Customer Reviews

Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates: Festive Meals for Holidays and Special Occasions

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I love this cookbook. I have made three recipes from it: the lemon-basil deviled eggs, the grapes with gorgonzola, and the jazzed-up cranberry sauce. They were all spectacular. I made the cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving, and it was so good I sat there and ate it with a spoon right out of the bowl - it had such a tangy and unique flavor. I made the deviled eggs and grapes with gorgonzola (I used blue cheese) recently for a party and they were both well-received. In fact, people went ga-ga over the grapes. All three recipes are very easy to make, can be made in advance, and have no hard-to-find ingredients. Easy and unique recipes that produce results fit for company - this is my kind of cookbook! It's also one of those cookbooks that's fun to just sit down and read.

What a great idea for a cookbook - food as the symbol of celebration and tradition. Want to plan a vegetarian or vegan Thanksgiving spread? You're in the right book. Even if you are not cooking, the book is a pleasure to read and browse through because it explains the origins of vaious holidays and the foods that are made to celebrate them. The recipes are organized by season and by holiday (multi-cultural holidays such as Hannukah, Ramadan, and Christmas, as well as Fourth of July and Father's Day BBQ). There are tasteful illustrations and helpful hints about how to plan a meal so that everything arrives hot at the table. My only qualm is that many of recipes look as if they might take a long time to make; although there is an index for 30-minutes-or-less cooking.

I found this cookbook at a book fair a few years ago and it has become one of my most favorite. The recipes are just wonderful and the descriptions about them informative. I use it a lot at my children's elementary school where we try to learn about different cultures and the food that celebrates them and we have made many of the recipes as a class.

After reading the reviews, I took this book out of the library to try it out before buying it. I have made several of the salads, the roasted vegetables, the beets and greens, the cranberry-chocolate pie (three times!), and several more recipes. The salad dressings are wonderful, and the combinations of fall salads are also delicious. I love it when people say "Mmmm" when they take the first bite, and it has happened with every recipe I've tried. I have a list of about 50 more recipes to try so I just ordered the book. I can't bear to return it to the library before mine arrives. If you are looking for new ways to prepare vegetables, this is your book. Many recipes don't contain dairy products, a plus for allergic people.

I love Moosewood- I love visiting and I love their cookbooks, and, like many people out there, I owe much of my culinary incliantions to them. I can't place what it was, but somehow this book just didn't measure up to the others in their collection. It isn't that these are not meals you would serve for "festive" occasions, it is just that none of them really struck me as something I would want to serve while playing hostess to people whom I have never cooked for before. There are so many other great recipies from the Moosewood that would be more appealing- especially if you are serving guests who are not vegetarians (meaning, I don't think any of these meals would really impress non-veggies). I would suggest getting one of the other books in the collection, and choosing meals for yourself that you think would best suit your occasion.

I bought this cookbook after I tried the "Harvest Nuts & Seeds" at a dinner party. The recipes are easy to make and very good. I would recommend this cookbook for tasty vegetable recipes. The desserts are good too.

This cookbook is full of delicious and interesting recipes, cute and practical menu ideas, and lots of bits of information about different foods and different festivals and holidays around the world.

My favourite recipes from this book are:
Indian potato pancakes
Greens with Cashews
Vegetable pot pie (I haven't tried to veganise this yet since becoming vegan, but during my lacto-ovo vegetarian days this dish was legendary)
Chocolate and cranberry tart
Potato latkes
Tibetan Seitan Burritos
Stuffed Yams
Autumn Bitter/Sweet Salad With Cranberry Vinaigrette
Choklay's home fries

Every time I read this book I get excited to cook (and eat). The book also has helpful ideas about stocking a pantry, planning a menu, and throwing a dinner party. Vegan dishes are listed at the back, and plenty of the non-vegan dishes can be easily veganised.

Yes, the book has a scant few recipes with some fish in them, but there is an easy solution to that: don't eat them!

I am not accustomed to vegetarian cooking, but I would like to do more of it. That's why I got this cookbook. I do not think this a great book for "starter" vegetarians-- the flavors are often quite unusual. The first thing I made was the Chili with chocolate. It tasted so terrible that I am embarassed to say that I threw out the whole pot. Maybe next time I will stumble upon a book that will appeal to my less sophisticated palette.

That being said, the book is extremely well organized with lots of useful party-planning tips.

I love this book. The best part about it, is that although several of the recipes use fish, it is easy to remove/substitute. And, for my husband the meat-eater, it is soooo easy to pop a meat into a lot of the finished products for him.

My favorite recipe is calabacitas. So simple, yet so delicious. (For the hubby, I cook a pork chop on the side with EVOO, cumin, salt & pepper, garlic and onion powder, optional oregano. Chop up and place on top of his dish to satisfy his caveman tendencies.)
The manchego potato frittata and spanish chickpeas were both big hits with the family. Also liked the indian veggie cakes and cashew curry (I've done it with spinach and kale, both turn out great)... for best flavor with this recipe, make a day ahead and reheat so all the flavors have time to mesh. Only disappointment was the mexican pie with the cornbread topping... very bland and needs work. Other than that, all were yummy. Soups were good. Chinese food tasty, but a LOT of work.

Over the past year, since we received this cookbook from a friend as a housewarming present, I have cooked most of the recipes in this book, and have been pleasantly surprised. All were good, some great. A few I will tweak to make even better to my tastes. And to those who complain about fish, remember, you can always substitute tofu/seitan/any meat analogue. Thanks Moosewood for a great book!

I have several Moosewood cookbooks and all of them are excellent. With everyone trying to eat healthier, this cookbook has great recipes that meet the healthy choice requirements and they taste GREAT. The chefs/cooks that come up with the recipes for the Moosewood cookbooks know how to use the right seasonings and flavors to make the vegetarian entrees a great choice for anyone. The Portabello Burger Fireworks - Pizza Burger with Pesto Marinade are to die for. We have served them on several occassions and everyone loves them.