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Double Chocolate Ombré Cake {Kami’s Cake 2013}

25 April 2013 by local kitchen

For longer than I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve been making birthday cakes for my friend Kami. There have been successes (a fantastic strawberry-pink yellow cake with a piped frosting garden by Tai the Pastry Chef, a lovely golden orange mousseline cake with royal icing butterflies) and disasters (an attempt at this cake that looked, well, absolutely nothing like that, and the Great Kami Cake Disaster of Aught-Nine); regardless, there has always been fun and laughter, good food and love. And while […]

Categories: baking, cake, holiday, spring, Use it or Lose it!, year round • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, dessert, holiday, recipes

Rangpur Lime Tequila Bars

25 March 2013 by local kitchen

Using a cookbook is like dating: you get attracted by an aesthetically pleasing cover, spend 5 or 10 minutes checking it out, and then, almost on a whim, you bring it home. During that first recipe, you’re tentative, accommodating: trying to stay within safe boundaries, do it his (or her) way. A couple of recipes in, you’re ready to assert yourself: “No, that’s way too much sugar,” or “Boil for how long?” After about a half a dozen times together, most […]

Categories: baking, citrus, dessert, eggs, whole wheat flour, wine, beer & liquor, winter • Tags: baking, cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes, winter

Rhubarb Cherry Ginger Crumble (Gluten-Free)

4 June 2012 by local kitchen

So, you know what happens now, right? Twenty-five pounds of rhubarb from Grandma’s garden that I need to work my way through means all rhubarb, all the time for the next 10 posts. I’m contemplating changing the blog name to Rhubarb Kitchen. I jest, I jest. Mostly. I know that some of you out there are not so fond of the pink stalks (perish the thought), so I will try not to deluge you with too many rhubarb recipes in a row. […]

Categories: baking, cherries, dessert, oats, rhubarb, spring, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: baking, cherries, cooking, dessert, food, gluten free, local, quick & easy, recipes, rhubarb

Savory Cheddar & Chive Bread

4 April 2012 by local kitchen

Did you catch the awesome deal on Amazon last week? Two of Dorie Greenspan’s books, Baking and Around My French Table, for $6! As soon as David Lebovitz posted it, I snapped up two sets of books: one for me, one for future gifting. And posted it to my Facebook page, whereupon some of you lovely people snapped up your own copies. This is what social media is all about: $3 cookbooks! (OK. Not really. But still: a nice perk.) […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, breakfast, cheese, chives, quick & easy, snack, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian, whole grain breads

Blood Orange Curd + Bars

9 March 2012 by local kitchen

You thought citrus was done, didn’t you? You thought maybe, just maybe, I was going to get back to, I don’t know, eating locally? Oh, granted, I snuck some peel into this dinner, and added the last wrinkly kumquats to these roasted veg, but for the most part, it’s been All Quiet On The Citrus Front ’round these parts, for a few days at least. But the Ides of March are just around the corner (What?? Wasn’t it just Christmas?) and, what with […]

Categories: baking, citrus, dessert, whole wheat flour, winter • Tags: baking, bar, blood orange, citrus, cooking, dessert, food, recipes, winter

Mini Linguiça Drop Muffins

27 January 2012 by local kitchen

We interrupt this citrus-filled January for a horse of a different color: mini linguiça drop muffins! I had a dream about these muffins last night: spicy, smoky linguiça, sharp cheddar cheese, tangy buttermilk, nutty whole wheat flour. I woke up with my stomach growling, a woman on a mission to recreate my dream. (On a side note, when I’m actually dreaming about processed pork products, I think it’s safe to say I might have overdosed, just a wee bit, on citrus. […]

Categories: appetizer, baking, breads, breakfast, cheese, holiday, oregano, pork, sausage, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, linguica, local, quick & easy, recipes, whole grain breads, winter

Mom’s Lemon Pound Cake

23 December 2011 by local kitchen

As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t learn to cook at my mother’s knee: my Mom, in fact, doesn’t really like to cook. It’s just not her thing; raising three children that were extremely picky eaters might have had something to do with that (there’s only so much excitement to be garnered from Shake ‘n Bake chicken legs and frozen corn niblets, after all). But what she may have lacked in the exciting-dinner department, she more than made up for in […]

Categories: baking, cake, citrus, dessert, holiday • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, dessert, food, holidays, local, quick & easy, recipes

Filbertines

15 December 2011 by local kitchen

Do you remember the Buck Pets? You might if you, like me, spent most of the late ’80′s and early ’90′s in tiny, beer-soaked music halls, clad in combat boots and excessive amounts of safety pins (including 7 in your left ear: never doubt that I am an overachiever in all walks of life), reveling in what was arguably some of the best music of the last two decades. What does this have to do with cookies, you ask? Well, not […]

