Category Archives: 100% local

Cranberry Sauce with Rosemary & Juniper Berry

12 December 2009 by local kitchen

This is a beautiful sauce, a gorgeous cranberry color flecked with deep purple bits of juniper berry. The juniper gives a hint of piney bite to the sauce while the rosemary adds a mellow, savory note. And I got to use the oh-so-cute, short & squat Ball Elite jars that I found up in Maine (they are impossible to find near me). The recipe is an amalgamation of several cranberry sauce recipes I’ve tried in the last couple of years, but was mainly inspired by this […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, cranberries, fall, holiday, preserving, rosemary, sauces, wine, beer & liquor, winter • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, cranberry, food, local, preserving, recipes

Apple Pectin Stock

8 December 2009 by local kitchen

When you are busy making all of those holiday apple pies, butters and desserts, don’t throw out the apple peels! Make apple pectin stock instead, and next summer you’ll be able to make 100% local jam with your homemade pectin. Sweet. Adapted (barely) from Homemade Pectin at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial ————————————————————- Apple Pectin Stock INGREDIENTS apple “leavings” (peels, cores and leftover bits from pie, jam or apple butter making, frozen is fine) filtered water METHODS Put apple leavings […]

Categories: 100% local, apples, canning, jams, preserving, stock • Tags: canning, cooking, food, homesteading, local, preserving, recipes

Dark Days: Goat Cheese, Chive and Cranberry Scones

29 November 2009 by local kitchen

I had every intention of making a local dinner of Flying Pigs pork cutlets stuffed with CSA frozen arugula, Nettle Meadow chevre and Cranberry Hill organic cranberries. Tai was drooling at the mere thought. However, as the afternoon waned I realized that I was just not in the mood for meat, even though the pork was thawing away on the counter. So I stuck Flying Pigs back in the fridge for tomorrow and made the same basic flavors (and ingredients) into […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, breads, breakfast, cheese, chives, cranberries, Dark Days Local, fall, herbs, quick & easy, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, whole grain breads

Dark Days: Apple Cider Chicken with Sage Mashed Potatoes

21 November 2009 by local kitchen

About a week ago, I signed up for the Dark Days Challenge, hosted by food blogger (not so) Urban Hennery, in which locavores strive to keep in touch with their local foodshed throughout the long, cold, dark days of winter and to “cook one meal each week focused on SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients” and write about it on their blogs. Shouldn’t be such a challenge for a self-styled Local Kitchen blogger, no? Well, you might be surprised. Atlhough I have a chest freezer stocked full […]

Categories: 100% local, apples, chicken, Dark Days Local, fall, main course, sage, tomatoes, whole wheat flour, winter • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Local Thanksgiving

19 November 2009 by local kitchen

What are your Thanksgiving plans? Do you host a big dinner, take charge of the turkey, and pester the neighbors for extra dining room chairs? Do you travel to an aunt’s, uncle’s or grandmother’s house? Maybe you are in college and can’t wait to get home to Mom’s cooking (and to do laundry, of course). Maybe you are a newlywed and planning your first Thanksgiving dinner at home, for just the two of you. One of the nice things about […]

Categories: 100% local, fall • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes

Spicy Black Bean & Chickpea Soup

2 November 2009 by local kitchen

When it comes to habanero peppers, I never seem to learn. I always think, “Well, it’s a small pepper, and I’ll take all the seeds out – it won’t be too spicy.” Yep. That’s what I always say, usually about an hour or two before I’m pawing through the cupboards, looking for an additional something that will absorb a bit of the excess heat. Tonight was no exception. I set out to a make a spicy, but not killer-spicy, black bean soup. […]

Categories: 100% local, beans, chickpeas, cilantro, fall, hot chile peppers, soup, tomatoes, vegetarian, winter, year round • Tags: black bean, cooking, food, local, recipes, soup, vegetarian

Easy Chicken Stew

23 October 2009 by local kitchen

We’re baaaaaaaaack! There’s just nothing wrong with a month-long honeymoon exploring the wonder that is British Columbia. Eventually, I have a post planned on all the various wonderful places we ate in BC, but for now, I am totally thrilled to be back in my kitchen. I really did miss cooking. Although we did rent a few places with full kitchens in our travels, there was just never time for real cooking in between the hiking, drinking, kayaking, partying, biking, […]

Categories: 100% local, beans, chicken, chickpeas, corn, fall, hot chile peppers, kale & leafy greens, main course, potato, rice, spring, stew, winter, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, local, recipes

Kaela’s Garlic-Herb Mashed Potatoes

17 October 2009 by local kitchen

In my senior year of college, my friends and I were scattered about various off-campus rental houses in the neighborhoods surrounding the university. We used to gather for big, casual pot-luck dinners; lots of pasta, huge bags of snack food liberated from the school cafeterias, and boxes of wine. Today, it makes me shudder to think of drinking white zinfandel, let alone zinfandel in a box, but my memories of those dinners are always happy: lots of food, friends, music, movies […]

Categories: 100% local, herbs, potato, side dish, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, potatoes, recipes, sides

Apple Cider Vinegar

13 October 2009 by local kitchen

If you’re not on your honeymoon in the wilds of Canada, Fall is a great time to begin brewing up a batch of apple cider vinegar. Take advantage of inexpensive, freshly pressed apple cider available at orchards and farmer’s markets all through the Fall, and ferment it to make a delicious cider vinegar to use all year long. Adapted from instructions on the Apple Cider Vinegar Benefits website. Apple Cider Vinegar INGREDIENTS & EQUIPMENT a 1 […]

Categories: 100% local, apples, vinegar • Tags: cooking, food, homesteading, local, preserving, recipes

Chile Verde Base

29 September 2009 by local kitchen

Throughout the year, I make a kick-ass chile verde, a Mexican stew of roasted tomatillos, jalapeño peppers, cilantro, garlic and slow-cooked pork shoulder. My recipe is only slightly adapted from Elise’s version on Simply Recipes, courtesy of her friend Arturo Vargas, and it’s a staple over the long, cold months of winter. Tomatillos, however, the main ingredient in the vegetable base, have a short season here in the Northeast: they ripen at the tail end of tomato season and, if […]

Categories: 100% local, cilantro, fall, freezing, hot chile peppers, preserving, summer, tomatillos • Tags: cooking, food, local, Mexican, preserving, recipes, tomatillos

Dried Nectarines

23 September 2009 by local kitchen

I know, lame right? How many times can I tell you how to dry fruit? Yes, yes, Kaela, we get it; slice it and stick it in the dehydrator. Wait awhile. Eat. But if you were flying to Calgary in 3 days (3 days!!) to get married, and spend a month honeymooning in British Columbia, and subsequently had 7,000,000,000,000 things left to do before you left… you’d not find a lot of time for making nectarine chutney either. So, yes, this is […]

Categories: 100% local, drying, peaches, preserving, summer • Tags: cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Honey-Spiced Peaches

18 September 2009 by local kitchen

Even as orchards are filling up with early-season apples, peaches are still coming off the trees, and are in abundance at local farmer’s markets. Check out a local orchard this weekend, enjoy a peep at the early-season foliage, and stock up on some of the last of the year’s summer fruit. This is an easy way to preserve the bounty and enjoy the delicious flavor of peaches all year long. Not the peach recipe you’re looking for? Click here for more things to do with peaches. Adapted […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, fruit, peaches, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Fresh Peach Salsa

13 September 2009 by local kitchen

Can you tell I’ve had a lot of peaches in the house? And there are still nectarines in the fridge… stay tuned. Tai’s first comment on tasting this salsa was “How can this be possible?” Followed shortly by “Maybe I’ve just never had a good peach before.” Granted, Tai is not difficult to please (one of the reasons he is so much fun to cook for), but I have to agree with him – this salsa came out really good. Fresh, […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, cilantro, citrus, fruit, hot chile peppers, peaches, quick & easy, side dish, summer • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes

Peach Cascabel BBQ Sauce

11 September 2009 by local kitchen

Cascabel peppers, also known as chile bola or rattle chiles, because of the way the seeds rattle around inside the small round dried pepper, grow wild on the Pacific coast of Central America and Mexico. In this country, you generally only find the dried peppers, or sometimes the ground powder. Last winter I bought a bag from Penzey’s, intent on making some recipe or other, which I apparently never made, so I had a mostly full bag of these little […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, hot chile peppers, peaches, preserving, sauces, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Tomato Sauce with Fresh Basil

9 September 2009 by local kitchen

Tomatoes have been scarce this year in the Northeast, so cheap, local tomatoes have been a bit of a pipe dream. But after a long holiday weekend of climbing with friends at the Gunks, Tai & I moseyed our way home on backroads to beat the traffic. In addition to a much more pleasant ride home, we got to stop at Dressel Farms in New Paltz and pick up some of their tomatoes, peaches, nectarines, Bartlett pears, Honeycrisp apples, and […]

Categories: 100% local, basil, canning, preserving, sauces, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes