have been enough. I used more and had to boil away the excess, which probably also boiled away some of the flavor. Oh, well. Live and learn, I suppose.