Measure Free Hippie Cook

Books

These days we’re running to the Internet for a quick dinner recipe. Thus cookbooks are taking a new focus: one that inspires with photographs and offers tips that empower. The books in this measure free kitchen companion trilogy is set clearly in this new trend.

1. They are free of measurements.
2. They go beyond the old recipe compendium-style and offer tips on understanding as well as plenty of inspiration.
3. They have a whole lot of fun in the seasonal, sustainable, thrifty groove.

The point here is that we might cook from scratch more–and save a bundle on our health and wealth–if cooking wasn’t a paint-by-numbers exercise. Also, we might not be so intimidated if we realized that we don’t have to be gourmet to eat well. This is the same simple food everyday cooks around the world have been making for centuries.

So come ahead on into my kitchen groove. Expect plenty of

*tips that empower,
*color photographs that inspire, &
*great ideas for simple everyday eats.

Here they are in all their glory.

Our sassy, cutie-pie Hippie Kitchen ($18).

Our darling who did all the pioneering work, Cooking Beyond Measure ($17).

Or if you would like a set of both Hippie Kitchen and Cooking Beyond Measure with discounted shipping, please click here.

Finally, we’re expecting again. Grow Your Own: From the Garden to the Table is due in 2011.

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Hippie Kitchen (2010)

Hippie Kitchen: A Measurefree Vegetarian Cookbook ($18) is an ode to the Sixties that inspires everyday cooks to rock & roll in the kitchen.

Hippie Kitchen uses Sixties themes and rock & roll lyrics to make cooking fun so we’ll light the fires of our kitchens–and leave our measuring cups in the drawers.

“We’ve had only five generations since Americans started using measuring tools and formal recipes,” Jean says. “That’s not that long in the greater scheme of things.

“While formal recipes can be helpful for special dinners and pastries, I think they are a key reason so many of us have become alienated from the art of home cooking.”

“The toll all the processed and restaurant/deli food has taken on our health and pocketbooks — not to mention our quality of life — is unfortunate, Jean says.”

“I hope my work sparks a conversation about measurements. It seems we’ve accepted them without questioning whether or not they are really working for us. Rather interesting as we’ve only had the utensils for 100 years–and we seem to be questioning so many other aspects of the scientific revolution these days…”

Review from the San Francisco Bay Area’s Contra Costa Times

Cooking beyond measure: Jean Johnson’s case for less precision, more tradition
By Janice De Jesus
Correspondent

Jean Johnson knew all about being green before the “green” philosophy exploded into the ubiquitous lifestyle it is now.

And while she doesn’t call the Haight/Ashbury area or Berkeley home, Johnson’s coming of age in the 1960s has had a huge influence in her cooking style — a concept she shares in her just released “Hippie Kitchen: A Measure free Vegetarian Cookbook.”

Her philosophy: Meals can be simple, healthy, thrifty and green. And, Johnson adds, you don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen just because you’re cooking from scratch and not using measuring cups.

In fact, the idea behind Johnson’s food movement is that simple and healthy can be fun. Johnson, a food historian who’s studied the history of cooking styles and habits worldwide, said people need to embrace their cooking heritage by simply going back to the basics.

“Do we really need measurements for everyday cooking? Is it really serving our interests?” said Johnson. “We start to look around and find out that the rest of the world doesn’t use measuring cups.”

As people’s tastes become more multicultural, so does their desire to try cooking new dishes. The marketing of dishes from other countries has become more elite, more trendy and pricey and not accessible, she said.

“We love this ethnic food we’re discovering — we go after it. We buy cookbooks and want to embrace it,” Johnson said. “But we lose the thrift aspect of it. These are everyday foods that thrifty housewives all over the world have been making for years.”

Often, she said, the soul and spontaneity of the dishes are lost when measurements take over. Johnson advocates taking back the power of the consumer by starting in your own kitchen. She wants to rescue people from what she calls “SAD,” the Standard American Diet — the land of crinkly packages and frozen orange juice.

“In the 1890s, cooking in this country went from an art to the basic equivalent of being a chemistry experiment,” said Johnson, who lived 10 years with the Hopi and Navajo tribes and now lives in her native Portland, where she grows a four-season organic garden.

“What did we do with the power of the home cook? There was cooking without a manual before, as people have done for centuries.”

Creativity limited

Johnson said cookbooks typically have a prescriptive tone that limits creativity and fun in the kitchen.

“The kind of food that’s going to free us from the industry is very simple, rustic, everyday cooking that doesn’t need measurements,” she said.

When people ask how they can hand down recipes without precise measurements, Johnson asserts that it can be done. “We can share our recipes even if we don’t measure. We just explain how it works.”

The result, she said, opens up a conversation to encourage people try out a recipe and improvise.

In her cookbook, Johnson walks cooks through the recipes and explains why certain ingredients are used to flavor the dishes. The fun part of “Hippie Kitchen” is it’s sprinkled with sayings by 1960s rock n’ roll greats such as Frank Zappa. Recipes include “Spaghetti Squash Primavera,” a.k.a. “Hippie Hash.”

“I let the 60s provide entertainment for the cook,” said Johnson, who likes to use legumes in her cooking. Johnson also shares a personal story in her book about her one-time dalliance with garlic powder and bottled lemon juice. “But I eventually found my way,” she said.

Process takes time

The path to being simple, healthy, thrifty and green doesn’t happen overnight, she said. “We don’t have to be gourmet to eat well. We need to discover buying grains from bulk bins and use oil, vinegar, salt and pepper so beautifully.”

Johnson will be putting her measure-free cooking concept in action from noon to 2 p.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. at Whole Foods Market in Walnut Creek. Among the recipes she will be sampling include a red pepper dish called “Antipasto Riff” from Hippie Kitchen and the “Stuffed Dates” she’s doing from her first book, Cooking Beyond Measure.

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Cooking Beyond Measure (2008) At the end of the day, following yet one more set of rote directions when all we want is dinner can send us off to the land of crinkly packages. So leave your measuring cups behind and take back your kitchen!

Cooking Beyond Measure($16.95), the first in Johnson’s measurefree kitchen companion trilogy, was featured in The Wall Street Journal & The Washington Post. (Articles posted in the Press Room.)

What People are Saying

Cooking Beyond Measure is all about empowerment, and that message surely wasn’t lost on Laura Marble who wrote this review for the Tucson Explorer (1 October 2008):

Once in a great while, somebody comes up with a question so perfect that it brings a whole corner of your life into sharp relief and fills you with clarity.Last week, Jean Johnson asked me such a question.

“How did cooking turn into a rote exercise in following directions?” the Oregon-based food writer inquired as we talked on the phone. In an instant, my decade-long bout of boredom with kitchen duty became completely understandable.

Johnson already knew the answer to her question, having just written a book that addresses it.

“Cooking Beyond Measure” tells about the origins of precise recipes — the kind that turn supper into the equivalent of a small chemistry experiment — and goes on to suggest that measuring cups are to blame for America’s modern obsession with take-out windows and crinkly packages.

“Cooking Beyond Measure” is a cookbook, but its recipes sound more like friendly conversation snippets: “Smash some cranberries in a mortar with some orange segments.” “Stir an egg or two into leftover vegetables.”

Johnson figures people aren’t set on earning a Scout badge at the end of a tiring day of work. They just want a quick and tasty meal, and if that means having to hand over authority to one more demanding expert in their lives — in this case, a cookbook — then frankly, they’d rather order out.

Johnson, like me, grew weary of handing over control of artistic endeavors early in life. Maybe it started with paint-by-numbers art projects.

“You think this is something that’s going to turn out perfect, and all I have to do is paint by the numbers,” Johnson said. “But that implies I have the focus to do it and I’ll find satisfaction in doing it. I’m not sure we ever did.”

Barbara Haber, Food Historian, Emeritus, Harvard, Schlesinger Library

9 September 2009:

“Jean Johnson brings an experienced and sophisticated eye to cooking, and passes on her wisdom in her new book, Cooking Beyond Measure,” says Haber who built Harvard’s 16,000 volume cookbook collection. “She shows us that by selecting fresh and wholesome ingredients we can produce delicious food without having to fall back on the rigid instructions found in most cookbooks. Johnson inspires us to get comfortable with food so that we can quickly put together dishes with ease and avoid the need to fill up on fast food and other less healthy fare.”

Wall Street Journal, 1 April 2009:

“Since the late 1800s, when recipes as we know them today were first widely introduced, home cooks have been increasingly creating dishes using line-by-line lists of measured ingredients and detailed directions. Food historian Jean Johnson is advocating improvisational cooking as she tours the country with her first book, Cooking Beyond Measure. She teaches home cooks to be fluid so they can look to their cupboards instead of the grocery store when a dish calls for an ingredient they don’t have. Ms. Johnson also suggests experimenting with variations on a dish. ‘Cooking starts with building a foundation, for example, taking leftover steamed quinoa and dressing it with fruits, nuts and honey for breakfast,’ she says. ‘Add vegetables or some legumes or tofu and a little salad dressing to make a light lunch or a hearty dinner.’”

The Washington Post 27 August 2008:

“Jean Johnson has made cooking without recipes something of a cause. Her website, www.measurefreehippiecook.com, and new book Cooking Beyond Measure (76th Avenue Press), which was published last week, offer lists of ingredients and notes on how to put them together. But there are no quantities or cooking times. For example, a recipe for cucumber melon soup advises: Give chilled cucumbers and cantaloupe a spin in the blender with a seeded jalapeño, salt, pepper and tarragon vinegar. Garnish with slivers of melon or toasted coconut. ‘On a daily basis, when all we want is dinner, few of us are up to doing the equivalent of small chemistry experiments,’ Johnson says.”

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If your bookstore, natural food store, or library doesn’t carry our titles, they can easily order them through the major distributors. Or if you want a signed copy, order directly from our publisher via the Paypal buttons at the top of this page.

In Portland, Oregon, find signed copies of Jean’s books at Food Front Food Co-op, Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply, Linton Feed and Seed, Rain or Shine, and Music Millennium. Powell’s Books also carries our titles.

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Grow Your Own – From the Garden to the Table Forthcoming 2011. Book three in Jean’s measurefree trilogy. For the kitchen gardener and farmers market or csa buyers who want ideas on how to revel in cooking and eating what they grow or get straight from the farms.