It’s been an easy eggplant year: we’ve only gotten a few pounds in the CSA this season, scattered over the last several weeks. After last year’s Eggplantocalypse, I’m grateful, especially with all of the traveling I’ve done this summer (although I have some friends who will lament the loss of quarts & quarts of eggplant bacon). Since Tai won’t eat it, and eggplant is not my favorite either, it’s a struggle to use it up when we get loads, but this […]
A couple of months ago, I bought an enormous bag of dried curry leaf from Mountain Rose Herbs. It was one of those things: I’m either just not thinking, or I forget how very light dried herbs are, and I buy a 4 oz bag only to end up with a bag of dried herbs bigger than my head. After the bag-of-oregano-the-size-of-my-torso incident, you would think I would learn. You would be wrong. The truly pathetic thing is, I know […]
I know: you’re so over ramps, right? And ramp pickles – gah! Everyone has done them (no, really, everyone) and I am late to the party. I might as well just post a cupcake recipe and have done. But, but, but…. well, I have no excuses. Except to say this: if this little jar of ramps waiting-to-become gets pushed out of sight in the fridge, hidden behind the massive bunches of rhubarb, the parsley and dill, the radishes and leeks; if it […]
CanJam July #2: a quick mini-batch of pickles, or an attempt to deal with the metric tons of summer squash currently taking over my refirgerator. Do you know Patty? She’s round & bumpy, bright yellow (or sometimes green), looks like a flying saucer? Yes, that one. She and her entire extended family have moved into my fridge, lock, stock and two smoking 8-balls. When a house guest over stays her welcome, I say, pickle ’em! Brine propotions taken from Marisa’s […]
I put these little beauties up right before I left for South Africa, since I knew that two big bunches of radishes would do nothing but wither and die in the crisper if they had to rely on my Darling Hubs to eat them. They have been pickling away, down in the relative coolness of the garage, for over a month now, so I figured it was about time for a taste test. First and foremost: I won’t pickle the long, […]
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 […]
Easiest. Canning. Ever. Really people, it doesn’t get much simpler than this. Shallots, vinegar, water, honey. A couple of herbs, you know, just ’cause we can. (Ha! Get it? We can! Ah, I slay me.) Pack it all in a jar, process for 10 minutes, and hey! presto! you’re a canner. Cross that off your life list. The devoted Local Kitchen reader (all 7 of you) may furrow your gentle brow, wondering why I would pickle shallots, knowing that I loathe all […]
Peppers seem to take forever to appear: like dreaming of strawberries in March, I start thinking of peppers when the first hot day comes around in June; then I wait, and wait and wait. My pepper plants were started way back in February. I’ve been harvesting jalapenos for a while now, but the red chile peppers are only just turning red, and the red bell peppers are still smaller than a tennis ball and dark green. All I can say […]
Have I mentioned that Tai loves pickles? I mean Loves them, with a capital L. I think making pickles last year may have been the best thing I’ve ever done for him. So, even though I despise pickles with a white-hot passion, when I saw Kirby cucumbers at the farmer’s market on Saturday, I simply had to pick up a bunch and start a batch o’ pickles brewing. Because, really, when it’s this easy to make someone happy, how can […]
Well, hellllllllllllloooooooooooooo there! It has been quite a while, hasn’t it? It seems I took an unintentional blog hiatus over the winter: life and work (and more life) and not quite having a lot to say all played their part. But breaks are good things, I think; and I’m feeling refreshed and ready to tackle new cooking projects, and more importantly, talk about them here! And what better reason to come out of bloggy hibernation than to celebrate the launch […]
Although the excitement of the Women’s World Cup reached a fever pitch with the US win, I’ve kept the soccer travels to a minimum this summer. After spending a good chunk of last summer in Brazil, I’m happy to watch more of my soccer on TV this year and focus my energies on other things: friends, family, cleaning the dad-blasted garage. But when the Gold Cup schedule came out and I saw that the US men’s team were scheduled to play […]
Yes, I’m well aware that you don’t need me to tell you how to make enchiladas. There are plenty of people who are far more versed in Mexican food than I. If you Google “enchiladas” you’ll get about eleventy billion hits before this one shows up. But that’s all good, because I’m not really here to tell you how to make enchiladas. I’m not here to sell you on a 30-minute “quick & easy” version, a 7-hour “authentic” version, the […]
Have you ever noticed how each season’s preserving takes on a life of its own? Sure, you have the standards that you put up every year: canned tomatoes, your husband’s favorite pickle, ears and ears of frozen grilled corn. But each season it seems a certain method of preservation wins the day. Either the canning pot is bubbling away non-stop, or you have six different crocks fermenting on the counter, or everything in sight gets spread out in the dehydrator. […]
Rarely do I meet a chutney that I do not like. Which is strange, because chutney is basically a pickle and I hate pickles. Hmmm. The exception that proves the rule, perhaps? At any rate, this chutney – this chutney with its adorable, tiny, yellow peach tomatoes, its subtle hint of sweetness, its lightly curried Indian flavors and just enough heat on the finish – this chutney is no exception. It’s simply lovely. I have to give it up for […]
I’m sometimes at a loss when it comes to green beans. I mean, sure: when I’ve got a handful or two, the way I will buy them at the farmer’s market, I’ll toss them into a curry or noodle dish, no problem. But often it seems, when beans are ready, they are READY: the harvest comes fast & furious, and we end up with two bulging gallon Ziplocs in the fridge, courtesy of the CSA (and of me avoiding green […]
