Tag Archives: Coffeepot Cookbook

What would Kermit the Frog think about the Coffeepot Cookbook??

Kermit the frog and the coffeepot cookbook

What would Kermit the Frog think about The Coffeepot Cookbook? This is an important question. YOU may not think about it, but this is the type of question that keeps me up at night. Fortunately, I won’t have to spend time thinking about this particular puzzler any longer.

I got an email this morning from a gentleman named Seth, who, coincidentally is in Italy, and…well, I’ll let him speak for himself:

******

Hello,

My name is Seth. I have been living on the road for 10 years, touring with [from Walt: a live performance of popular children’s show which shall remain namelss]. I am in hotels 47-50 weeks a year. Most of the time, I travel domestically in the USA, but more recently I have been spending about 6 months a year internationally. I have been fixing meals in my room for quite a long time. Currently in Italy I bought a electric Kettle/ coffee pot and some metal lined (because I couldn’t find glass) Thermos(es). A vegetarian on my current tour handed me your book. Good read, very nice.

My schedule can have me work from sun up to sun down or three days off; I never know what shopping opportunities will or wont be available. I constantly look for what we call crate foods/ suitcase foods for days when there are no food sources available. Your book has given me some new things to try.

FYI when I am making pasta I take the dry ingredients and put them in the thermos ad boiling water and close it up for the time it takes to cook, freeing the Kettle up. We also use the American coffee maker to make soups (not run through but heated and water added to). Also the clothes Iron can make good sandwiches and if you are careful, cookies.

I don’t know how it fits into your diet but wakame seaweed rocks and in dryed form stores well, great for a bad shopping day meal vegetable.

Last but not least in your book you have a section on extra essentials, Zinc, Oil of oregano, tea tree oil, chlorophyll, and vitamin C. In what forms do you have them and how do you implement them into your food?

If I get any good pictures I send them your way.

Best Wishes,

J. Seth Leach

******

Thanks, Seth! Sooooo…..it seems a copy of my Coffeepot Cookbook has found its way to Italy, and at this very moment, may be keeping Kermit, Grover, or maybe even Miss Piggy alive and healthy for an appreciative crowd of kids in Italy! Isn’t that heart warming? >sniff<

Um, Seth? Would it be inappropriate for me to ask you, to um, maybe slip a mention of the cookbook into your dialog while you’re on stage? Like, I’m thinkin’ that when the Cookie Monster asks you for cookies, you can, you know, hand him an iron and some cookie dough, and tell him, “Things are going to be a little different around here, from now on, Cookie…thanks to The Jamaican In China’s Coffeepot Cookbook! Here’s your iron!”


Just a thought. Let me know!
No actual endorsement of the Coffeepot Cookbook by any celebrity is intended. Appreciated, but not intended.

First official review! (The Coffeepot Cookbook)

Because The Coffeepot Cookbook was inspired by my time in China, I gave ChinaTravel.net the first official review copy of the book. I just received an email from Aimee Groom, ChinaTravel editor, with my first official review: Yay!!! Thanks, Aimee.

“I wish I’d had a copy of The Coffeepot Cookbook back in 2009 when I lived four days a week in a back-of-beyond Nanjing hotel on a diet of spicy beef instant noodles and rice crackers! Feasible, functional and fun, the ever resourceful Walt has hit upon a genuinely great idea for the frugal and health conscious traveler and delivers it with his trademark humor. Plus he’s added a few new terms to the culinary lexicon along the way… silk-steamed spaghetti anyone?”–Aimee Groom, Editor, ChinaTravel.net


p.s. Nice work on the book, Walt! It’s a lot of fun!

 

Recipes from the Coffeepot Cookbook!

Addendum March 5, 2011: Great news! There’s actually now a Real Coffeepot Cookbook, inspired by the blog post below!

Okay, there’s something you need to know about me for when we hang out together for the Jamaican in Russia adventure: I take my diet very seriously. At the same time, I’m not ruled by my gut, at least not the same way other folks are.

So, when I say that I don’t eat meat, I don’t mean just for today. I mean yesterday, today, tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that. I’m not suddenly going to forget and take the piece of pork you’re offering me because YOU forgot that I don’t eat meat. (I had a hard time explaining that on a date in Xishuangbanna.) I’ve been vegan since 1992, so I mean never. It also means I don’t eat fish, because last time I checked, fish aren’t vegetables.

When I say I’m fasting, I just don’t mean “just for right now,” and then proceed to take the rice you’re offering because it’s after 5pm. When I fast, it means I’m not eating.

 And when I say I don’t eat MSG, or meat flavoring cubes or white sugar or table salt, that’s just what I mean.

 So, today as I slowly resume eating from my fast, I felt like I wanted something warm rather than the fruits I’ve been eating for the past 2 days.

 However, for reasons I’ve just stated, I won’t eat in a non-vegan restaurant, because I can’t be 100% sure that even though I request no MSG, no salt, no meat oil, no eggs, etc. I can’t be sure that the chef will honor those requests to my satisfaction.

So, even though there’s no kitchen in my hotel room I will still cook today, because I have…..wait for it….wait for it……The Coffee Pot Cookbook!

 That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, The Coffee Pot Cookbook by Walt F.J. Goodridge, healthy meals you can make with just a coffee pot and a little creativity! I had the idea for this back in Kunming, but didn’t get around to blogging about it, so now it’s time.

 Today’s dish is Walt’s Nomad Veggie Soup and noodles from Chapter 7 of the cookbook.

cooking in China, vegan in china, coffeepot cookbook

EQUIPMENT:
Electric Hotel Coffee pot (provided in most hotels)
Soup bowl (borrowed from the hotel front desk)
Knife
Spoon
Empty water bottle

organic food in china, coffeepot cookbook, hainan
bok choy not shown

INGREDIENTS (purchased from local supermarket; grab some extra plastic bags while there)
4L bottled water
Rice noodles (optional)
Bok Choy
tofu
scallion
Garlic
Ginger
Sea salt (ordered from iherb before leaving Xishuangbanna)

DIRECTIONS:
Before beginning the process below, If you’ve only got one bowl, you can pour hot water over dried rice noodles, let soften, remove from bowl, place in hotel teacup, and enjoy as a side dish or include in soup.


Wash bok choy, tofu and scallion with your bottled water. If no basin or pot is available, cut the top off a smaller empty 1.5L water bottle (shown) you’ve been saving in your room for just this sort of thing, insert vegetables, pour in water, cover with palm of hand and shake vigorously.

Finely dice garlic, ginger and scallion. If no cutting board is available, spread a piece of plastic (the extras you got from the produce section of the supermarket) across the wooden desk of your hotel room. Dice gently, then discard the sheet when done.

Dice tofu into cubes

Chop bokchoy

Place diced ingredients, tofu and bokchoy into soup bowl.

Boil water in coffee pot.

Pour boiling water over ingredients in bowl. Cover with plastic sheet or plate if you have one. Let simmer for a few minutes. Stir occasionally.

Add sea salt to taste.

vegetable soup with tofu hainan china vegan

Voila!

Enjoy!

(Total preparation time: about 10 minutes
EXPENDITURE (RMB):
tofu: 1.50
garlic: 1.20
scallion: 1.70
bokchoy: 1.00
ginger: 0.60
water: 10.0
noodles: 4.70
Total cost: 20.70RMB = 3.18US

Next time, we’ll make brown rice in a coffee pot. This could get messy.


Addendum March 5, 2011: Great news! There’s actually now a Real Coffeepot Cookbook, inspired by the blog post!