Kitchen Tips

Flash Cooking’s Where It’s At

14 April 2010 by Jean Johnson
Flash cooking is the heart of my kitchen scene. It nets me plenty of fresh seasonal vegetables in short order--warm salad style. I've talked about it many times here on the blog, but people resonate with the idea so, that we did a video. It's a 6 minute clip from ...

Homemade Beans

8 April 2010 by Jean Johnson
It's so easy to get on a roll when you've got some homemade beans waiting in the fridge. Talk about ultrafast. All you do is flash cook some seasonal vegs into a warm salad, dress with oil and vinegar, add the beans for protein, season with salt and red chile ...

Red Quinoa Tabbouleh

25 March 2010 by Jean Johnson
Grow Your Own, the third book in the measurefree kitchen companion trilogy is underway. Here's one from the Leafing Out in Spring chapter. One secret of this take on tabbouleh is making it the way they do in the Levant--where as my friend Rula Awaad-Rafferty observes, “it’s about the green, ...

Cast Iron Skillets and Great Scratch Cooks

19 March 2010 by Jean Johnson
Facebook friends, Laura and Emily, commented on my cast iron skillet, so thought it time to share this entry from the pages of Cooking Beyond Measure. There's both a video of me reading and below that the text so you can follow along. Enjoy... Cooking Beyond Measure, p. 72. On Roasting Vegetables— Vegetables ...

Cooking with the Little Aunties

26 December 2009 by Jean Johnson
Many I met during holiday events asked about classes--both adult and kidlets. At the very least we're planning to get something rolling with the kids. The series, Cooking with the Little Aunties, is open to girls 8 to 12.

Flash Cooking = Hippie Stir Fry = Fast/Slow Food

18 December 2009 by Jean Johnson
Ah, yes, I remember my own trip to Mexico as a food writer. Here's one of my photos: So Mark Bittman's recent NYT piece on Mexican markets was a nice reminder of my own cruise-arama. Here he's talking about how Mexican women get fresh veggies on the table pronto--but he ...

Latina Peaches

6 September 2009 by Jean Johnson
These peaches are inspired by how they treat jicama in Mexico. I also do them with pineapple and melons of all stripes. Expect the fans to roll their eyes in bliss on this one because magic trio sets the sweet fruit off to a very fine angle indeed. Latina Peaches For ...

Summer Soups, Smoothies & Strawberry Mint Ice

19 June 2009 by Jean Johnson
It started with Cucumber Melon Soup in Cooking Beyond Measure (page 105)--this business of whizzing up delicious concoctions in the blender. Historically, of course, my affair with blended things began with smoothies in the Sixties--the old faithful banana-yogurt-honey-wheat germ routine. Given such a sagacious history, it hasn't been ...

Flash Cooking & Asparagus

23 May 2009 by Jean Johnson
Flash cooking is the term I've coined for getting veggies ready pronto. Here's the way I describe the technique in Hippie Kitchen, the second in my measurefree trilogy due out this fall: Flash Cooking To flash cook vegetables, start with a puddle of water, spices if you’re in the mood, and ...

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 ...