Categories: baking, dessert, gifts, holiday, snack, year round • Tags: baking, cookies, cooking, food, holiday, local, recipes

Freeform Rye Muffins with Red Onion & Farmstead Cheese

9 November 2011 by local kitchen

I feel like it’s been all-carbs, all-the-time around here lately, but I realize that I do this every year around this time: after a summer of free-flowing vegetables from the CSA and farmer’s market, not to mention eating & preserving of all of the season’s fabulous fruits, my body gets to October and suddenly wants meat. And bread. Hearty pastas with cheese and sausage, spicy beans and roasted vegetables. It’s finally cool enough to make keeping the oven on for an […]

Categories: 100% local, breakfast, cheese, thyme, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, breakfast, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Blueberry Crumble

2 August 2011 by local kitchen

Fruit this year seems to keep passing me by: I either miss the season altogether, or start frantically checking my local roster of U-pick farms just as the last of the berries/cherries/stone fruits are saying goodbye. Blueberries are no exception: I have yet to go blueberry picking and the season at Jones is winding down (I’m hoping to get there this week!). I’m less stressed about the blues, however, as I still have a couple of gallon Ziplocs in my freezer: I […]

Categories: baking, berries, dessert, nuts, oats, summer, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, blueberries, dessert, food, local, pie, quick & easy, recipes, summer, vegetarian, whole grains

Use It or Lose It! Jam + Cream Cheese Frosting

27 July 2011 by local kitchen

Nearly every year, I make at least two birthday cakes: one is for my friend Kami, a practically-grown-up girl of seven this April, and one is for Kami’s mother Nadine, who as of last weekend was old enough to have a seven year-old daughter but young enough to squeal with glee at the thought of birthday cake. I’ve had my trials (who can forget the Great Kami’s Birthday Cake Debacle of ’09) and my successes (the orange mousseline buttercream cake turned out particularly lovely) […]

Categories: baking, cake, cheese, dessert, jams, Use it or Lose it!, year round • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, dessert, food, frosting, local, quick & easy, recipes

Strawberry, Lemon & Rosemary Scones

25 July 2011 by local kitchen

On this blessedly cool and rainy Monday it’s a relief to get back in my kitchen after the doldrums of Hotpocalypse Week. And what better way to celebrate a return to baking weather than a scone? A little sweet, a little savory, and made with the very tail end of the season’s strawberries, there’s just nothing not to like about these little babies. But the best part? They’re not popsicles. Happy rainy Monday! Adapted from my Cranberry-Orange Scones, originally adapted from […]

Categories: berries, breakfast, rosemary, snack, spring, summer, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, berries, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, strawberries

Strawberry Yogurt Cake

30 June 2011 by local kitchen

My house has been invaded by ants. Not the big, nasty carpenter ants, but the tiny, black, almost-can’t-see-em sugar ants: we get them every June. It usually only lasts for a week or two: they congregate around the kitchen sink, for the water and the dropped crumbs, and I clean like a crazy woman and buy some ant traps, and they eventually disappear. Why June? I have no idea. Is this when they have a big population spike after the long, […]

Categories: baking, berries, breakfast, cake, dessert, grains & legumes, summer, whole wheat flour • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes, strawberries, whole grains

Coconut Granola Bars

13 April 2011 by local kitchen

I’ve had this granola bar recipe sitting in my post queue for months now, waiting for me to get it right. Sadly, I’m still waiting. I’ve made it a few times, and tinkered quite a bit: thick bars, thin bars, more sugar, less sugar, different fats, different amounts of fruit & nuts. Don’t get me wrong, these are tasty: a lot less dry and sawdusty than your typical grocery store “health” bar, and a lot less sweet than the candy […]

Categories: breakfast, grains & legumes, nuts, oats, snack, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, granola, granola bars, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian, whole grain

Use It or Lose It! Apple Walnut Parmesan Crumble

1 March 2011 by local kitchen

Sometimes I am lazy. Often, especially in late winter it seems, I just can’t work up the motivation to put together a fancy dessert, or even to roll out a pie crust (I blame the lack of Vitamin D). But, even in winter, friends come to visit, or Tai works a week of 15-hour days back-to-back and I can’t just crack open a box of Entenmann’s and say “Here you go, kids!” It’s just not my style. But I can do the next […]

Categories: apples, baking, cheese, dessert, fall, oats, quick & easy, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: apples, baking, cooking, dessert, fall, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian, winter

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Local cooking and eating in New York's Hudson Valley.