Laurie Colwin, the well-know food writer, once surmised that at any given moment someone in the world is trying to coax a child to eat something he or she doesn't feel like eating. In all likelihood, a you-know-what. Considering how prejudiced kids can be about vegetables, I may seem hopelessly naive, but I think this selection of vegetable dishes will appeal to the little ones, as well as the big ones, among you. If this doesn't do it, perhaps The Great Zucchini and other nonsensical vegetable rhymes will break down their resistance. One way or another, I aim to change their minds.

The vegetables in this book are almost invariably cooked simply, often with just an added squeeze of lemon, a shower of parmesan or a drizzle of olive oil. So you can pretty much dispense with your measuring spoons. I've written down these uncomplicated dishes as if you, like a relative or a friend who enjoyed a vegetable at my table, asked me for the recipe.

In Manhattan, my hometown, people flock to the Union Square Greenmarket where farmers from the country truck in their vegetables all year around. Tents are spread out in a kind of scruffy way, but the vegetables are beautiful. I've arranged the dishes in this book the way I shop at the market, fall and winter, spring and summer.