Still Life with Menu Cookbook [Paperback]

Mollie Katzen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Culinary and fine artist Katzen here provides 55 diverse meatless menus for today's "increasingly complex schedules." Her focus is on presenting an esthetically appealing ethnic meal, nutritionally sound and prepared with easily found ingredients. Katzen's sophisticated vegetarian cuisine has a light touch. Her recipes now use relatively little butterfat and few rich dairy products. Traditional fare is represented (Irish soda bread, Tuscan bean soup, chocolate chip peanut butter cookies). More adventurous are the Thai garlic soup, pesto and peppercorn torta and spinach souffle paprikash. Menus for pasta dinners, stir-fry dinners, breakfast, brunches and teas, and "good" fast food suggest dishes for several meals. Do-ahead steps designed to minimize work time are included with all menus containing more than two dishes. New readers and fans of Katzen's previous books ( Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest ) should relish this personal and appealing volume, her first in six years. Full-color reproductions of Katzen's original still lifes precede each menu. 100,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Katzen, author of the hugely popular The Moosewood Cookbook ( LJ 3/15/78) and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest ( LJ 10/15/82), again features her cuisine and her art, in a series of vegetarian menus accompanied by pastel drawings. Menus emphasize advance preparation for today's busy cook. Disappointingly, the recipes don't seem as fresh and innovative as those in the earlier books: Velvet Corn Soup or Mediterranean Lentil Salad seem all too familiar now. Jeanne Lemlin's Vegetarian Pleasures: A Menu Cookbook ( LJ 4/15/86) has broader appeal for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike; still, Katzen's fans represent a large audience. JS
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press; Revised edition (October 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898156696
• ISBN-13: 978-0898156690
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.4 x 11 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #264,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

With more than six million books in print, Mollie Katzen is listed by the New York Times as one of the bestselling cookbook authors of all time. A 2007 inductee into the prestigious James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame, and largely credited with moving healthful food from the "fringe" to the center of the American dinner plate, Mollie has been named by Health magazine as one of the "Five Women Who Changed the Way We Eat."

In addition, she is a charter member of the Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Roundtable and an inaugural honoree of the Natural Health Hall of Fame. An award-winning illustrator and designer as well as a bestselling cookbook author and popular public speaker, Mollie is best known as the creator of the groundbreaking classics Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Her other books include the children's trilogy Pretend Soup, Honest Pretzels, and Salad People (referred to as the "gold standard" of children's cookbooks by the New York Times), and a collaboration with Walter Willett, M.D., of Harvard, on Eat, Drink, and Weigh Less.

Since 2003, Mollie Katzen has been an adviser to Harvard University Dining Services, and cocreator of their new Food Literacy Project. This is the first volume of her new Get Cooking series, continuing Mollie's lifelong mission to spread cooking knowledge and food literacy as broadly as possible. Please visit the companion video-based website, www.get-cooking.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Looking for something different to cook tonight? April 1, 2002

By Kristin L. Leydig

Format:Paperback

This is one of my favorite cookbooks. I'm a bit of a cookbook addict and tend to buy lots of them, then when I realize I never actually COOK anything out of a book, I get rid of it. This one, on the other hand, is off the shelf nearly every week, it's ripped, it's dirty, it has lots of food stains on it because I use it so often.
Some of the recipes are true breathtakers. The Thai appetizer is amazing. And the seeded tomato soup. Lots and lots of yummy things here. She has a whole section on "quick and easy." And I can always find something that I have the ingredients on hand for.
Mollie writes great introductions to the recipes, so you always know what you're getting into with each one.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent gourmet vegetarian cookbook June 11, 2001

By Beth DeRoos HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Just shy of 400 pages this is a gem of a cook book.What I appreciate about the book is it is laid out as meals. Of course you can make one item or all or mix and match and combine with family favorites you already have.

On page 17 the author has a "How To Use This Book" section where she reminds the reader that sometimes it is when we do not follow a recipe so closely that we learn to love cooking.

Now I will probably sound a tad snobbish so forgive me , but I think this is a cookbook that will appeal to people who are well traveled, very curious about food, willing to try new things and probably educated and upscale. I say this because the person who likes what is called "All American" meat and potato and high fat and unhealthy food will probably be lost here.

We live in California where we have a year round bounty of the best fruits and vegetables so this is an easy to use book as far as ingredients go. And we loved the Roasted Red Peppers with Garlic and Lime on page 56, the Strawberry Meringue Pie on page 85 the Chinese Vegetable Soup on page 89 the Greek Stuffed Eggplant with Bechamel Sauce on page 151 the Southwest Salad with Black Beans and Corn on page 178 the Yellow Split Pea Dal on page 191 oh and the Spinach Roll Ups with Lime Chutney. We love Indian food!!

My husband would live in Tuscany if he had his way I would choose the south east area of rural France, so he loved the Linguine with Quick Tuscan Tomato Sauce on page 239 and the Pasta with Marinated Vegetables like roasted peppers, artichoke hearts tomato mushroom and olives. Not canned olives but the luscious oil cured type you find in Italy and Greece.

On page 331 she has Week-Long Menu Planning Guide where she lays out everything you will need to aquaria as well as some encouraging words about how to combine and end up with great leftovers. And like all her wonderful books she did all the paintings. The recipes are easy to follow as well.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A cookbook I often go back to! October 3, 1997

By [e-mail]

Format:Paperback

From the gorgeous drawings to the variety of recipes/menus, Still Life remains one of my favorites out of my many cookbooks! The two recipes that I get asked to make over and over again are the Sczechwan Green Beans and Mrs. Buershaper's Molasses Cookies. Mollie Katzen continues to put her emphasis on freshness, color and variety. I highly recommend it to vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike!