Cookbooks & Beverages
A few years ago my employee Elizabeth and I generally unpacked UPS shipments from our book distributors and publishers around lunchtime, and we found ourselves particularly vulnerable to all the fine cookbooks arriving. This listing is by no means all of our cookbooks. It is a gathering of recent and/or interesting titles along with a few classics added to show we have grounding in our selection. My mother raised me to read cookbooks somewhat the same as a novel or a history or a biography. Pretty pictures and clever premises are not enough to stock a title. It must have accessible content as well, and a cookbook with good writing is a treasure.
The Heart of the Plate: Vegetarian Recipes for a New Generation
The Heart of the Plate: Vegetarian Recipes for a New Generation
With The Moosewood Cookbook, Mollie Katzen changed the way a generation cooked and brought vegetarian cuisine into the mainstream. In The Heart of the Plate, she completely reinvents the vegetarian repertoire, unveiling a collection of beautiful, healthful, and unfussy dishes — her “absolutely most loved.” Her new cuisine is light, sharp, simple, and modular; her inimitable voice is as personal, helpful, clear, and funny as ever. Whether it’s a salad of kale and angel hair pasta with orange chili oil or a seasonal autumn lasagna, these dishes are celebrations of vegetables. They feature layered dishes that juxtapose colors and textures: orange rice with black beans, or tiny buttermilk corn cakes on a Peruvian potato stew. Suppers from the oven, like vegetable pizza and mushroom popover pie, are comforting but never stodgy. Burgers and savory pancakes — from eggplant Parmesan burgers to zucchini ricotta cloud cakes — make weeknight dinners fresh and exciting. “Optional Enhancements” allow cooks to customize every recipe. The Heart of the Plate is vibrantly illustrated with photographs and original watercolors by the author herself.