Category Archives: non-local luxuries

Peanutty Popcorn Bars

16 May 2016 by local kitchen

If you haven’t been following along on Instagram (and if you’re not, don’t start now, as the recent lack-of-chronology algorithm will surely make you rant & rave bitterly about the vagaries of social media platform designers… oh, wait. That’s just me.) you may not realize just how obsessed I’ve been lately with cereal bars. Specifically, these no-bake peanut butter & cacao nib cereal bars from Dolly & Oatmeal. But of course, now that I’ve made approximately 687 batches of these […]

Categories: chocolate, grains & legumes, nuts, snack, year round • Tags: no bake, popcorn, snacks, whole grain

Beyond Canning: Gochugaru Preserved Lemons

24 March 2016 by local kitchen

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 […]

Categories: citrus, fermenting, fruit, preserving, quick & easy, winter • Tags: canning, citrus, cooking, food, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

fall-tabbouleh-with-pomegranate-and-feta

Late Fall Tabbouleh with Pomegranate & Feta

8 November 2015 by local kitchen

I bought a pomegranate at the supermarket the other day. Breaking news! Film at 11! I know: it’s hardly newsworthy. But it is a bit of a rarity around here; I don’t go to the ‘big’ market all that often, you see. Nearly all of my fresh food comes from a few local farms (Gossett Brother’s Farm Market, John Boy’s Outpost and Holbrook Farm being the biggies), while grains, nuts, oils, and the like I generally get at my little […]

Categories: fall, fruit, grains & legumes, herbs, mint, non-local luxuries, parsley, salad, side dish, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, salad

Spring Wheat Berry Salad with Lemon Sumac Dressing

29 May 2015 by local kitchen

Variety is the spice of life. Or so they say. But if so, it’s funny how often we stick to the tried & true, the comfortable familiarity of our regular routine. There are over 4,000 varieties of potato, 40,000 of rice, 30,000 varieties of wheat alone. How many varieties have you had lately? I’ve never cooked wheat berries at home. I’ve had them, of course; at restaurants, at potlucks, at the Whole Foods salad bar. But not often, surely. And […]

Categories: citrus, grains & legumes, mint, peas, salad, side dish, spring, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Blueberry Meyer Lemon Cake

8 May 2015 by local kitchen

See that cake up there? That was my breakfast. No one, including me, should try to tell you that cake is a nutritious option for breakfast – there is plenty of butter and sugar in there, after all, and those two aren’t exactly nutrient dense. Strangely enough, however, despite my rather non-nutritionally-stellar breakfast, I haven’t “crashed” this afternoon (fiber in whole grains delays absorption of simple carbohydrates and prevents spikes in insulin), I have managed to perform complex mathematical equations […]

Categories: baking, berries, breakfast, cake, citrus, dessert, snack, spring, summer, whole wheat flour • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Kami’s Cake 2015: Jimmie Cake!

10 April 2015 by local kitchen

Jimmies, people. Not sprinkles, not shots: jimmies. Said in your best South Park Timmy voice: jim-MAH. I went simple with the Kami Birthday Cake this year: 2 layers, basic cream cheese frosting, and lots and lots of jimmies. I opted for a quick-baking, no muss, no fuss chocolate layer cake from Molly at my name is yeh, though I swapped out hazelnuts for pecans because I’m ornery. And I was out of hazelnuts. [Though I will make that chocolate hazelnut […]

Categories: baking, cake, chocolate, citrus, year round • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, food, local, recipes

Oatmeal Cookies with Molasses & Bacon Fat

8 March 2015 by local kitchen

Bacon fat. In cookies. Why I have never done this before? It seems so obvious, especially with a cast of characters that is comfortable with the savory side of life: eggs, butter, flour, oats. I’m surely not the first person to think of this, as a quick Google will show you, but it seems it took the never-ending winter of 2015 to push me into Bacon Fat Cookieland. For that, my friends, we must offer up thanks. Thanks for the […]

Categories: baking, chocolate, dessert, nuts, snack, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, recipes

Cauliflower, Lentil & Rice Salad

9 February 2015 by local kitchen

Greetings from snowy, snowy Massachusetts. While I hear that very little in the way of snow is hitting the ground at home in New York, here in Gloucester, MA, the latest winter storm to assault the Northeast is alive and kicking. Hard. I’ve been here in my hometown, visiting my mother for a few days while she recuperates from a broken ankle (#snowmaggedon2015 strikes again!), and apparently the universe wants me to stay a few more days. Because I’m a […]

