New year. New resolve. New cookbooks.

Remember those New Year’s promises you made a couple of weeks ago to eat better and save money?

Experts agree one of the best ways to do both is to cook at home. And when you factor in the culinary adventure of exploring new cuisines and expanding your recipe repertoire, buying a new cookbook or two is a good way to start 2012.

Here are some suggestions:

“Vegan Holiday Kitchen,” by vegetarian and vegan cookbook author Nava Atlas, will quiet complaints from the carnivores at your table — they’ll be too busy asking for seconds.

With an eye toward creating mainstream recipes that feel at home at any type of gathering, Atlas focuses on food that’s familiar instead of weird by using easily found ingredients and basic techniques. Instead of “veggie-tizing” specific dishes, she offers flavorful and uncomplicated versions that stand on their own: Hearty Vegetable Pot Pie, Rice and Pecan-Stuffed Squash and Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Hint of Chocolate, for example.

Don’t be distracted by “holiday” in the title because everything here works for every day, too — although her menus for special-occasion parties, feasts and buffets are valuable inspiration.

For those with food allergies, Atlas clearly marks recipes as “gluten-free,” “soy-free” and “nut-free” or gives alternatives to making them so.

“Sunday Roasts,” by longtime cooking teacher and author Betty Rosbottom, is a feast of meat sure to rekindle memories of family Sunday dinners. But this isn’t a sentimental replay of a vanishing tradition.

Rather, Rosbottom updates roast for dinner with such twists as Roasted Cod with Tomatoes and Chunky Guacamole Salsa, Four-Hour Roasted Pork Shoulder for Pulled-Pork Sandwiches and Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Figs, Porsciutto and Gorgonzola. Subtitled “A Year’s Worth of Mouthwatering Roasts,” this cookbook is divided into sections for beef, pork, lamb and veal, poultry and seafood with recipes for both plan-ahead slow-cooking and quick supper-in-an-hour preparations. Bonus chapters cover meat-friendly sides plus relishes and seasoned butters. Rosbottom also covers techniques, tools, cooking tips and serving suggestions.

“Edible Brooklyn: The Cookbook” is from James Beard award-winning Edible Communities Inc., which publishes close to 70 locally focused food magazines in the U.S. and Canada — Edible Atlanta, Edible Memphis and Edible New Orleans among them. The Edible magazines celebrate each community’s culinary heritage and sustainably produced food, and the series of planned cookbooks promises to do the same. For the edition honoring New York City’s most populous borough, editor Rachel Wharton collected more than 100 recipes from the folks who know Brooklyn food best: the borough’s backyard farmers, roof-top gardeners, sidewalk vendors and favorite chefs, representing cultures from throughout the world.

This is down-home cooking, Brooklyn-style, with recipes such as Grilled Cheese and Spicy Pickle Sandwich, Pan-Seared Cod with Succotash and Spicebush Ice Cream. “Edible Brooklyn” includes profiles on each contributor, close-up photos and articles on some of Brooklyn’s best-loved food traditions. And open the book jacket — inside you’ll find a culinary map of the borough.

Hearty Vegetable Pot Pie

From “Vegan Holiday Kitchen,” by Nava Atlas

Makes two pies, 12 or more servings

8 medium potatoes

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 large onion, quartered and finely chopped

3 cups diced vegetables of your choice (choose 3 or 4 from among cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, leeks, peas, corn kernels, zucchini, yellow summer squash, mushrooms, kale, etc.)

2 tablespoons unbleached white flour

1 cup vegetable stock (homemade or store bought)

1/4 cup nutritional yeast (optional but highly recommended)

1½ tablespoons all-purpose seasoning blend

1 teaspoon dried thyme

¼ cup minced fresh parsley

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Two 9-inch prepared good-quality pie crust, preferably whole grain

1 cup fine whole grain bread crumbs

Paprika for topping

Cook or microwave potatoes in their skins until done. When cool enough to handle, peel them. Dice four of them and mash other four coarsely. Set aside until needed. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion and sauté over medium heat until golden. Add vegetables, layering quicker-cooking vegetables such as peas, corn and zucchini over longer-cooking ones such as cauliflower, broccoli and leeks. Add a bit of water; cover and cook until vegetables are tender but not overdone, about 5 minutes.

Sprinkle flour into skillet, then pour in stock. Add optional nutritional yeast. Cook for a minute or two, stirring constantly until liquid thickens. Stir in diced and mashed potatoes. Heat through gently. Stir in seasoning blend, thyme and parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Pour mixture into pie crust and pat in. Sprinkle bread crumbs evenly over each pie, then sprinkle with paprika. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes or so, then cut into wedges and serve.

Four-Hour Roasted Pork Shoulder for Pulled-Pork Sandwiches

From “Sunday Roasts,” by Betty Rosbottom

4½ pound boneless pork shoulder (also called a Boston butt), tied

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon light brown sugar

½ teaspoon onion powder

Pinch cayenne pepper

Homemade Barbecue Sauce (recipe follows)

12 hamburger buns

Pat pork dry with paper towels/absorbent paper and place on work surface. Combine chili powder, cumin, brown sugar, onion powder and cayenne. Rub spice mixture over all surfaces of roast. Wrap in plastic wrap/cling film and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to 8.

Arrange a rack at center position and preheat oven to 300 degrees. Remove plastic wrap/cling film and place pork on rack in roasting pan/tray that’s large enough to hold it comfortably. 4. Roast until you can pierce all surfaces easily with a sharp knife and a thermometer registers 190 degrees when inserted into the thickest part of the roast, about 4 to 4½ hours. Remove from the oven and let rest for 20 minutes.

Using two table forks, “pull” pork into shreds. (Pork can be prepared 2 days ahead; cool, cover and refrigerate. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet/tray, sprinkle lightly with a little water, cover with foil and reheat at 350 degrees until warm, about 20 minutes.)

Serve pork mounded on hamburger buns and drizzled generously with sauce. Pass extra sauce separately.

Homemade Barbecue Sauce

4 teaspoons canola oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup catsup or tomato sauce

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

2/3 cup cider vinegar

¼ cup unsulphured molasses

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons instant coffee

2 teaspoons yellow mustard

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

In a large, heavy saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. When hot, add onions and sauté until translucent, for 4 to 5 minutes. Whisk in 1½ cups water and remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, stirring continuously. Lower heat and simmer until mixture has reduced to about 3 cups, for about 30 minutes. (The sauce can be prepared 5 days ahead; cool, cover and refrigerate. It can also be frozen for up to 2 months. Reheat when needed.) Makes about 3 cups.

Cathy Wood is a freelance writer working in the Shoals.