The Moosewood Cookbook (1977)

This is one of my favorite cookbooks. I love the font and the artwork as much as I love the recipes.

The recipes are divided into Hot Soups, Chilled Soups, Salads, Sauces, Sandwiches & Spreads, Entrees, Desserts, and A Few Miscellaneous Baked Things. The emphasis is on making vegetarian meals delicious, and do they ever succeed. Some recipes I have made over and over, to rave reviews, including Spinach Ricotta Pie, “Zuccanoes” or Stuffed Zucchini, and “Delicious Corn Bread,” and Sour Cream-Orange Cake.

There is so much good to eat in these pages. The only challenge is to consume with moderation! ( )

This is an old standby in our kitchen. A lot of comfort food and Katzen never lets you down with inadequate directions. Sometimes I take short cuts and store a lot of the basic ingredients that form many of the foods as 'frozen starters'. The premixing and freezing taught me a lot about what can and can't be done that way (fresh herbs are a must!; don't use a self-defrosting fridge freezer as a storage option). By relying on Mollie K's cookbooks, we had much healthier dinners when everyone was burned out from their day. ( )

Classic, delicious vegetarian recipes, although some are dated because it was published decades ago. ( )

I feel bad giving this three stars. I learned to cook with this book combined with "Joy of Cooking". Awesome starter cookbook for vegetarians but every recipe I still use has loads of penciled in revisions. Still, this book will always have a fond place in my heart. ( )

Moosewood Cookbook 40th Anniversary Edition
by Mollie Katzen

I received this book from "Blogging for Books" for this review.

When I was offered an opportunity by "Blogging for Books" to review the 40th Anniversary Edition of Moosewood Cookbook I heartedly agreed! Back in the 1970 and 1980s I was a cash-strapped young wife with very little home cooking experience. I came across a paper-bound used copy of the book and scooped it up with great hopes of improving my culinary skills.

Vegetarian meals were new to me; I was a daughter of a butcher so you know that my meals were meat centered. My folks owned a small Mom & Pop grocery and I thought all vegetables came from a can, fish was frozen sticks, and stew was Dinty Moore.

There was something comforting about the cookbook. Just handling it made me feel like I was having a conversation with a friend. The handwritten format was encouraging but I have to admit that I was hesitant to fork over my small food budget to try "exotic" food (for me) like mushrooms, fresh herbs and pine nuts.

Over time the book didn't make the move to a new home; a military wife moves a lot!

Forty years later I have settled firmly into retirement. I have learned there is no fear in trying, enjoying and using fresh ingredients. I have dabbled with the vegetarian lifestyle over the years but never firmly made the "final transition" to a vegan or vegetarianism.

The moment I laid hands on this 40th Anniversary edition I felt like an old friend had shown up. The hard cover format and firm binding were such an improvement! The pages were a much heavier paper and promised to withstand splashes and accidents better.

The recipes are simple. The handwritten font still appealing to me. Winter is approaching here in the north Georgia mountains and the soup recipes are calling to me.

I read some of the reviews on Goodreads and found that more avid vegetarians thought the recipes were not spicy enough and lacked ethic authority. I wouldn't know. To me the recipes offer an opportunity to add healthy vegetables to my life and I look forward to having some great chats with an old friend that I did not have when I was much younger.
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