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The Book Passage, a local independently owned book store, puts on an amazing series called Cooks with Books. They are usually held at the outstanding Left Bank Restaurant in Larkspur, California. The meal is prepared under the supervision of the author/chef, who discusses his or her cooking ideas with the guests during the meal.

This week, my mom took me to see Mollie Katzen who shared stories and recipes from her new book, The Vegetable Dishes I can’t Live Without. The New York Times has described Mollie Katzen’s food as “the exemplar of a healthful cooking style that has no dogma and offers no apologies.” The award-winning local author Katzen is widely credited with bringing delicious vegetarian cooking into the mainstream. After selling over 6,000,000 copies of the Moosewood Cookbook and other cookbooks, Katzen has created this wonderful cookbook that shares the vegetable recipes she loves the most.

Our menu for the evening was amazing, and I left feeling full, content and inspired to get into the kitchen.

To Amuse… (from The New Moosewood Cookbook (Mollie Katzen’s Classic Cooking) )

Tabouli
Roasted Red Peppers with Garlic and Lime
Baba Ganouj
Balkan Cucumber Salad
Spanakopita

First Course
Gypsy Soup, from Moosewood

Entree (From The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without )
Bright Greens on a Bed of Creamy Polenta
Roasted Root Vegetables with Pear Glaze

Dessert
Chocolate Bread Pudding

Mollie Katzen also has some fantastic kids cookbooks, sold in the What’s Cooking Shop. Mollie loves What’s Cooking and how we encourage children to help in the kitchen and eat healthier. She has given us permission to use her recipes in What’s Cooking Weekly, our menu planning service for families.

While this Spanakopita recipe is more complicated than the ones in What’s Cooking Weekly, I thought I’d share it here. We made it last night and it was a hit with the whole family!

SPANIKOPITA                       

8 servings
375 degree oven                       

2 cups crumbled feta cheese
5 eggs (I used 3 eggs and some egg substitute for the rest)
2 Tbs flour
3 Tbs butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 tsp. basil
salt, pepper
2 cups (1 lb.) cottage or pot cheese
1/2 tsp oregano
2 lbs fresh spinach (we used frozen, which saved us lots of time)                                                           

Clean, stem and chop the spinach.
Salt it lightly, and cook, adding no water, for five minutes.                                                    

Cook the onions in butter, salting lightly.
When soft, combine with remaining ingredients and spinach.                                             

To Assemble:                                                                   

Have on hand:
a 1 lb package defrosted filo dough and
some melted butter (1 stick)                                   

Spread melted butter on a 9 x 13 baking pan.
Place strudel leaf in the pan(It will outsize the pan.
Let the edges climb the sides.)
and brush generously with butter.
Keep layers of dough coming one on top of another, brushing each with butter.
When you havea pile of 8 leaves, spread on half the filling.
Continue with another stack of 8 or so leaves  (don't skimp on the butter),
then apply the remaining filling, spreading it to the edges.
Fold the excess filo down the edges, making little tidy corners.                         

Pile as many more layers of filo and butter as your baking pan will accommodate.
Butter the top most leaf and sprinke with a tablespoon of whole anise or fennel seeds,
if you have some on hand.                      

Bake uncovered, about 45 minutes--till golden.