Customer Reviews:
Very good.......2000-09-07
First I should mention that it is my personal feeling that P. J. F. is the best living Fantasy writer. I think he is better than Rowling or Weis, and MUCH better than Piers Anthony or Tracy Hickman.
I suppose what I mean is that, of those authors I know, I like PJF the best...there is probably a fantasy writer out there I don't know who is better.
Moving on, The Lavalite world is a novel in the "World of Tiers" series that can actually be appreciated without having read all the previous books. I recommend it for anyone who likes fantasy.
Great descriptions!.......2000-04-26
A great read! The descriptions of the floating palace was done very well.But I think we should have gotten to it faster,instead of endless confrontations with boring tribes and plants.And for once I want the Lords to win once in a while.
Average customer rating:
|
THE LAVALITE WORLD
Manufacturer: Ace NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000I57CRG |
Book Description
As good for the body as they are for the soul--America's best-known monastery cook captures the essence of culinary and spiritual simplicity in a complete collection of recipes and menus for every meal of the day.
In our hectic, mechanized age, Brother Victor-Antoine's recipes have been welcomed by thousands of tranquillity-seeking readers. His most extensive cookbook to date,
Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchen now brings his unique culinary spirit to every meal and occasion.
As always, he draws on locally grown offerings to create a fresh range of recipes. Complemented by the influence of his French palate, each selection combines elegant flavors with natural ingredients for a satisfying yet nourishing dish. Start the day with Eggs in Potato Croustades or Avignon Banana and Raisin Bread. For lunch, try one of ten hearty soups, or a Polenta and Broccoli Casserole. Dinner could comprise Easy Spinach Croquettes and a Jerusalem Artichoke Salad, or a lavish affair featuring Asparagus Canapes, Grilled Sea Bass with Dill Sauce, and St. Peter's Zabaglione.
Also including a variety of souffles, savory pancakes, crepes, pastas, a special section devoted to mushrooms, and a tempting array of more than two dozen sauces,
Simplicity from a Monastery Kitchen provides a way of cooking that truly celebrates the bounty of the Earth.
Customer Reviews:
A great book.......2002-11-04
It seems ridiculous to try to describe a cookbook as "peaceful" but this cookbook really is. Just reading it almost always fills me with the feeling I get when I am working on a familiar, much-loved recipe for people I care about on a special occasion, which unfortunately is rare. I think that is the magic of this author and this book; the author really seems to approach every meal as a celebration--but a celebration of simple things, as the title says.
This book is mostly vegetarian except for a short but notable chapter on fish. It seems to draw effortlessly from a variety of ethnic sources but all the dishes share the same basic qualities. They really are simple and easy to prepare; there isn't a single one I would describe as fussy. I suppose when you are cooking for an entire monastery you wind up with recipes that also are easy to prepare for 4 or 6!
The directions are simple and clear and the book itself is beautiful. There are interesting illustrations, seemingly woodcarvings not of the food but of mideaval life. There are also quotes on the subject of simplicty, joy, prayer in the margins which are as inspirational as the recipes.
This book will make you hungry for a hundred different kinds of vegetables, a peaceful weekend in the kitchen and a lot else. I recommend it to anyone who takes real joy in cooking.
With a unique and tranquil culinary spirit.......2001-06-08
The delightful recipes comprising Brother Victor-Antoine's Simplicity From A Monastery Kitchen brings a unique and tranquil culinary spirit to today's hectic life style. From Eggs in Potato Croustades, Gnocchi with Arugula and Watercress, and Deauville Shrimp Bisque, to Jerusalem Artichoke Salad, St. Anthony's Bread, and Natas (a Portuguese dessert from an old nunnery), Simplicity From A Monastery Kitchen recipes combine natural ingredients for satisfying, nourishing, elegantly flavored cuisine that would grace any table.
Average customer rating:
- Not for those who don't do dairy
- Easy and Healthy!
- Yum yum yum!
- Delicious recipes for a simple life
- FOR THOSE LONGING FOR A MORE SIMPLISTIC LIFE-READ!!!
|
From a Monastery Kitchen
Victor D'Avila-Latourrette
Manufacturer: Gramercy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Bargain Books
| Stores
| Books
General
| Health, Mind & Body
| Bargain Books
| Stores
| Books
General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| U.S. Regional
| Regional & International
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Healthy
| Special Diet
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Special Occasions
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
| General
| Holidays
| Party Planning
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| U.S. Regional
| Regional & International
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Healthy
| Special Diet
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Seasonal
| Special Occasions
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Twelve Months of Monastery Soups
-
Twelve Months of Monastery Salads: 200 Divine Recipes for All Seasons
-
This Good Food: Contemporary French Vegetarian Recipes from a Monastery Kitchen
-
The Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking
-
The Secrets of Jesuit Soupmaking: A Year of Our Soups
ASIN: 0517206390
Release Date: 2000-03-07 |
Book Description
When first published over twenty years ago, FROM A MONASTERY KITCHEN became an instant classic of monastic cookery, admired over the centuries for its emphasis on simplicity, wholesomeness, good taste, and its use of Nature's seasons as a source for many ingredients.
