Part 2 of The Hippie Cookbook or Who know what Truck Farm is?

So in the last couple days I've finally had a chance to delve into The Hippie Cookbook. My oh my, is this an odd little book. I really love it though, and I can't wait to try some of the recipes. Helter Skelter Stew, Psychedelic Hamburgers, Earth Mother's Bread - the bread recipe looks nice because it has several variations of bread.

And I am going to try Rose Petal Jam very, very soon, as soon as I can find an organic source for roses. Check out this Rose Petal Jam - she made thumbprint cookies with it. And here is the recipe from the picture, along with a yummy bread recipe.

Do you know what a truck farm is? Me neither. It is essentially a wooden box you construct and then put on the roof of your car add black dirt and chicken coop scrapings, then plant your seeds, but make sure you plant high wind resistant seeds. And....if it doesn't rain, you can water them by going through a car wash. Does this not sound like something the global warming people would do? I can just see new hybrid cars coming with a farm box on top.

And it gets better...

There is also an entire section on how to cook on the engine of your car while you are traveling cross country. One of the recipes is called Piston Lickin Chicken. I have a strange desire to see if this works, lol.

Another interesting section is the one about cooking naked. Apparently it is good for your food and your body, and you should get all your friends to come on over and do it too.

And also did you know that those old wood stoves are the best way to cook? The gas and electric stoves don't import the "groovy vibrations" into your food like an old wood stove can.

Holy Tex-Mex!

Hey Dallasites! Did you know? I just found out. I just read my favorite mexican restaurant chain was sold. El Fenix has been a staple of Dallas since 1918. They have the best Tex-Mex around these parts. I am totally addicted to their cheese enchiladas, there is nothing like them. I compare any cheese enchiladas I try to theirs and have found none compared. I hope the new owner leaves the menu alone. I did read the new owners wanted to expand and that Grand Prairie and Rockwall and some other cities were lacking an El Fenix, which I've been saying for years, lol.

My family has a small personal history with them from a long, long time ago. My grandfather and grandmother knew the Martinez boys. My aunt swears she is the child of an affair my grandmother had with one of them, though my grandmother claimed she is a lunatic and that never happened, but who knows, that side of my family has some weird history.

My grandmother would tell me this story that way back when, my grandfather would open the door to the downtown Dallas El Fenix and throw his hat inside. If they kept his hat, they wanted him to come eat, if they threw it out, they didn't want him, lol.

No sew jean apron tutorial

This is totally cool -- I had to share this cool tutorial I found. Check out this tutorial for making an apron out of the butt of a pair of jeans and there is no sewing. I think Miss Em and I will have to make one of these with some of her too small jeans.

The Hippie Cookbook or Don't Eat Your Food Stamps

I found the coolest cookbooks at the giant Half Price books the other day. We ended up in the cookbook section on the way to checkout because Roberto wanted a cookbook to make something "new". We make boring stuff according to him. We ended up with a cookbook for the crockpot - cuz I love crockpot cooking, lol. Fix it and forget it. My favorite is my Beefy Onion Pot Roast - and here's the recipe. My children devour this meal.

Beefy Onion Pot Roast
2 lb chuck roast
Large bag of baby carrots
4-5 potatos, peeled and cut
1 package of Lipton's Beefy Onion soup mix
1 heaping spoonful of cornstarch
4-5 cups of water
Optional: Spoonful of Garlic

Put the roast (defrosted) in first, then throw in the carrots and potatoes around, then mix Beefy onion soup mix in 2 cups of hot water and pour around the roast and veggies. Mix 2 cups of hot water with a heaping spoonful of cornstarch and then pour around the roast and veggies. Add some more water if you think it needs it (but the more liquid, the longer it takes to cook). If you love garlic like we do, I add a regular spoonful of minced garlic. Turn crockpot to high.

To be done by around 6 PM, you need to do put this in the crockpot by 11 AM or 12 PM at the latest. You can make this even earlier, like before work if needed and it will still be perfect when you get home. The cornstarch thickens the soup mix and makes the juices like a gravy, you can skip the cornstarch and the juices will be watery if you prefer.

So I found the vintage cookbook sections, and I loved it. You know those spiral bound cookbooks from organizations or churchs, I have tons of them, mostly stolen from my mother, lol. As we were looking, I found an autographed little vintage cookbook by Jacques Pepin, signed to a Lizette, and we picked up a 1971 vintage copy of the 1934 recipe Hershey's cookbook. My mother-in-law swears by the Hershey's original chocolate cake recipe they used to print on the cocoa tin way back when, she had to call them and request a copy of it a few years ago since they quit printing it on the tin. She's going to be thrilled with that cookbook.


And then tucked out of the way, I picked up this strange little cookbook with a very odd front cover. It's called The Hippie Cookbook or Don't Eat Your Foodstamps. It seemed very intriguing with lots of neat recipes. It's the size of a book of postcards. I paid about $5 for it and looked it up online and most are for sale for between $40-$50. I read it has a great cheesecake recipe.

What a loser am I

Sorry I've been ignoring this little place o'fun. I have been so busy. I swear the last month of school for my kids, they rev it up to overdrive. We had to go to stuff every week - sports banquet, preschool party, field day, a field trip to the zoo...AHHH!

Then I am on the last sections of my school work, so they expect like perfect since you are so close to graduating and the amount of work has literally quadrupled, like from 15 assignments to 65!!

Ugh, so that's where I've been, working, driving kidlets around, and my new crafty obsession (read below). That and reading. I have some wonderful new books to share in a post later this week. I need to get a job at Half Price Books - that or buy stock in them.

Ok, ok, so I finally remember to take a picture of my pink hair. I have totally cropped this picture because #1 my hair looked like crap that day, and #2 I had not bathed when I took the picture, so you get to a see a small section of my pink hair. Enjoy, lol! I'm thinking of changing colors when I get my hair done in a couple weeks, for some reason blue has been calling my name...I'm not sure why.



So my mother, the craft ADHD lady that she is, taught me a new craft. She learns all these totally awesome crafts, buys all the supplies, then she quits making the stuff and I steal all her supplies. It's a great thing for moi, her - not so much, lol. Or maybe she quits making them because I steal her supplies....hmm? I'm not sure. Though I do have a little story about being 3 months pregnant, and my mom wanted to sew the entire nursery for my first born, and so we bought TONS of fabric and what happened? Well, let's just say...my child was 5 yrs old when my mom finally finished the crib quilt. The one and only thing that came from all the fabric. Then she gave me the rest to sell on eBay.

Anyway, so she taught me how to make Altered Domino's with alcohol inks and I've become obsessed. Forget sewing...I LOVE making these things. So here are a couple of my faves. Sorry it's kinda dark, my dear husband has lost my Corel Suite software - though he told me he was putting them somewhere for safekeeping when we got new carpet, he now has no idea where that was.







When I have about a dozen made up in the next week or so, I am going to finally open up my Etsy store.

Oh and yes I am not a total loser, I swear to the flying spaghetti monster that the nursing apron top is coming very, very, very soon.

And more books, of course!

So I haven't posted any reviews on books I've been reading. This one is the latest in my mission to read everything by Philippa Gregory. It's about Robert Dudley the rumored lover of Queen Elizabeth and their relationship and how he basically dumps his own wife for the new queen. His wife ends up depressed and dies. I'm still reading it, but I've started another book and haven't picked it up lately. I don't think it's as good as her other works. It seems a little ho-hum, nothing really scandalous is happening to keep my attention yet.
This is the book I'm reading now, and I can't put it down. It got really bad reviews on Amazon.com and I'm not sure why. I love Alice Sebold's works. I devoured Lucky, her memoir, and The Lovely Bones. I really like her writing style, and I like this new one, The Almost Moon, too. It's like a horrible traffic accident and you can't look away. I guess you could call it a train wreck. The first sentence of the book, Helen tells you she's killed her mother. And so far it's been just a trainwreck after that. I'm not sure she's crazy yet or not. Her mother was mentally ill her entire life and she hated her for it, and it seems at this point her mother was in her 80s and had dementia and it was somewhat of a mercy killing. I'm about 80% through the book and it's been a real page turner wondering if she's going to get caught or what. I have really enjoyed it and so far haven't agreed with the crap reviews for it on Amazon.