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Love it!

Glad you enjoyed the eats and had fun!

Thanks,
Heather

Hey, great feedback! This has been such a helpful discussion for me. Thank you. I'm going to check out the Eggplant & Chard Lasagna and her recipe for Pita Bread. But I'm going to stop feeling like a bad veggie-lover for not using this book more often.

I'm also going to investigate Bittman's HTCEV and Veganomicon–those girls are awesome. As for Moosewood, I liked the books at first, but there's something about the recipes where they all start to taste really similar after a while.

Thanks everyone!

That sounds wonderful. And makes me so envious. I'm more familiar with searching and searching for a recipe to use up/combine disparate ingredients, not finding one, giving up, and letting things go bad. This gives me great hope!

Jerzee
Dorie
Mario

Just thought I'd share the recipes just went up on my site if anyone is interested!

Enjoy!

No Knead bread is a metaphor for getting into heaven -- it's a lot easier than the high-priests say it is.
I've baked for years according to the rules (there are a lot if them, aren't there), then tried the Lahey method. Except that I kept eliminating steps. Now I do this:
Mix the flour (4 cups), water (2 cups) (cold), 1/4 c starter or 1/4 t instant yeast or 1/2 t Active yeast, 2 t salt. Do this between 3 pm to 8 pm - it will take about 5 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and leave it on the counter.
After anything from 10 to 20 hours, I use a rubber spatula to pull the sticky, holey mess off the sides of the bowl and push/pour it into a covered baking dish (with a shot of Pam to keep from sticking). I have both the clay and ceramic types - no difference. Don't fuss with it much, just get it in there. Put the cover on. Skip the floured cloth and shaping/resting stuff.
Put in a cold or hot oven. If cold, bake at 475 for 40 minutes, then 10 minutes with lid off at 400. Or leave the lid on and baking for 50 minutes/475 degree total. Cool on a rack.
The crust will be chewy and the interior more moist and chewy than store bread (but fully cooked) - that's the way I like it. Lots of holes.
I've used 1 c beer, replacing 1 c water, and added 1 c of 1/4 inch cheddar cheese cubes. Add when you first mix everything.
And I've added 1 c of the cheap parmesan cheese, 1 T of italian spices, 4 cloves of roasted garlic.
This system has lots of forgiveness. And it's soooo simple. I make two batches in the evening in different mixing bowls (ten minutes), then bake in the morning (about 50 minutes including cleanup).
I'm about to start with the Hertzberg method. This is fun finding the real basic to MAKING BREAD; lots of room to play and try to achieve different flavors by tweaking the approaches. And it's GREAT not having so many rules to follow :-)

I don't own the book, but I checked it out from the library a few years ago and copied down three recipes that I make quite often: the potato and chickpea stew is out of this world, especially with some romesco sauce swirled into it--I don't use her recipe for the sauce, I use one I found on the internet. I also love the lentils with wine glazed vegetables, covered in puff pastry, and the winter squash galette. I think she is a wonderful recipe writer, she has a knack for creating dishes that use simple ingredients that just work together.
I agree with renzata too--Vegetarian Suppers is wonderful. I just got it a few weeks ago and have made about 4 things out of it--the root vegetable ragout with goat cheese sauce is delicious. I skipped the wild rice pancake and just put them in the buckwheat crepes from the previous page. I highly recommend this book for those looking to cook more vegetarian meals.
I also have Mark Bittman's HTCEV, and I would say that it's more for people who haven't a clue about vegetables. That doesn't mean it's not a good book, because it really is, especially the wide use of nontraditional ingredients to bring depth of flavor (umami, I guess) to vegetable dishes.

I bought the book soon after publication and use it now and then, often for inspiration when I have some vegetables to use up. There are quite a few personal favorites in the book. Off the top of my head: the carrots and hijiki seaweed, the sunflower-seed bread, the chickpeas with ginger, and the oat bread.

Thank you so much for all your information, fellow eaters. I have literally hundreds of cookbooks, not to mention a disgusting glut of magazines and periodicals. One thing that has been sorely lacking as a resource is a really great vegetarian book in the collection. I have browsed Deborah's VCE several times and also Bittman's new one. I recently discovered Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking and have to admit I was impressed (not as much with Cooking .01) but she does take really scrumptious photos of her food also, which goes a long way with me. I have a somewhat difficult time with cookbooks when they don't present a delicious photo of their finished product. (Julia is about the only one who gets a pass on this point with me). We're not committed vegetarians, however we are making a concerted effort to have one or two total veggie days a week for many reasons.

Now I can't wait to look for Veganomicon and Madhur Jaffrey's books. I have come so close to purchasing and always back out because I just want one that I know I'm really going to use. A lot. Any other suggestions for the favorite go-to vegetarian cookbook would be most appreciated for my little research project.

If anyone lives in the mid-west, have you been to Chrissie Hynde's new restaurant Vegetaranian in Akron, OH? Looking forward to that sometime this year.