OP: The Hippie Cookbook

The Paisley Shawl Publishing Co., 1970. Paperback. Very Good Minus. First printing.

You don’t have to be high to enjoy the timeless charm of The Hippie Cookbook (1970), though it certainly couldn’t hurt. A firm distrust of The Man, however, is encouraged, as “Any hippie knows the establishment does weird things to their food…”

In any case, it’s fair to say you haven’t seen recipe titles or instructions like these before. For example, Eat Your Light Show consists of four types of Jello (set in whatever containers you have handy) unmolded onto a glass plate. The final steps for the recipe include shining a light through the jiggling platter, turning on “some acid rock or electronic sounds,” and tripping out on the ceiling.

Mother’s Astrological Antique Shop Chilli Enchiladas—a fairly standard enchilada recipe, despite its name—is, apparently, the ideal dish for a Taurus.

The Welfare Check Day Celebration Dessert is a delightful concoction of chocolate mint candies mixed into vanilla ice cream, ideally served with hot coffee and “the best and newest sounds from London.”

Outside the delicious dishes are tips for cooking with your car engine, for the nomadic type, and how to effectively reuse “food containers and garbage,” like wearing beer cans as stilts for music festivals.

Honestly, we would quote the whole book here out of sheer delight, but it’s probably best to leave some goodies and cheeky wit for you to discover on your own.

Heavily illustrated and printed in psychedelic purple ink, issued only in oblong paperback, ours is a Very Good Minus example with general wear and several gift inscriptions in the front matter. Scarce. Ten out of ten, perfect cookbook.