Category Archives: herbs

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

Goat Cheese & Herb Gougeres

1 September 2009 by local kitchen

“Real” cooking: [reel kook-ing] adj., verb; techniques and skills used in preparing food that should have been learned, at culinary school, at your grandmother’s knee, from a dedicated chef-type friend or a really detailed cookbook, before you tried to wing it, in your usual slapdash fashion, without having a clue what you were doing. So, do you know what a gougere is? I didn’t. Not until some determined Googling informed me that a gougere is a savory puff pastry, made […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, baking, breads, cheese, parsley, pastry, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, recipes

Preserving Herbs

30 August 2009 by local kitchen

Don’t let those overflowing garden herbs go to waste – with some easy preserving ideas, you can enjoy flavorful herbs all winter long. ————————————————————- Preserving Herbs FREEZE Basics: Follow the instructions for freezing vegetables, namely a quick blanche in boiling water followed by a ice-water bath. Dry thoroughly, then freeze, either on the stem, loose leaves, or chopped, spooned into ice cube trays, and covered with filtered water or olive oil. Also see a recipe for Chile Verde Base, which […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, drying, fall, freezing, herbs, preserving, summer • Tags: cooking, food, homesteading, local, preserving, recipes

Summer Tomato Risotto with Mint

26 August 2009 by local kitchen

I had a bunch of tomatoes, from the weekend’s farmer’s market, from the CSA, and a few stragglers from my garden that escaped the blight, but I just couldn’t get inspired by the thought of making a big batch of pasta sauce. So I did the next best thing, a light, delicious, summery risotto with fresh tomatoes and the zing of garden mint. This one’s a keeper! Adapted from Fresh Tomato Risotto in The New Basics by J. Rosso and […]

Categories: appetizer, basil, main course, mint, rice, summer, tomatoes • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, tomatoes

Canning Carrots

22 August 2009 by local kitchen

For the past week or two, I’ve noticed in the “search engine terms” section, where I get to see the sometimes wacky ways that people surf their way to my blog, multiple searches for “canning carrots hot water bath.” This concerns me, because, if people wanted to pickle carrots, I would think they would search for “pickled carrots” and other than pickling (and other high-acid jams/chutneys/preserves), there is no safe way to can carrots in a boiling water bath. Carrots, […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, carrot, dill, fall, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, food, homesteading, local, preserving, recipes

Classic Bruschetta

19 August 2009 by local kitchen

Bruschetta is one of those dishes: it has as many variations as cooks who make it. I’ve seen recipes with bell peppers, capers, anchovies, olives, sage & thyme, cilantro and chives. In the end, I prefer a classic combination: fresh off the vine, sun-ripened tomatoes, garlic, shallot and basil. Since there are so few ingredients it’s imperative that each of them be at the peak of quality: I like this dish best with my own garden tomatoes, harvested in the afternoon when […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, basil, sauces, summer, tomatoes, vegetarian • Tags: appetizers, cooking, food, Italian, local, recipes, sides, tomatoes

Sausage Bread Redux

14 August 2009 by local kitchen

OK, seriously, I know it’s hard to believe, but this bread tastes better than it looks. Scout’s honor. Spicy Italian sausages, sauteed onions & garlic, sun-dried tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, all wrapped inside herb-filled whole wheat bread. I’m drooling, but I can’t have any yet, because this bread is destined for a Very Special Occasion: my bachelorette party up in the Catskills this weekend. A dozen girls, (at least) a dozen bottles of champagne, a hot tub and sausage bread. And […]

Categories: baking, basil, breads, cheese, herbs, pork, sausage, tarragon, thyme, tomatoes, year round • Tags: baking, bread, cooking, food, local, recipes

Fresh Cantaloupe Salsa

10 August 2009 by local kitchen

After a cool, damp weekend, with honking geese flying overhead each evening, it felt like an early winter was knocking at the door. Lo and behold my surprise to wake up this morning to sticky humidity and a forecast of 88 degrees! I guess summer is not completely done with us yet. This fresh salsa is exactly what the doctor ordered for a sticky, hot August summer day: cool, crisp, tasty and takes about 10 minutes to prepare, with not […]

