Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Two Cookbook Reviews and Some Spontaneous Meals

So about a week ago I went on an Amazon.com buying spree and bought a TON of cookbooks as well as some novels for my reading pleasure. The first two cookbooks that I bought were The New Moosewood Cookbook and Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home both by the wonderful Mollie Katzen.

The New Moosewood Cookbook is both cute, visually interesting and has awesome recipes! There is so much that I am excited about making in this book! Make sure if you buy it you get the NEW version because Katzen has cut down on a lot of the fat in the recipes but kept the flavor. Almost all of the recipes are vegetarian and most are easy to veganize.

I also bought Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home and made the Red Lentil Soup that's featured in it. It was quick and easy and really flavorful. I've been babysitting everyday this week and packing the lentil soup for lunch each day. I don't have any pictures yet because I've only eaten it out of a tupperware container but maybe tomorrow I'll snap a pic.

Mollie Katzen is a great cook and a pioneer of mainstreaming vegetarian cooking. She also has a great website: Molliekatzen.com where she lists tons of recipes and cooking tips!

When I got back from babysitting tonight I knew exactly what I wanted for dinner: Salade Nicoise. Though my version was more like a Salad a la Nicoise because it included some untraditional ingredients and left some the staple ingredients out.
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I had to go shopping to pick up a few of the ingredients but it was nice to take a trip with the recipe in mind. To make the salad I blanched some green beans and steamed a small red potato in the microwave. I cut up the green beans and the potato and tossed them in a vinaigrette of olive oil, grainy mustard,lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and fresh chopped chives. I served this mixture over a bed of greens and topped it with: grape tomatoes, half a hard boiled egg, and ton of parsley and my secret favorite: anchovies with capers.

A traditional Salad Nicoise has tuna and olives. Usually it does not contain any starch ie. potatoes. Sometimes it isn't even served over lettuce.

For dessert I had a chobani yogurt that I picked up while shopping with sliced strawberries and some vanilla extract. It was soooo good and creamy. I'll definitely be buying this brand again.

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1 comment:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Thank you so much for your thorough reviews!! The New Moosewood Cookbook AND Moosewood Restaurant Cooks At Home both sound worth it - Mollie Katzen is definitely a great chef in the culinary world (although she isn't really a vegetarian anymore... oh well, haha).

Oooh, I love how your salad and dessert are brimming with spring ingredients! yum!