It’s that time of year again: time for CSA boxes, gardens, market bags, and refrigerators to be stuffed to overflowing with curly, silky, spicy, bitter, tasty, nutritious and prolific leafy greens. Around here, we eat a ton of greens all year long: check out the recipes on the new leafy greens page for inspiration in tackling your own Green Mountain. Enjoy!
Categories: 100% local, kale & leafy greens, spinach • Tags: cooking, food, leafy greens, local, recipes
Pumpkin spanakopita, bitches! Today the US men’s national soccer team kicks off the real deal of World Cup qualifying: The Hex. Ten games over the next eight months that will determine whether or not we go to The Big Show: Brazil 2014. The stakes are high, our fate is uncertain: of course I am nervous. So I am psyching myself up by watching inspiring US Soccer commercials, tacking “bitches!” (complete with obligatory fist pump) onto everything I say, and… making […]
Categories: appetizer, cheese, eggs, fall, kale & leafy greens, vegetarian, winter, winter squash • Tags: cooking, fall, food, local, pumpkin, recipes, starters, vegetarian, winter
Back in my laboratory days on Mem Drive, when my co-workers and I felt like traveling further afield than The Sail Loft for lunch, we often ended up at Bertucci’s, home of excellent brick-oven pizza, addictive dinner rolls (hot from the oven!) and the infamous Bertucci’s Sausage Soup. I’ve eaten a lot of this soup in my day: in fact, the real battle in sitting down to lunch at Bertucci’s was in deciding between the delicious brick-oven pizza and the […]
Categories: kale & leafy greens, rice, sausage, soup, tomatoes, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, kale, local, recipes, sausage, soup
I’m back home (Grandma is doing very well, and has a pantry stocked with homemade granola, chicken soup and beef chili that should last until I get up there again) and working through a backlog of interwebs reading, when I stumbled upon this Hanukkah gem by Bubala Please: making latkes. I’ll warn you now: about every third word is a swear, so this is not safe for work (unless you have earphones) and there is liberal use of the term […]
Categories: appetizer, kale & leafy greens, potato, vegetarian, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, holiday, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian, winter
Tai had two of his four wisdom teeth extracted a few days ago. Given that most people have their wisdom teeth removed in their teens or early 20′s, it was not an easy procedure: Tai’s adult teeth and jaw did not give up easily. But give up they did, and though it’s been a painful few days for my poor husband, he’s enjoyed the side benefits of root beer floats, chocolate-cherry butter shakes and yogurt-blueberry-maple breakfast drinks. Of course, after […]
Categories: basil, kale & leafy greens, main course, oregano, potato, stew, summer, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, main course, recipes, vegetarian
Yes, you read that right: kaleslaw. Not coleslaw (which is somehow not called cabbageslaw. Hmm.). No gloppy mayonnaise, no pale green cabbage, no (for the love all things holy) raisins (Who’s brilliant idea was that anyway? Dear Person Who Thought Raisins in Coleslaw was a Brilliant Plan: We need to have a chat.). Just thin strips of bright green kale, crunchy carrots and radishes, toasted peanuts and sesame, all tied together with a bright, slightly sweet and just-a-hint spicy Asian dressing. I know, I know: […]
Categories: carrot, fall, kale & leafy greens, quick & easy, radish, salad, side dish, spring • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, salad, sides, spring
Two down, one to go: my quest to use up the CSA chard (before more gets delivered on Wednesday) is proceeding apace. This zucchini gratin recipe from Simply Recipes came across my reader the other day and well: cheese, bacon, onions, garlic? Even the zucchini-weary can get behind that plan. I made a few changes of course: I cut the recipe roughly in half, since only one of our household will consume the “Evil Weed.” (Since I do the cooking, […]
Categories: 100% local, cheese, kale & leafy greens, parsley, side dish, summer, year round, zucchini • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, sides, zucchini
I don’t know about you, but this time of year I usually start craving complex carbs like mad: bread, pasta, crackers; I can’t keep enough of them in the house. I think it’s because the vegetables just keep rolling in: the fridge is stuffed full of leafy greens, summer squash, bell peppers, green beans, and corn on the cob, not to mention the piles of tomatoes on the counter and the fruit! It’s an amazing time of year for a local […]
