Get Cooking: 150 Simple Recipes to Get You Started in the Kitchen » (Original)

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.

Do you want to eat really well—not just once in a while, but all the time—but you don't know where to begin?

Are you tired of pizza—as much as you like it—and broke from buying takeout?

Do you love good food—the straightforward, homemade kind—but feel challenged to set up a kitchen, shop for decent equipment and groceries, and tap into a few basic skills that can put a simple roast chicken or vegetarian entrÉe on your dinner table?

If you answer "yes" to these questions, then Get Cooking is for you. Get Cooking is the first book from bestselling cookbook author Mollie Katzen designed specifically for beginners, whether you are just starting to cook for yourself or trying to kick the restaurant habit. Unlike most cookbooks, the goal of Get Cooking is to get you in the kitchen, no matter what your experience level might be.

Illustrated throughout with color photographs of each dish, Get Cooking gives you clear, step-by-step instructions for making everything from classic mashed potatoes to Broccoli–Cheddar Cheese Calzones to Hot Fudge Sundaes (with homemade hot fudge!). With this book, anyone—you included—can make delicious, fresh food, with a lot less expense (and a lot more satisfaction) than ordering in.

You may know Mollie Katzen as the author of such famous cookbooks as Moosewood Cookbook or The Enchanted Broccoli Forest; Get Cooking has all of the accessibility and personal warmth of those beloved books, but it is Mollie's first cookbook for vegetarians and omnivores alike. You will learn how to make North African Red Lentil Soup, Linguine with Spinach and Peas, and Chickpea and Mango Curry—and also Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, Spinach Lasagna, and Steak Fajitas.

With Get Cooking in hand, you'll be serving everything from salads (such as Wilted Spinach Salad with Hazelnuts, Goat Cheese, and Golden Raisins) to desserts (try the Cheesecake Bars), with stops along the way for party snacks, a full array of side dishes, and a brilliant assortment of handcrafted burgers (bean, tofu, and mushroom—as well as beef, turkey, and tuna). Here at last is the cookbook that will make a cook out of everyone.

Publishers Weekly

There’s an inherent difficulty in encapsulating basic kitchen knowledge in a single book, but Katzen’s latest is a fresh, contemporary entry in the 101 subgenre. This is likely because she has some experience—Katzen’s The Moosewood Cookbook and Enchanted Broccoli Forest cookbooks have been unofficial required reading for cooking students for decades, and her latest speaks directly to a newer, more food-savvy generation of just-starting-out cooks. Launched in conjunction with a companion Web site and illustrated by Katzen’s own photographs, this newest is divided into basic categories like soups, salads, pastas and desserts. Naturally, given her meatless pedigree, she gives vegetarian options with bright flavors (acorn squash stuffed with fruited basmati pilaf; mango curry) their own chapter. While the recipes cover the traditional home repertoire—spaghetti and meatballs, an excellent and simple roast chicken, apple crisp—Katzen also sneaks in some more intriguing flavors by way of a North African red lentil soup, cherry clafouti and Thai green curry along with explanations of more unusual ingredients like jicama and panko. Encouraging cooks to experiment with additions and flavor combinations, she suggests alternatives in a running “Get Creative” sidebar. Rounding out the training is a short primer on kitchen tools, pantry items and photos that illustrate vegetable chopping techniques. Katzen’s enthusiasm for the subject and her ability to keep the proceedings truly simple makes for the rare beginner’s book that accomplishes its mission. Photos. (Oct.)