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Strawberry Rhubarb Jam, Two Ways

20 June 2009 by local kitchen

This year marks my third season of canning to preserve the harvest, but only my second year of making jam. Since I am no longer a jam-newbie, I decided that this summer I would experiment with trying to make some completely local jams & preserves, using no refined sugar or commercial pectin. Due to the metric ass-load of strawberries I picked on Wednesday, and getting some more rhubarb in our CSA, I had enough to make two batches of strawberry rhubarb jam, and […]

Categories: 100% local, berries, breakfast, canning, condiments, dessert, jams, preserving, rhubarb, spring, summer • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, rhubarb

Rose’s Strawberry Puree

19 June 2009 by local kitchen

Rose Levy Beranbaum developed a method for berry puree that involves extracting the juice, concentrating it down to one-fifth it’s original volume, pureeing the berry flesh and then adding back in the juice/syrup. This gives the puree maximum berry flavor without cooking the pulp, which tends to lead to a caramelized, sugary flavor rather than a pure berry flavor. While you could just puree fresh berries and call it a day, berries, and strawberries especially, contain so much water that the […]

Categories: 100% local, berries, canning, citrus, dessert, preserving, sauces, spring, summer, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, strawberries

Strawberries!

17 June 2009 by local kitchen

As in, 25 pounds of ’em. I went strawberry picking with my friend Alison today, up at Jones Family Farms in Shelton, CT. We both got a wee bit carried away; I picked about 25 lbs and she picked 20 lbs. But Jones Farm is so fun that it’s easy to get carried away; between the Berry Ferry (the flatbed truck that trundles you out to the berry fields), the little kids thrilled to find the perfect berry, and the […]

Categories: berries, community • Tags: berries, food, local

Whole Grain Blueberry Pancakes

12 June 2009 by local kitchen

I must confess: as someone who owns quite a few cookbooks (not exactly 101, but it’s getting there), and who actually does a lot of cooking, it seems odd that I don’t own the Joy of Cooking. I don’t own Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, I don’t own the Betty Crocker cookbook, I don’t even own Julia’s masterwork on French cooking. Considering that my cooking career began well before the Internet, it seems odd that I don’t have more of […]

Categories: 100% local, berries, breakfast, eggs, fruit, milk, summer, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: breakfast, cooking, food, recipes

Wild Blueberry & Grapefruit Scones

9 June 2009 by local kitchen

I still have some wild blueberries in the freezer, picked last August up in Minnewaska State Park. I also had a couple of pink grapefruits sitting in the fruit drawer, needing to be eaten soon. As my friend Melissa is coming up for a visit tomorrow, I thought it would be nice to have some yummy nibbles on hand, and scones are such a versatile nibble; perfect for breakfast, an afternoon snack with tea, or a meal-on-the-go in the car. […]

Categories: baking, berries, breakfast, citrus, dessert, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, recipes

Sunday Spring Cleaning: Trifle

14 April 2009 by local kitchen

OK, so I know it’s Tuesday, not Sunday. But I was away visiting friends for the weekend, and anyway, last week was rough in my kitchen. No cooking other than lots and lots of cake… (Also, I apologize for the lack of pretty pictures, but I still don’t have my camera back from Kami’s birthday party). Trifle is another of those things for which about a billion recipes exist. There are many good things about trifle: it’s truly quick & […]

Categories: berries, citrus, dessert, fruit, jams, jellies, peaches, spring, summer, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes

Kami’s Birthday Cake: A Cautionary Tale

13 April 2009 by local kitchen

Those who have been paying attention know that I had been testing cake recipes for Kami’s birthday cake, which was due for her birthday dinner, last Thursday. Well, let’s just be brief and say “the best laid plans of mice and men (and crazy red-headed baking chicks)…” Let’s just review the cakes I’ve baked over the last couple of weeks: A mini-version of the Pink Lady cake over at Smitten Kitchen. I cut the recipe to 1/4 of the original […]

Categories: berries, dessert, spring, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, disaster, food, local, recipes

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

6 April 2009 by local kitchen

I’ve been testing out cake (and filling, and frosting) recipes for Kami’s birthday celebration this Thursday. Kami is turning five years old this Thursday – and while her parents are certainly dear friends of mine, Kami and I are fast friends in our own right. She has very discriminating taste for an almost-5-year-old, so I generally try to pull out all the stops for her birthday cake. Not as easy as it sounds, when you consider that most “pull out […]

Categories: baking, berries, cheese, dessert, sauces, spring, summer, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian

Raspberry Chiffon

16 March 2009 by local kitchen

What to do when your thawed red raspberries have turned to mush. This intensely flavored chiffon was paired with a deluxe pastry pie crust and glazed blackberry topping; the resulting pie earned rave reviews. Adapted from Strawberry Lover’s Chiffon Pie in The Pie & Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. ————————————————————– Raspberry Chiffon INGREDIENTS 1 lb frozen, unsweeted red raspberries 2 tsp lemon juice 3 tbsp filtered or spring water 2 tsp gelatin 1/2 cup heavy cream 6 tbsp sugar, divided 1 […]

Categories: baking, berries, pastry, pie, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes

Glazed Blackberry Tart

11 March 2009 by local kitchen

It’s March and I’ve been cleaning out the freezer of last season’s bounty, preparing for the new season’s bounty that is right around the corner. One of the recipes I’ve been experimenting with is a glazed berry tart, using local berries from my freezer. The first version was a strawberry-black raspberry-wild blueberry pie with concentrated juices from each of these thawed berries; the berries were delicious, and the pastry stayed perfectly crisp, but the glaze was too thin (not enough cornstarch […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, berries, pastry, pie, spring, vegetarian, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes