Bioethics & Sustainability

28 August 2010 by Jean Johnson
In Cooking Beyond Measure I purposely call the Italian salad, caprese, this: Sweet Basil with Tomato and Mozzarella. That's because I wanted to turn it from something exotic and perhaps strange to a salad everyone can enjoy. And right now with the tomato harvest starting to come in most places, ...

Hippie Primavera, Video on Flash Cooking

16 June 2010 by Jean Johnson
Flash cooking continues to attract people to my work. I'm glad because it's the heart of what my measure free, seasonal, sustainable message is about. So here you go. In these vids I show how to Turn the burner on high with a puddle of water. Put your rustically chopped veggies in, ...

Opening the Cages: The Humane Movement to Liberate Poultry

7 April 2010 by Jean Johnson
While I'm on a roll with the food politics articles I've written, here's one on hens published in E/The Environmental Magazine, January 2007. Also, tak to C. Bundy who took two of the photos used here. Over easy and whisked into omelets, eggs delight many. But the hens that laid ...

Corn Cakes with Pepper Jack

14 March 2010 by Jean Johnson
These puppies get more than passing notice. They go with spicy breakfasts and function as fresh bread come lunch or dinner time. They also work baked up as small fry for starters. Like neighbor, Patrick Earnest, said, “We really enjoyed the other night with everyone. The little pancakes had to ...

Laura Gets It

27 November 2009 by Jean Johnson
Healthy, thrifty, delicious, and green. That's the whole point behind measure free. The idea that if we quit being slaves to paint-by-numbers recipes we'll be likely to cook more, eat well, be healthy, and save a bundle on the food bill. So at the end of the day, it's not ...

Big Cooking Never Hurt Anyone–Or Did It?

17 November 2009 by Jean Johnson
CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) and Big Food break my heart. That's why cheap breakfasts don't impress me. The hens and pigs pay so very pitifully for our pleasure. Factory farmers prostituting themselves under the guise of feeding the world--never mind the big bucks. Given all that, why does this blog ...

Eating Animals

4 November 2009 by Jean Johnson
The review of Eating Animals on Alternet calls the author, Jonathan Safran Foer a younger grittier Michael Pollan. Cool. And he'll be at Powell's tonight. 7:30.

The Cereal Bowl

by Jean Johnson
Beans in your morning cereal bowl are cool. A few garbs rolling around with the hazelnuts. Some blackies and a spike of red chile and lime to go with chunks of fresh pears. A pink hummus spread on apples. (Cooking Beyond Measure, p. 32) And now even a nod from ...

Thoughts on the Ladies: Mama Pigs, Mama Cows, & Mama Hens

19 July 2009 by Jean Johnson
Food, of course, is not just about consumption. Its story also encompasses production, a subject I've been investigating this summer with students at Washington State University enrolled in my US Food History course. So, how sunny are those eggs on the breakfast table? Or in the really cheap breakfast you found ...

Kitchen Gardening, Northern Arizona-Style

1 February 2009 by Jean Johnson
This blog hasn't been too interactive so far. Instead people tend to email me directly. That's nice. Whatever works. Here's one I just got from Bob, friend in Northern Arizona, who has grown a four-season organic garden for years with his wife, Beth: "I put some throw-away skylights over the spinach ...