Tonight for dinner, Becky made “Cheese and Almond Stuffed Zucchini”. She found the recipe in New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant, a book that has helped her create many other interesting, tasty, and _vegetarian_ recipes! It was absolutely delicious. Here’s a pic:
ppp|
|ppp
The copyright of the book doesn’t allow us to reprint the recipe here, but I guarantee that it’s tasty! Look for the book in your local library or bookstore if you’d like to make it for yourself. Mmmm!
Update
We did get permission from Moosewood to reprint the recipe, so read on! Also, I would encourage everyone to keep copyright in mind when reprinting anything found in a book or in any other source. [Fair use](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use) law can cover you in some cases, for example, I would probably have a legal basis for printing an excerpt of the recipe, or a quote from the instructions, but to reprint the recipe in its entirety without permission is of questionable legality, and I personally would rather play it safe.
Cheese and Almond Stuffed Zucchini
Serves 6
A creamy, rich, very satisfying dish based on an old French provincial recipe.
* 3 medium zucchini
* 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
* 1 cup finely chopped onions
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 6 ounces cream cheese, cut into small cubes
* 1 1/2 cup almonds, finely chopped
* 1/2 cup whole grain bread crumbs
* 2 cups grated Swiss cheese (7 ounces)
* 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
* 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and, using a soup spoon, scoop out
the insides of the zucchini to leave a fillable outer shell. Save the
inner pulp and chop it.
Sauté the onions in the oil until translucent. Add the salt and
chopped zucchini pulp and continue to cook on medium heat until the
zucchini is soft. Remove from the heat. Stir the cream cheese cubes
into the vegetables and cover for several minutes. Meanwhile, in a
large bowl mix together the almonds, bread crumbs, grated Swiss
cheese, nutmeg, and allspice. When the cream cheese has softened,
thoroughly combine all the ingredients.
Fill the zucchini shells and place them in an oiled 9×14-inch baking
pan. Add water to cover the bottom of the pan about 1/4-inch deep.
Tightly cover the pan so that the zucchini shells will steam. Bake
covered at 350° for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 5 to 10
minutes, until the filling has browned a little.
Serve on a bed of rice with a fresh salad.
Reprinted with permission from New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant, by The Moosewood Collective, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA, 1987
And here’s a courtesy link to [Moosewood Restaurant](http://www.moosewoodrestaurant.com/) of Ithaca, NY, the source of the wonderful recipes in the cookbook. I appreciate their generosity in allowing me to reprint their recipe.
Actually, just so you know, you cannot copyright a recipe. You can keep it secret, but once it’s out there anyone can do whatever they want with it. The copyright of the book will cover the layout, the pictures, the blurbs from the author or editor or whomever write in it, but the recipe itself is fair game. It is illegal to photocopy the page and post it as a PDF, but it is legal to include the recipe in a blog. That’s one of the great things about cooking – food is made to share, in every conceivable way.
Of course, I was told this by a chef who trained at Johnson and Wales in Rhode Island, so depending on how reliable you find that source, you can feel free to check in with a lawyer.
Well, according to the US copyright office, lists of ingredients can’t be copyrighted, but directions for assembling the ingredients can be. From what I’ve read on another site, it sounds like if you rewrite the instructions in your own words, you might be okay…
We would be happy to email the recipe to you if you are interested. 🙂
Moosewood!!!! Enchanted Broccoli Forest! Oh the Oregon Extsnsion does wonderful things for the pallate!
And, my guess is the fine people at Moosewood would want the recipe shared. As long as you give proper credit. Citing something and saying where you get it from is key. i quote song lyrics all the time in my journal, and give proper attribution to the band/author.
Maybe the whole copyright thing is not as big of a deal as I think it is. We have previously published recipes on our blog without a second thought, but they were all recipes that came handed down on notecards or in informal volumes that had no copyright notices attached. I had never reprinted a recipe from an actual published book, so I figured I would double-check before posting it… I saw the notice about copyright and reproduction when I flipped to the front cover, so I figured I’d just play it safe. I did check out the restaurant’s website, and they do have a recipe archive, but the recipe we used wasn’t in there.
I guess it couldn’t hurt for me to contact the restaurant and simply ask if it was okay to reprint it on our blog…
Everyone is reading WAY TOO much into this whole recipe thing. I OWN numerous Federal Trademarks for various things, and Copyrights to Books. Here is the CORRECT ANSWER from the Register of Copyrights. REAPER – OUT
This is in response to your inquiry regarding the copyright registration of recipes. Mere
listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds or prescriptions are not subject to
copyright protection. However, where a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial
literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination
of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.
Protection under the copyright law (title 17 of the United States Code, section 102) extends
only to “original works of authorship†that are fixed in a tangible form (a copy). “Originalâ€
means merely that the author produced the work by his own intellectual effort, as distinguished
from copying an existing work. Copyright protection may extend to a description,
explanation, or illustration, assuming that the requirements of the copyright law are met.
To register the directions or instructions of a recipe or cookbook, send the following three
elements in the same envelope or package to the Library of Congress, Copyright Office, 101
Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. 20559-6000.
1 A completed application Form TX;
2 A nonrefundable filing fee of $30*;
3 A nonreturnable deposit of the work. The deposit requirements depend on whether the
work has been published at the time of registration:
• If the work is unpublished, one complete copy.
• If the work was first published in the United States on or after January 1, 1978, two complete
copies of the best edition.
• If the work was first published in the United States before January 1, 1978, two complete
copies as first published.
• If the work was first published outside the United States, one complete copy of the work as
first published.
• If the work is a contribution to a collective work, and published after January 1, 1978, one
complete copy of the best edition of the collective work or a photocopy of the contribution
itself as it was published in the collective work.
Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’s expression in literary, artistic,
or musical form. Copyright protection does not extend to names, titles, short phrases,
ideas, systems, or methods.
Sincerely yours,
Register of Copyrights
Wow… I’m sorry that this got worked into such a big thing. I was just trying to do the right thing and respect copyright.
That being said, I did contact the people at Moosewood, and here is what they had to say:
So, I’m going to send the recipe copy to them for permission, and then I’ll post it here. 🙂