Still Life with Menu Cookbook (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The season for this menu ranges from late spring to midsummer, when the tail end of an early vegetable harvest and the beginning of plum..." (more)
Key Phrases: cloues garlic, soy okay, steel blade attachment, Garlic Oil, Garlic-Basil Oil, Misoyaki Sauce (more...)

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 (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898156696
• ISBN-13: 978-0898156690
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #114,578 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	MotherLodeBeth "MotherLodeBeth" (Sierras of California) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

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.

12 of 12 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 "Kristin Leydig Bryant, www... (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

11 of 12 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] (United States) - See all my reviews

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!