Categories: 100% local, cilantro, hot chile peppers, melon, quick & easy, side dish, summer • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, salad

Lime & Peanut Cole Slaw

8 August 2009 by local kitchen

We’ve been drowning in cabbage this season; with the cool days and plenty of rain, cabbages are growing to enormous size and there is one nearly every week in our CSA. Today I had no less than 5 heads of cabbage in the fridge: one I gave to our neighbors, two I put into another batch of Christina’s soup (this one with lots of fresh cilantro, green beans and broccoli, yum), and with another I made Lime & Peanut Cole Slaw. […]

Categories: cabbage, cilantro, citrus, hot chile peppers, salad, side dish, summer, tomatoes, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, salad, slaw

Basil-Sage Pesto

6 August 2009 by local kitchen

I love me a good basil pesto. It is one of those recipes in which the sum is so much greater than the parts, as if somehow basil becomes that much more basily in the presence of oil, garlic and spices. It’s also one of those handy condiments that are endlessly versatile, handling a simple crostini or a gourmet pizza with equal ease. To top it all off, it freezes really well and nothing brings back summer in February like […]

Categories: condiments, freezing, garlic, preserving, sage, spreads, summer • Tags: condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Cucumber Tomato Feta Salad

27 July 2009 by local kitchen

My cherry tomato plants are finally producing enough for a decent harvest. I collected two big handfuls (just under a pint) the other day and decided to make one of our summer favorites: crisp, cool and refreshing cucumber, tomato & feta salad. This salad is so simple that the ingredients completely make or break the dish: source the freshest, best-tasting vegetables you can find. Sample cherry tomatoes at the farmer’s market. Look for cucumbers that are firm and heavy for their […]

Categories: basil, cheese, cucumber, salad, side dish, summer, tomatoes • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, salad

Seriously Minty Mint Pesto

24 July 2009 by local kitchen

I’ve been quite overwhelmed with fresh mint of late (not mint from my garden of course, given my complete inability to grow anything resembling an herb; finicky heirloom tomatoes from [the country formerly known as] Czechoslovakia? Check. Basic garden basil? Not a chance.). Given all the rainy weather, it is not surprising that water-loving mint is doing well, but the big bunches keep coming in my CSA and there are only so many mojitos a girl can drink. I’ve dried […]

Categories: condiments, mint, sauces • Tags: cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

So what? Soba Noodles.

17 July 2009 by local kitchen

Scene: Sitting around the dinner table at Nadine, Stan and Kami’s house. Tai & Kami are arguing about something silly, as they often do. Tai: So? Kami: So what? Soba noodles! We now say this constantly; taking our social cues from a 5 year-old is apprently how we get our jollies. And we do – we giggle every time we say it. Much like a 5 year-old girl. This salad is cool and refreshing, tart and crunchy with a […]

Categories: Asian greens, cabbage, carrot, chives, citrus, cucumber, main course, nuts, pasta, peas, salad, scallions, side dish, summer • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, salad

Deli Dill Pickles

14 July 2009 by local kitchen

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 […]

Categories: canning, condiments, cucumber, dill, fermenting, pickles, preserving, summer • Tags: cooking, fermenting, food, local, preserving, recipes

Christina’s Garden Vegetable Soup

29 June 2009 by local kitchen

I’m not the biggest cabbage fan; too many boiled dinners as a kid, I guess. However, every summer we get a couple of ridiculously huge cabbages from the CSA – we have one in the fridge right now that is the size of my torso. So, not liking cabbage in general, and defnitely not a fan of either sauerkraut or cole slaw, what’s a girl with a ton o’ cabbage to do? I posed this question a couple of years […]

Categories: 100% local, cabbage, carrot, dill, fall, parsley, soup, summer, vegetarian • Tags: cabbage, cooking, food, local, recipes, soup, vegetarian