Food Thoughts

On a Roll with Spaghetti Squash

4 January 2011 by Jean Johnson
Mainstream food writers at the Oregonian dismissed spaghetti squash as bland and boring in an article on winter squashes. Too bad they missed the point, but then that's what happens as long as you're looking at things from the Standard American Perspective--which in the case of food is widely known ...

Getting Our Acts Together with the Sacred Quartet, Squash and Greens, & Frugality

3 January 2011 by Jean Johnson
As usual, it's not what we do but how to do it. Especially when it comes to the measure free hippie kitchen. So those long lists you see in cookbooks about putting a pantry together only go so far by telling us what to buy at the store. Half the ...

From the Garden to the Table, During All Four Seasons–Mostly

20 December 2010 by Jean Johnson
So far so good. I've still not bought fresh produce (except pomegranates, lemons, and some Clementines) and since the slim garden days of last spring. It's getting to be slim pickins' for sure given Portland's November snow storm that way laid my broccoli and gave the kale and cabbage a ...

Merry Howdy: Jean Reads You Kitchen Stories

5 December 2010 by Jean Johnson
I think each of these readings is 3 minutes or so. Hope you have time for a listen. Merry Howdy, Jean if you're inspired--and I hope you are--you click over to the cookbooks page and take advantage of the December sale--all told with the free domestic shipping it's a 20 percent ...

Collector’s Items? Heck Yeah!

2 December 2010 by Jean Johnson
The measure free trilogy books will surely become collectible. After all, Cooking Beyond Measure and Hippie Kitchen are the first cookbooks without measurements written in the United States in over a century. And when Grow Your Own Comes out next year, it will be the third. More, these books are ...

Quinoa = Ultrafast + Delish + You the Boss

2 November 2010 by Jean Johnson
Here's how ultrafast cooking works in my hippie kitchen. In the morning when I'm having breakfast, I steam up a pot of quinoa. This grain cooks in 10 minutes and has the highest protein of them all. I leave it sitting out at room temperature and then when dinner comes ...

Skip the Vegetarian-Vegan-Carnivore Distinctions–Just Get More Fresh Vegs & Fruits

27 October 2010 by Jean Johnson
[caption id="attachment_3722" align="alignnone" width="475" caption="Tofu Rocker, Hippie Kitchen, 139"][/caption] With the glow of the meditation hall in my heart, I queued up at the dinner buffet table. It may have been a silent retreat but my mind was in full gear. Especially when I saw the fresh vegetable de jour looking ...

Lasta-vera Frittata with Blue Corn and Hopi Memories & Music

20 October 2010 by Jean Johnson
Yes, I know the lastavera doesn't quite work since vera means spring in Italian. But hey, it's close, and it conveys so well the idea of using vegetables the fall harvest brings through the door. A few posts ago I was lastavering with a grain salad. This time it's with ...

Measurefree: Pie in the Sky or the Cat’s Meow?

15 October 2010 by Jean Johnson
A facebook friend who owns both Hippie Kitchen and Beyond Measure was teasing me about my "sorta cookbooks." And it's true that I'll often explain that the measure free cooking series is more kitchen companion than typical paint-by-number recipe books. That said, I contend that translating the art of cooking ...

Not Primavera But Lastavera–Harvest Bounty Lush With White Beans and Walnuts

11 October 2010 by Jean Johnson
There's one like this in Hippie Kitchen on page 75, but that was made with summer savory one sunny day in June. Now the days are more golden than sunny, but harvest is plentiful as this Lastavera shows. Broccoli, tomatillos, green chiles, leeks, tomatoes, and garlic--all from the garden--all flash ...