Now newly revised and expanded, Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette, author of the best seller, Twelve Months of Monastery Soups, has developed more outstanding recipes that will appeal to all those who desire a healthy, all-natural, and always delicious diet.
Enhancing the pleasure of the recipes themselves are charming words and quotes that make this book a treasure for both palate and spirit.
"For this monk, preparing food is prayer."
-GOURMET Magazine
Customer Reviews:
Not for those who don't do dairy.......2007-08-08
Nearly all of the recipes in this book include milk in some form or another. As a person who cannot consume milk, this book is of little utility.
Easy and Healthy!.......2005-09-26
I really couldn't imagine what would be in this cookbook, but was delighted to find everything easy, delicious, and so healthful. The simple and seasonal recipies call for everything available to the city dweller, and are arranged by the seasons, with beautiful passages that make this cook book a joy to use.
Yum yum yum!.......2004-02-05
Variety, simplicity and the lovely stories that go with many of the recipies make this book a wonderful addition as well as a wonderful gift. These soups are great by themselves, and they are also easy to modify- add a little here, a little there to make them all time favorites! I highly recommend this book for the experienced and not so experienced cook.
Delicious recipes for a simple life.......2000-08-20
From a Monastery Kitchen is a cookbook of natural foods, "natural foods" in the sense of simple, vegetarian foods. The cookbook is divided into the four seasons with recipes assigned to the season their ingrediants are most available. Within each season, there are four sections: (1) Soups and appetizers (2) Main dishes (3) Salads and (4) Desserts. The volume is peppered with quotations, line drawings and other delightful tidbits.
To give you a flavor of the variety of recipes presented: for Autumn we have Escarole Soup, Vegetable Fritters, Saint Hubert Fish Stew, Risotto, Eggplant Omelette, Kasha Salad, Bessarian Avocado Salad, Saint Bruno's Coffee Cream, Cold Spring Rice Pudding, Quick Apple Cake. The recipes are simple to follow, simple to make, and simply wonderful to eat.
FOR THOSE LONGING FOR A MORE SIMPLISTIC LIFE-READ!!!.......1999-05-17
I am inspired by the monks' dedication to preserving the simple way of life, and challenged to find my own solitude within these recipies. My family is excited to sample new fare, and will be blessed by the healthy benefits from vegetarian monastic cooking.
Customer Reviews:
Fabulous Feast for Vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike!.......2005-01-26
This cookbook is by and far my favorite vegetarian book. My husband is a vegetarian but he hates beans. Finding a vegetarian cookbook whose recipes aren't nearly completely beans can be a challenge.
The emphasis on fresh foods, foods in season, and hearty recipes makes this cookbook an excellent investment. Just reading it makes your mouth water! If I had to have one vegetarian cookbook in my collection, this would be it, hands down.
Excellent, nutritional recipes that are great........1999-08-18
I cherish all of the books written by this author--there is only one that I do not have. He writes clearly and the recipes are easy to assemble and to follow. Because the ingredients used are fresh, the end result is delicious and hearty. All I can say is that the monks in this monastery eat VERY WELL!!!! They have a very talented Chef who obviously loves all aspects of his work and his vocation.
Make friends with owners of this cook book.......1999-02-23
One of my friends bought this book and has allowed me to sample his cooking ... I recommend buying or associating with someone who owns and uses this book!!! The recipies are very good and healthy.
A delight for the senses and the soul.......1998-06-02
Those of us who love to cook sometimes love to just curl up with a cookbook on a quiet night and READ. this book is wonderful for these times... it is infused with a sense of calm, joy, peace, a love of nature and simple pleasures. I love how the recipes are arranged according to season, so that the ingredients and richness of the meals are in sync with changing weather and ingredients throughout the year. and reading the section about fresh herbs made me run out to the local garden center to buy basil. best of all, there's not a bad recipe in the bunch. unlike many vegetarian cooks who seem to want to smother everyhthign with cumin and miso, Brother Victor is a master of simplicity. the recipes have one or two perfectly chosen herbs to bring out natural flavors, subtly and iwth restraint. i highly recommend this book!
