Vegetarian

Beets are Deadly Serious

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 ...

First Summer Squash of the Year & the Last of the Sugar Snap Peas

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 ...

The Green and The Gold–Plus Jimmy Crack Corn

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, ...

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 ...

Quiche for the Holidays

27 December 2010 by Jean Johnson
Quiche is reliable since it's just a custard with goodies in it that sets up no problemo. Also it's great served room temperature, so is perfect for something like a New Year's buffet. Shrimp Quiche Here's one I did for Christmas with wild prawns that I boiled first, sliced in half ...

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 ...

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 ...

Tomato-Mozzarella-Basil Salad

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, ...