The Cook Counts To

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, ...

On Cleanup and Storage

7 June 2010 by Jean Johnson
If you have a copy of Hippie Kitchen you'll know that I one of the ways I like to eat fava beans is with Tripped Out Peanut Sauce (page 56). But generating measure free recipe ideas to inspire creative cooking is only part of what my work is about. ...

Thai Slaw Rolls

30 March 2010 by Jean Johnson
When you put these on the table people think they're getting burritos. Then they take a bite and roll their eyes. That's right, soft rolled up pancakes filled with a Thai-inspired slaw is first rate--something I'd make in a heartbeat if Mark Bittman swooped in for a nib. If you ...

On The Cook Counts Too

21 March 2010 by Jean Johnson
You heard it here first. Straight from Hippie Kitchen, p. 44. On the Cook Counts Too— Fussing with cooking vegetables by the singleton is something I do less often than not. That’s because when you’re going for a quick meal, it’s easier to get a bunch of veggies onto the heat ...

Brown Butter Sauce, Beurre Blanc & the New Julia Child Movie

19 August 2009 by Jean Johnson
Julia. Even the sound of her name brings lavish thoughts--grounded in a no nonsense approach to life. Bon vivant she was with her "bon appetit!" That's why I've been smiling since watching Meryl Streep bring Julia Child alive once again on the big screen. Ah, yes. Wasn't our Julia a grand ...

User-Friendly Kitchen Counters

25 April 2009 by Jean Johnson
This post is for one of the women at the last cooking class I did. I was talking about how much it streamlines cooking when you keep things you use a lot out handy. She wanted to know what was out on my counter. Well, here it is--at least this is ...

Thanksgiving Breakfast with KBJ’s Cranberries and Cottage Cream

22 November 2008 by Jean Johnson
Thanksgiving Breakfast complete with Cottage Cream and KBJ's Cranberries is such gorgeous food--as delicious as it is healthy and affordable. Indeed, that's what measure free cooking is all about. But a cookbook without measurements and prescriptive rote directions is so unprecedented that people tend can get wrapped up in the ...

A Working Stove

18 December 2007 by Jean Johnson
This shot was at breakfast per the cup of black coffee and bowl of cereal. Then there's a tray of winter squash ready for the oven and a basket of kale from the garden waiting for all manner of magic along with a beautiful lemon. Clearly my stove is nothing extra, but it does ...

Wok Action

15 October 2007 by Jean Johnson
It's mid-October but the kitchen garden still giveth. Today there was broccoli, roasting ears, a couple small lonesome zucchinis, and a cartload of Anaheim chiles. Seemed like dinner to me. All it took was a douse of water (which in truth was some cinnamon tea left in the teapot) in ...

Be Here Now with Fresh Garlic

2 September 2007 by Jean Johnson
Measure free cooking is speedy but that doesn't mean we have to miss the ride as I explain in Cooking Beyond Measure, page 77. . . Fresh garlic can usher us into the moment if we let it. The humble aromatic a doorway into the peace of the cosmos. Even ...