Category Archives: cheese

Mandarin Orange Risotto

9 February 2012 by local kitchen

On the off chance that you’re tired of marmalade recipes (Never fear marm-fans: there are more recipes coming down the Pike!), a fresh twist (Ha! Twist! Do you see what I did there?) on citrus: Mandarin orange-infused risotto. Oranges can be tough to cook with: they are sweet and delicious, but without the assertive tang of a lemon, the flavor can be easily lost, especially in savory cooking. However, that should not preclude us from trying: the flavor of oranges, especially […]

Categories: appetizer, cheese, citrus, main course, rice, side dish, thyme, winter • Tags: citrus, cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian, 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

Potato Leek Gratin

14 January 2012 by local kitchen

My girlfriend Christina grew up in Schoharie County, NY: home of Howe Caverns, tragic flood damage, and the Fabulous Beekman Boys. While she was home for the holidays, she picked me up the Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook for Christmas. It’s chock full of seasonal recipes, using homegrown and local ingredients, handed down through the generations and adapted by the Beekman Boys, all on a farm only a couple of hours from here. Be still my local-girl heart. Coincidentally, I had recently read the […]

Categories: 100% local, cheese, fall, leek, milk, potato, side dish, vegetarian, winter • Tags: cooking, food, leeks, local, potatoes, recipes, vegetarian, winter

Chicken Pot Pasties

27 November 2011 by local kitchen

We visited family in Maine for Thanksgiving and while I was happy to leave the task of roasting a 30-lb turkey to Tai’s Aunt Sue, I’m sort of bummed that I don’t have mountains of turkey leftovers to work my way through. Because this recipe was fantastic with cooked chicken but I’m sure would be equally wonderful with turkey: and with leftover Thanksgiving turkey gravy, some roasted carrots, creamed onions, maybe slivered green beans, you could create the entire filling from […]

Categories: 100% local, carrot, celery, cheese, chicken, fall, main course, pastry, pie, snack, thyme, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: chicken, food, hand pies, local, lunch, pasties, pastry, recipes, turkey

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

Stovetop Mac and Cheese

6 November 2011 by local kitchen

One of the great things about writing a food blog is that you have a handy, online, personal cookbook: it travels with you wherever you go; it’s searchable by ingredient, recipe type, season; your personal recipe notes are preserved so that you don’t make the same mistakes twice. It’s brilliant really, except…. during a power outage. In the classic human condition of wanting-what-we-can’t-have, I often find myself, when the power is out, craving baked things: chocolate chip cookies, freshly baked bread, buttermilk […]

Categories: 100% local, cheese, fall, main course, pasta, vegetarian, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, dinner, food, local, pasta, recipes, vegetarian

Baked Gobetti with Cauliflower, Grape Tomatoes & Chorizo

26 October 2011 by local kitchen

This is one of those recipes that I had no intention of posting here: I mean, tossing leftovers with pasta and baking it all together is quick, convenient, often delicious, but hardly revolutionary. You don’t really need me to tell you that some meat, vegetables and cheese, tossed with pasta and baking until bubbly, is almost sure to be a crowd pleaser. But this dish was so surprisingly good I decided that I had to share. I didn’t really have high […]

Categories: 100% local, cauliflower, cheese, fall, main course, pasta, pork, sausage, thyme, tomatoes • Tags: cooking, food, local, main course, pasta, quick & easy, recipes

Roasted Butternut Squash, Red Pepper & Rosemary

12 October 2011 by local kitchen

I’ve been making this dish for about a million years. Maybe a million and one. Even in the days when I didn’t really cook, living in Manhattan or in my teeny-tiny, 350-square-foot apartment in Boston’s North End, I would whip this up when Fall arrived, as a potluck dinner contribution or for a family Thanksgiving. I’m not quite sure why it’s never made it to these (hallowed) pages: maybe because I’ve been making it so long, it has ceased to […]

Categories: 100% local, bell pepper, cheese, fall, parsley, rosemary, side dish, winter, winter squash • Tags: cooking, food, holiday, local, pumpkin, recipes, sides, squash, strawberries, vegetarian

100% Local: Zucchini & Chard Gratin

15 August 2011 by local kitchen

Two down, one to go: my quest to use up the CSA chard (before more gets delivered on Wednesday) is proceeding apace. This zucchini gratin recipe from Simply Recipes came across my reader the other day and well: cheese, bacon, onions, garlic? Even the zucchini-weary can get behind that plan. I made a few changes of course: I cut the recipe roughly in half, since only one of our household will consume the “Evil Weed.” (Since I do the cooking, […]

Categories: 100% local, cheese, kale & leafy greens, parsley, side dish, summer, year round, zucchini • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, sides, zucchini

Twice-Baked Potatoes with Chard & Garlic Scapes

8 August 2011 by local kitchen

I don’t know about you, but this time of year I usually start craving complex carbs like mad: bread, pasta, crackers; I can’t keep enough of them in the house. I think it’s because the vegetables just keep rolling in: the fridge is stuffed full of leafy greens, summer squash, bell peppers, green beans, and corn on the cob, not to mention the piles of tomatoes on the counter and the fruit! It’s an amazing time of year for a local […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, cheese, garlic, kale & leafy greens, main course, parsley, potato, side dish, summer, thyme, vegetarian, year round • Tags: chard, cooking, food, local, potato, recipes, vegetarian

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

Bite-Sized Spaghetti Nests with Chard & Bacon

24 June 2011 by local kitchen

I’ve been participating in an informal food photography contest for a couple of months now on professional food photographer Dario Milano’s blog Food Pixels. Our growing crew of bloggers, photographers and foodniks is pretty talented and it’s always interesting to see how different people interpret each ‘assignment.’ The latest contest challenge is “spaghetti:” a broad topic to be sure, but also an interesting photographic challenge, as most spaghetti dishes are messy, saucy, ultra-casual. Since for the last assignment (“brown food“) I […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, cheese, holiday, kale & leafy greens, oregano, pasta, pork, year round • Tags: appetizers, bacon, cooking, food, greens, local, pasta, recipes

Ramp & Asparagus Frittata

2 May 2011 by local kitchen

Have you ever spent an entire day in a jumpy house with a 7 year-old? Let me just tell you, for the sake of science, that it is possible to pull every sinlge muscle in your body at the same time, especially when, inspired by giggling, 7 year-old cries of “Do it again!,” you demonstrate your NBA-style, windmilling slam dunk on the jumpy house baskbetball net about 847 times. My friend Kami celebrated her 7th birthday a couple of weeks ago […]

Categories: 100% local, asparagus, breakfast, cheese, chives, eggs, leek, main course, parsley, scallions, spring, vegetarian, wild foods • Tags: asparagus, breakfast, brunch, cooking, eggs, food, local, ramps, recipes, vegetarian

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

Dark Days: Crispy Baked Potato Skins

25 January 2011 by local kitchen

So, I hear that some large men in tights are going to be chasing a pointy ball around a grid-ironed field in a couple of weeks. Or at least, that seems to be what is going on in between the important parts: the commercials. If you, like most of America, are planning to gather with friends, watch commercials, keep a weather eye peeled for wardrobe malfunctions, and occasionally attest loudly that the team closest to your geographical region is much better than the losers on the other side of […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, cheese, Dark Days Local, fall, pork, potato, roasting, sausage, vegetarian, winter, year round • Tags: appetizer, cooking, food, local, potato, recipes, super bowl