Moosewood Cookbook

Does one read a cookbook? Or does one simply consult the cookbook for ideas when hungry? I actually curled up on the couch this rainy Sunday and read Moosewood cover to cover. After being brow-beaten by all those myriad of healthy nutrition books, I wanted to take a break and simply read something that had joy for cooking. I spend the afternoon dreaming of the taste of the dishes, and plotting to whip some of them up in the coming weeks.

For the uninitiated, Moosewood is a vegetarian cookbook lovingly handwritten and illustrated by Mollie Katzen.

I'd forgotten that my cornbread recipe was cribbed from here; I made up a fresh batch yesterday and was surprised to encounter the recipe verbatim in this book. Ah, memory.

Other dishes of note that I'll be trying out:
* Solyanka - essentially a mashed potato casserole with onion/carrots/dill/yogurt/cottage cheese/ sunflower and caraway seeds/cabbage/paprika baked for 45 minutes at 350.

* Date-Nut Cake - a newfound love of dates thanks to the date dealer at the farmers' market drives me to make this. Eggs/sugar/vanilla/flour/salt/walnuts/dates. Mouth watering from the recipe...

* Ricotta Cake - Eggs/ricotta/sugar/flour/vanilla/almond/salt/orange & lemon rinds/lemon juice