Food Thoughts
2 February 2012 by
Jean Johnson
Squash is much maligned in SAD (Standard American Diet)--especially winter squash. It's largely reserved for pumpkin pies and acorn halves baked with yet more unimaginative SAD stuff: brown sugar and butter. Not that I don't enjoy an acorn trussed up in such decadent fashion now and then. It's just that ...
Posted in Food Thoughts, Getting on a Roll, Health and Wellness, Roasting Fruits and Vegetables, Seasonal | 1 Comment »
15 January 2012 by
Jean Johnson
Feel like a poem picture? Here are lines from Tom Robbins fleshed out with my photos.
"The beet is the most intense of vegetables.
The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent, not of passion.
Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there ...
Posted in Food Thoughts, Playing with Your Food, Vegetables, Vegetarian | 1 Comment »
30 November 2011 by
Jean Johnson
There's no comparison between store bought peel and home candied. The former is skinny and skimpy. The latter, fat and sumptuous. Plus that if you use organic fruits and sugar, you wind up with pretty decent delicacies instead of weird madness.
All that and this is the stuff of a thrifty ...
Posted in Celeste and HH, Fall, Fruit, Holidays, Playing with Your Food, Recipes, Scratch Cooking, Seasons, Thrift | 3 Comments »
23 November 2011 by
Jean Johnson
This is definitely measure free hippie cook kind of stuffing. No pre-planning. A build your own affair with what's around, the apples coming in at the end because there wasn't enough mushrooms and celery in the house to fill the bill--and no one wanted to go to the store.
In fact, ...
Posted in Holidays, Measurefree Cooking, Playing with Your Food | Add a Comment »
21 July 2011 by
Jean Johnson
Letting the seasons change what's on your plate is such a groove. Tonight it took the form of flash cooking a just-pulled cippolini onion from last fall's planting, a minced clove of garlic, whole sugar snaps, a green and yellow zucc sliced off on the diagonal, and a chop of ...
Posted in Dinner, Food Thoughts, Health and Wellness, Lunches, Recipes, Seasonal, Sides, Soups, Thrift, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian, Whole Grains | 2 Comments »
18 June 2011 by
Jean Johnson
It started when Linda stayed in my 2 room b&b over the weekend. I made Polenta Waffles that are always a hit. Linda went on to the next leg of her vacation, but as so often happens, I'm on a roll. That's how it happens when you're a basically lazy, ...
Posted in Breakfasts, Fresh, Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, Getting on a Roll, Iris the Cat, Lunches, Measurefree Cooking, Organic GMO Free Corn, Playing with Your Food, Scratch Cooking, Seasonal, Thrift, Ultrafast, Vegetarian, Whole Grains | 2 Comments »
19 May 2011 by
Jean Johnson
One bowl meals. It's how to turn gorgeous food out on a dime. A dime of both time and money.
In this case, there were leftover French lentils and quinoa in the fridge--so into the bowl they went with some jarred roasted red peppers, a pear from the season's end, and ...
Posted in Dinner, Family, Friends, & Love, Flash Cooking, Food Politics, Processed Food, Salads, Spices, Spring, Thrift, Vegan, Vegetables, Whole Grains | 1 Comment »
4 April 2011 by
Jean Johnson
I don't hawk products on this site--or even court advertisers. But Organic Valley has won my heart. Here's why.
First off, notice their milk carton--not just the usual about our health and tastes, but a nod to the mama cows getting out to pasture. What a concept. Just like it ...
Posted in Bioethics & Sustainability, Dairy, Factory Farming and Conventional Agriculture, Food Politics, Food Thoughts | 1 Comment »
25 February 2011 by
Jean Johnson
That's right. A trip to Italy isn't required. All we need do is turn the lights on in our own kitchens and pour of glass of wine. All we need do is scratch cook with local, seasonal ingredients at their height of freshness. All we need do is leave behind ...
Posted in Dinner, Fish, Flash Cooking, Scratch Cooking, Ultrafast, Winter | 2 Comments »
11 February 2011 by
Jean Johnson
The garden has been my greatest teacher. It has taught me that tender broccoli leaves make perfectly lovely winter greens. That like young kale they need just flash in the pan to turn mild and tender. And that in spring before the snow peas are ready, a riotous chop of ...
Posted in Bioethics & Sustainability, Food Thoughts, Kitchen Garden Thoughts, Seasonal, Thrift | 3 Comments »