BlueMoose, Ohioian and anyone else who might own Nava Atlas' Vegetarian Celebrations

[kwormann]

Tell me, should I buy it? Or does that fact that I have 3 Moosewood cookbooks, a Mollie book, a Nava book and various others prepare me for Thanksgiving and Christmas????

[Ohioan]

I hate to admit it, but Vegetarian Celebrations is the only Nava Atlas cookbook I don't own! But I've had it out of the library, and it does have some very interesting ideas for holiday vegetarian meals without falling back on (shudder) Tofurkey. I always figure you can't go wrong with Nava Atlas -- but then, I'm not a big Mollie Katzen fan, so we may not have the same tastes. ;)

Cheers,
Phoebe

[CompassRose]

I like Vegetarian Celebrations a great deal. When I'm planning holiday meals, this and Bryanna Clark Grogan's (Almost) Fat-Free Holiday Cookbook are the two I'm likely to turn to most often.

I like that Atlas puts together interesting menus for different occasions; I like the nutrition information inclusion (something lacking in Mollie Katzen's books); and I like the suggestions for making things lighter/vegan at need. It's a friendly sort of a book. I have most of the Moosewood cookbooks, but I admit I don't use them a lot. Most of the stuff in it seems to be... I don't know... variations on a theme, somehow. Grains and beans, beans and grains. I think this might be a delusion on my part, but I still smell the whole-earth organicness of their 70s origins.

[kima]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by CompassRose
[B]I like Vegetarian Celebrations a great deal. When I'm planning holiday meals, this and Bryanna Clark Grogan's (Almost) Fat-Free Holiday Cookbook are the two I'm likely to turn to most often.
[QUOTE]
Ooh I just have to jump in here and name drop!!! Bryanna is a good friend of mine! She has many vegan cookbooks out. My Favorite is her Italian cookbook. Bryanna is a meticulour recipe writer. She spends hours getting every recipe perfected. They are vegan so I find them time consuming as you have to make alternatives for alot of stuff. The Tofu Loaf in the Almost No Fat book is wonderful!
She has a new book coimg out soon with Fiber recipes!
Oh and her Soy Foods for A Positive Menopause is also an excellent book! :)

[CompassRose]

I love BCG's attitude! She's so wildly curious and experimental, and it's so obvious that everything she does in the kitchen is a big adventure.

I hang out a lot at the Vegsource (http://www.vegsource.com) boards, and the one she moderates (New Veggies) is my favourite. She's completely non-judgmental, always willing to share her recipes (unlike some other cookbook authors on other boards at that site, ahem!) and has a wealth of useful, comprehensive information for everybody's questions.

Yep, the Italian cookbook is one of my favourites. I'd like to get her Chinese cookbook, too. And I'm really looking forward to the "meat analogues" cookbook she's been promising; she's been posting some great experiments in seitan "chicken," "corned beef," "sausages" and more.

kima, she's really good about suggesting alternatives to the alternatives if you can't find the first choice of the weird vegan ingredients.

[Ohioan]

Mmm, yes, I like BCG too, although I use her books (of which I have two or three) more for ideas than for item-by-item following. But Nava Atlas is one of my all time favorites in the veggie category, along with Jay Solomon. They really seem to enjoy the food they describe, with a kind of robust heartiness that I don't find in Mollie Katzen, who often seems to me to be writing more for the trendy than for the hungry. :p Now, with Atlas, Grogan, and Solomon (and a couple of others), I can see myself shoveling in the food with both hands while they stand over me and say, "Here, eat more, eat more!"

Okay, okay, so none of the writers I've mentioned would want anyone to pig out. So I'm fantasizing to excuse my gluttony. So sue me. I was just trying to find a metaphor for the flavorful gusto I find in their cookbooks.

Cheers (and oink),
Phoebe

[bossmom]

I have used Nava Atlas' "Vegetarian Celebrations" and I have been very happy with it. I admit though that I only look at it during Christmas and Thanksgiving.