from Sharon S. Debowski
Mollie’s cooking skills were not to be beat. I always felt she was the better cook. We spent many telephone calls discussing recipes and menus for various events. We dove into our mutual love of cooking in 1974 as roommates in her little abode on Roehl Rd. in the northwest valley of Albuquerque. Memorable recipes included her breakfast orange juice blended with banana and mint (not to be missed morning wake-up), a tomato-dill soup eaten hot or cold (see photo of Mollie’s handwritten recipe), and gazpacho. I still make Mollie’s gazpacho to this day – V8 juice as the base with tiny diced bits of veggies (garden fresh, summer ripe tomatoes, green bell pepper, red onion, cucumber), olive oil, red wine vinegar, black pepper, celery seed, fresh basil and parsley, and, of course, finely chopped cloves of garlic. It’s never blended, but left chunky. Fabulously delicious all.
Mollie also introduced me to Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook and Anna Thomas’s The Vegetarian Epicure, both seminal vegetarian cookbooks from the mid-70s. I cooked my way through most of the recipes in those volumes. Is it any wonder then that her love of cooking was passed on to Nick who was fearless in the kitchen and grew into a great cook. How special is that!
Please share some of your favorite Mollie recipes!
Hello Sharon and fellow Molliephiles, Mollie Katzen here. I was a friend and admirer of Mollie since the age of about 14. She was (and remains in memory) the kindest, subtlest, most original person I'd ever met. In high school, I wanted to follow her around and learn to be and do all the great things she did and was. I am not surprised, but am delighted, to learn here that Mollie went on to become a great home cook who hand lettered her recipes on slips of paper. Maybe I was unknowingly channeling her when I ended up hand lettering cookbooks a few years later. Her large, bright, spare collages were a significant influence on my artistic development. Plus…