Customer Reviews:
SIMPLE GOOD FOOD FOR THE HEART, BODY AND SOUL.......2007-07-20
Originally published in the mid seventies as From a Monastery Kitchen: A Practical Cookbook of Vegetarian Recipes for the Four Seasons Complete from Soups to Desserts with Breads I refer here to the 2002 Liguori expanded reprint edition, with a new Introduction by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-LaTourette, Benedictine based in an abbey in upstate New York and renowned chef of good, simple and essentially vegetarian monastic food.
In his introduction, Brother Victor-Antoine writes: "Vegetables play a unique and most important role in the daily monastic fare, for all classic monastic diet throughout the ages has been predominately vegetarian, while making provisions for the inclusion of seafood and dairy products as well. Monastic gardeners make a point of cultivating extensive gardens that usually produce an adequate supply of vegetables, fruits, and herbs for daily culinary use. Vegetarian cooking, for both health and spiritual reasons, has been rediscovered and has attained wide prominence. In the cooking at monasteries, this goes a long way toward sustaining and encouraging the positive trend we see today (p. 3)."
Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila LaTourette further writes: "This is a vegetarian cookbook; no meat recipes are included, but there are fish recipes. Not all monastics are vegetarians by any means, but the Rule of Saint Benedict, which Our Lady of the Resurrection Monastery follows, strongly encourages abstaining from meat. And each of us today must consider whether we want more than the least of us on the planet can have; most of our brothers and sisters do not have meat. (p. 4)"
This is right in line with the recent words of compassion and global concern expressed so eloquently by Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI in his recent Apostolic Exhortation Sacramento de La Caridad: Sacramentum Caritatis as he urges us, compelled by our participation in the Eucharistic mysteries, to alter the economic structures which leave the majority of us destitute.
Thus Brother Victor-Antoine closely follows the Precept of The Rule of Saint Benedict proscribing quadrapeds. In fact you find here only a smattering of fish dishes. In the Main Dishes section you will find an excellent recipe for scrambled eggs, but the bulk are excellent, hearty, healthy and vegetarian dishes, such as one might enjoy within any excellent monastic enclosure.
The servings can indeed be generous, For example, the over half gallon recipe for Hermit's Soup which opens this book, including cabbage and carrots and turnip, etc., is suggested for one or two servings. This may seem a generous portion until you realize this may be the only meal of the day, or the evening meal. I might suggest after the hour of simmering passing your Braun MR400fHC Multiquick Hand Blender with Chopper through it a few times, and putting sour cream or fat free yoghurt on top, but too many chefs can spoil the soup. A slight pinch of ground clove, nutmeg or allspice might be nice as well, although they may do battle with the turnip. Perhaps best simply to display the small vials of spice to the soup, in order to frighten it duly into that other dimension of inscrutable flavor, no more. Or to simply follow in obedience the Brother's recipe in ipse.
This is followed by the high-carb Potato Soup, very healthy fare which really sticks to your ribs as you bring in the hay from the monastic fields. Those of a more sedentary life-style might choose a less caloric concoction from this wonderful book.
In fact, Brother Victor-Antoine begins his book with a goodly list of "Useful Tips for a Healthier Diet" including herbs as salt substitutes (which reminds me of the old joke: I tried a low-salt soup once. It was great; all it needed was salt.) and substituting pastries with fruit, and white flour with whole grain, and butters with olive oil, etc. the things one does without a thought nowadays.
The recipes as mentioned are arranged by Season, including Liturgical Season, and are really five star, more elaborate and sophisticated than first few I have presented here. I found a few of the titles rather inventive and more poetic or evocative than factual. For instance, the Subiaco Fish Fillets. I have been to Subiaco, the site of Saint Benedict's original hermitage and monasteries. I am an Oblate of the Subiaco Congregation. I cannot imagine any fish scaling those high and dry mountainous cliffs, filleted or not.
But such idle gossip has no place in a silent monastic refrectory. I am very grateful for this book and the warm companionship and even better food that it brings. And the prayers, of course, the prayers for peace together. In fact, please accompany this present book with Brother Victor-Antoine's excellent table prayer collection: Table Blessings: Mealtime Prayer Throughout the Year.
Many of the recipes reflects Brother Victor-Antoine's French heritage very well, and very simply. You will be surprised at how easily and how cheaply you too can prepare an excellent French meal worthy of the highest honors, and vegetarian.
Please take and read, for this too is our Body.
Delighful book.......2007-04-01
I really appreciate this book! It offers easy, no-nonsense recipes, simple, on the healthy side (no meat) and tasty. I particularly enjoy the "Indian Curried Lentils" and the "Candied Sweet Potatoes with Raisins".
FROM A MONASTARY KITCHEN.......2007-03-20
I BOUGHT THIS COOKBOOK ABOUT 2 YEARS AGO, AND HAVE ENJOYED IT SO MUCH, AND HAVE USED IT A LOT, SO I BOUGHT THIS COPY FOR MY DAUGHTER. THOSE WHO FAST/ABSTAIN FOR LENT WILL FIND IT PARTICULARLY USEFUL.
Book Description
This cookbook includes low-fat vegetarian recipes for main dishes, soups, breads, and desserts as well as compositions from American Zen monks—those who were head cooks and those who assisted. These inspiring stories are funny and touching, and all reflect the difficulty, challenge, joy, and freedom inherent in living as a Zen monk.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent for beginners.......2007-02-15
This book is an excellent resource for beginner cooks and people who prefer simple, easy to make recipes. It is written in plain language without complicated cooking jargon and has easy to follow instructions. Most of the recipes are inexpensive and contain ingredients that are easy to find in any grocery store.
The depths of joy, ingredient by ingredient.......2004-01-12
Knowledgeably compiled and deftly edited by Cheri Huber, The Zen Monastery Cookbook: Stories And Recipes From A Zen Kitchen is more than just another cookbook. It is replete with the stories, traditions, and insights from Monastery Cooks and Cook Assistants expressing gratitude, compassionate awareness, and the search to find peace and transformation in one's own existence. A gradual exploration into the depths of joy, ingredient by ingredient, with simple and marvelous recipes for fruit salads, Tofu Pot Pie With Dumplings, Baked Apples, Italian Cheesecake and so much more, The Zen Monastery Cookbook is a genuinely wonderful addition to the personal and family cookbook shelf.
Great Vegetarian Cookbook!.......2003-11-18
I think this review, written by Adrian Marks for January Magazine (October 2003) describes The Zen Monastery Cookbook best.
"In form, The Monastery Cookbook is reminiscent of such classics as The Moosewood Cookbook and Alicia Bay Laurel's Living on the Earth. Those books, like this one, had a straight-from-the-commune roughness about them. Handlettered, crudely printed but lovingly crafted. . . .
The Monastery Cookbook is a good and useful book. . . .
The Monastery Cookbook covers all the bases, and it does it in an interesting way with lots of helpful anecdotes to contribute to your understanding of the vegetarian lifestyle and way of thinking. Following the recipes, there's no chance of going hungry: they're both solid and diverse. Eastern classics like Mjeddrah and Yellow Dal are interspersed with interpretations of European and American favorites like Pizza, Macaroni and Cheese, Sloppy Joes, Cinnamon Buns and Vichyssoise. Starters, soups, salads, main courses and desserts are all well covered, as well as a section on baking yeast bread that includes quite a lot of good advice.
One thing that The Monastery Cookbook understands and does a good job of sharing are the necessary principles of vegetarian cooking. Now, obviously, different vegetarians will take different paths to get to roughly the same place, but The Monastery Cookbook covers the nuts and bolts of the techniques that will get the results you want, regardless of the physical or philosophical reasons you opted for a vegetarian lifestyle. For example, the How To section covers cooking without oils and butter (not as easy as it sounds, by the way), how to substitute for eggs and dairy products, the basics of cooking with tofu, how to thicken liquids and other essential vegetarian kitchen techniques.
The recipes in The Monastery Cookbook are interspersed with stories written by the monks at the Zen Monastery Practice Center in Murphys, California, that is the monastery in question. All of the compositions are food-related, yet illuminate -- in often humorous and touching terms -- the challenges facing and joys offered up to the contemporary monk. (It's not all silence and tonsuring anymore.)
All in all, The Monastery Cookbook is an excellent addition to the cookbook shelf. The recipes here are diverse and easy-to-follow. Both vegetarians and those just looking for a more healthy approach to food will benefit from the book."
Books:
- The Mother of All Toddler Books (Mother of All)
- The New Hugo Winners IV (New Hugo Winners)
- The OASIS Guide to Asperger Syndrome: Completely Revised and Updated: Advice, Support, Insight, and Inspiration
- The Perricone Prescription: A Physician's 28-Day Program for Total Body and Face Rejuvenation
- The Persistence of Memory: A Biography of Dali
- The Pocket Parent
- The Silicon Boys: And Their Valley of Dreams
- The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook: 200 Delicious Recipes Ready in 30 Minutes or Less
- The Well of Eternity (WarCraft: War of the Ancients, Book 1)
- They Had No Choice: Racing Pigeons at War
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Dogs Who Found Me: What I've Learned from Pets Who Were Left Behind
- Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers
- Intimate Companions: A Triography of George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, Lincoln Kirstein, and Their Ci
- Landscaping Your Home: Creative Ideas from America's Best Gardeners
- Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk
- Monte Carlo Methods in Financial Engineering
- Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern
- Sea Room: An Island Life in the Hebrides
- Jack Welch and the GE Way: Management Insights and Leadership Secrets of the Legendary CEO
- Investment Guide for Lithuania