It’s time for something new. Change is in the air this fall.

I am taking a break from my column, “Pothole Prairie,” this season so I can pursue a project. Instead of a new column every Tuesday, I will direct, produce, edit and co-star in a Web series about cooking called “Uffda Kitchen.”

This is a show for the Internet, so the episodes get the catchy name of webisodes and will be at a Web-friendly length of three to eight minutes long. Ten at the most, I imagine. It depends on what I am cooking. On the Internet, short is good.

“Uffda Kitchen” is set in my kitchen at home, where I cook simple and usually healthy meals such as pasta with pesto and catfish stir fry. I was making many of my creations before the Blue Zones came to Albert Lea, but I imagine the Blue Zones folks will like my meals.

It will be good for me to test my skills at talking on camera with an audience. I am no Tom Brokaw or Rachael Ray, but I am sure I will get better at it as time goes by. And I will get better at video creation, too.

Most of all, you will get cooking ideas for your kitchen.

The first webisode will be found in the videos portion of our Web site, www.albertleatribune.com, next Tuesday. That’s Oct. 6.

A lot of what I cook is just whipped up, rather than following a recipe.

When I started getting into cooking, it was taking the enjoyment of grilling outdoors into the kitchen. Eventually, I grew weary of cooking the meat, the vegetable and the starch in the conventional fashion, so I began to play around with recipes. Then I found enjoyment in twisting those recipes to my liking. I also liked getting to know my spice drawer. It wasn’t long before I would go to the grocery store and dream up ideas right there in the aisles. I would go way over here for one item, then way over there for another.

Sometimes, I would be hungry without much in the cabinets and without a desire to go to a store, so I would scrounge for whatever I could find. Now and then, the results were quite tasty.

Then my wife, Lisa, decided to be a vegetarian. That lasted for about a year, and it forced me to look at my cooking in a new way. I found many great meals didn’t need meat. Many proteins such as beans and nuts really could substitute.

I like meat, and there will be meat in the show, but we just don’t eat it as often as we used to. Have you ever had black-bean tacos? With homemade guacamole? The meat just isn’t necessary when you have black beans on your taste buds.

As the show progresses, perhaps we can have guests, go visit places to purchase ingredients or speak with other local cooks and eaters. The real star of my show will be my 2-year-old son, Forrest, who frequently comes into the kitchen to assist me. It is good to teach children about food preparation.

Appearing in my place on the opinion page will be former Albert Lea Tribune columnist David Behling, also a former Tribune staff reporter. He presently teaches at Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa. He is a solid writer and will get you thinking.

His column starts Oct. 6, too.

“Uffda Kitchen” is somewhat inspired by “The Minimalist With Mark Bittman” on the New York Times’ Web site. If you haven’t seen his Web series, check it out.

Also, if any local musicians want to get exposure by having part of their songs aired in the introduction of “Uffda Kitchen,” drop me a line: 379-3433.

We’ll try this series for the season, then decide whether you, the viewers, are liking it. Be sure to let us know.

Uffda!

Tribune Managing Editor Tim Engstrom’s column appears every Tuesday.