Categories: cauliflower, cilantro, citrus, cranberries, fall, nuts, rice, salad, side dish, vegetarian, winter • Tags: cooking, food, gluten free, local, recipes, vegan, vegetarian

Whole Wheat Citrus Cookies

29 January 2015 by local kitchen

Winter, and especially “historically epic” snow storms that are a total bust, requires citrus. And cookies. Or maybe the best of both worlds: citrus cookies. Now a glazed lemon cookie is hardly revolutionary. There are already 62 million recipes (no, really!) out there in the wide, wide world. But a couple of things make these cookies a bit unique: first, I made them with whole wheat flour. And that doesn’t mean that I added a ¼ cup of whole wheat flour […]

Categories: citrus, dessert, snack, whole wheat flour, winter • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Meyer Lemon Quichelets

21 January 2015 by local kitchen

Big box of Meyer lemons in the mail = Meyer lemon in EVERYTHING. For a few precious weeks, at least. This year is no exception: aside from the usual Meyer lemon in tea, in fizzy water, and in various boozier concoctions, I’ve roasted cauliflower & fennel with a couple of sliced Meyers, marinated chicken breasts in Meyer juice then broiled them with still more sliced lemon, perked up a chicken, black bean & vegetable soup, and made a Meyer version […]

Categories: appetizer, cheese, citrus, eggs, fennel, pastry, vegetarian, winter • Tags: cooking, eggs, food, local, recipes, starters, vegetarian

Cranberry, Chèvre & Pistachio Terrine

16 January 2015 by local kitchen

Back in the Fall, the folks at Lava sent me a bunch of their cast iron cookware to try. And even though a bunch of free cast iron sounds great on the face of it, initially I was leery: I told them that I’d be happy to test out their stuff, but that if I didn’t like it, I would not offer a giveaway nor recommend it to my readers; i.e. they were not going to buy my good opinion […]

Categories: appetizer, cheese, cranberries, holiday, nuts, winter • Tags: cooking, food, holiday, local, recipes, starters

Feta & Preserved Lemon Scones

11 December 2014 by local kitchen

My beloved New England Revolution played in the MLS Cup in Los Angeles last weekend. For the fifth time in a dozen years, the Revs battled it out in the championship game of Major League Soccer. For the fifth time, I jumped up and down in the stands; I clapped and sang, I rejoiced and cried. For the fifth time, I sat dejected in a stadium parking lot, nursing a beer with a few hundred die-hard New England fans, all of […]

Categories: baking, breakfast, cheese, citrus, parsley, snack, winter • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian, whole grain breads

What To Do with Preserved Lemon

1 December 2014 by local kitchen

Did you know that our good friend Sean of Punk Domestics fame is now the Food Preservation Expert over at About.com? It’s a really nice resource for All Things Preserve-y, and he’s been steadily adding new content. You should go check it out. And while you’re over there, you can take a look at the little guest post I put together discussing a bunch of different ways to use up preserved lemon, including links to various favorite recipes around the […]

Categories: citrus, preserving • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, winter

Fennel, Grapefruit & Feta Salad

19 November 2014 by local kitchen

“Oh no,” I hear you groan. “Now that she’s trying to lose weight, it’s going to be All Salad, All The Time around here.” Never fear, my pretties: I had gumbo for breakfast. It will be business as usual Chez LK, and though I will admit that my determination to halt middle-aged spread in its tracks may result in fewer bacon biscuits and more crunchy vegetables, bacon biscuits will always have a place in my heart. And my belly. But, […]

Categories: citrus, fennel, salad, vegetarian, winter • Tags: citrus, cooking, food, local, recipes, salad, vegetarian

Pumpkin Chocolate Marbled Bundt Cake + A Giveaway!

29 October 2014 by local kitchen

This post is in partnership with MightyNest, the online retailer with a positive mission: providing the natural, organic, and non-toxic products that families seek for their homes while also giving back to schools. MightyNest is sponsoring the giveaway and provided a set of the materials to me for review. Teflon in cookware is a bad idea: we don’t really need to debate this, right? When heated (which cookware occasionally is, cough), Teflon coatings on nonstick cookware can release a toxic […]

Categories: baking, cake, chocolate, dessert, fall, whole wheat flour, winter squash • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, dessert, food, giveaway, local, pumpkin, recipes