Categories: 100% local, appetizer, cheese, garlic, kale & leafy greens, main course, parsley, side dish, summer, thyme, vegetarian, year round • Tags: chard, cooking, food, local, potato, recipes, vegetarian
I’ve been participating in an informal food photography contest for a couple of months now on professional food photographer Dario Milano’s blog Food Pixels. Our growing crew of bloggers, photographers and foodniks is pretty talented and it’s always interesting to see how different people interpret each ‘assignment.’ The latest contest challenge is “spaghetti:” a broad topic to be sure, but also an interesting photographic challenge, as most spaghetti dishes are messy, saucy, ultra-casual. Since for the last assignment (“brown food“) I […]
Categories: 100% local, appetizer, cheese, holiday, kale & leafy greens, oregano, pasta, pork, year round • Tags: appetizers, bacon, cooking, food, greens, local, pasta, recipes
When I soaked the cannellini beans for pasta e fagioli last week, I used a whole pound, not thinking about quite how big runner cannellinis get (they are huge once soaked, up to 1 inch long!). I used only half a pound in the soup, so I had a lot of cooked cannellinis in the fridge, waiting for their day in the sun. I don’t know when I first thought of a pizza. I was musing on the idea of […]
Categories: beans, garlic, grains & legumes, heirloom beans, kale & leafy greens, main course, pizza, pork, sausage, spring, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: beans, cooking, food, local, pizza, recipes
It’s just a week shy of April, yet temps hover near freezing and the snow still flutters down to add to the 3 – 4 inches that accumulated over night. So, as much as I want to be noshing on crisp pea shoots, chive blossoms, pungent ramps and mild green garlic, it seems that Mother Nature is conspiring against me. Have you had Christmas lima beans? They are big, meaty beans with a firm texture and a flavor of chestnuts. As wintry as […]
Categories: apples, beans, heirloom beans, kale & leafy greens, main course, pork, spring, winter • Tags: cooking, food, local, main course, recipes, winter
Snowpocalypse 2010 dumped about a foot and a half of snow on us, as we snuggled cozy and warm in our little cottage, snacking on popcorn and watching cheesy movies in day-after-Christmas bliss. Today, although the winds still howled, the sun appeared along with bright blue skies, and we forced our way out the door against 3-foot snow drifts in order to shovel out. A couple of hours later, with a clear deck, stairs and driveway, lunch was definitely in […]
Categories: 100% local, chicken, Dark Days Local, hot chile peppers, kale & leafy greens, main course, potato, stew, tomatoes, winter • Tags: chicken, cooking, dark days, food, local, recipes, winter
Yesterday I scored a ridiculous amount of Spring bounty at the farmer’s market: asparagus and rhubarb, yes, but also ramps & fiddleheads, rainbow chard & curly kale, scallions, parsley & cilantro, two kinds of radishes (and of course the usual potatoes, onions and carrots). In addition to all that, thanks to Madura Farms’ greenhouses, I picked up the first Kirby cucumbers of the year, not to mention eggs, bread, butter, pork shoulder and sausage. Phew! I could barely stuff it all into the […]
Categories: canning, condiments, fall, kale & leafy greens, pickles, preserving, quick & easy, spring • Tags: canning, chard, condiments, cooking, food, local, pickles, preserving, quick & easy, recipes
As noted below, the original version of this recipe is what I call “restaurant fussy:” wherein almost every ingredient is cooked separately (using several pots & pans), then combined at the end. My tweaks made it not only easier to prepare, but tastier to boot: the orzo cooks in the chicken-wine broth, the chicken soaks up flavor from herbs & greens, the apple is added at the end for maximum crispness, and the whole thing comes together in a single […]
Categories: apples, chicken, herbs, kale & leafy greens, main course, pasta, spring, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, greens, kale, local, quick & easy, recipes
An easy way to use up leftover cooked beans, yet a delicious appetizer that tastes celebratory and rustic at the same time. A win-win! It’s been all flageolet beans, all the time, around here lately, but that’s what happens when you cook up a pound at once and then keep finding new ways to enjoy their deliciousness. This recipe is quite simple, uses basic pantry staples, and is a great way to use the tag ends of frozen kale or other leafy […]
Categories: appetizer, kale & leafy greens, quick & easy, spinach, spring, vegetarian, winter • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian
