Category Archives: seasons

Quinoa & Red Cabbage Salad

12 November 2014 by local kitchen

True confessions: I am on a mission to lose weight. It’s an odd goal for me, to tell the truth: I have often trained to get fit in order to improve my performance in some sport or another – soccer, kayaking, rock climbing, hiking – but rarely do I simply want to change the number on the scale. In fact, I haven’t even owned a scale for at least a decade. I had to buy one recently in order to […]

Categories: cabbage, quinoa, salad, year round • Tags: 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

Preserved Lemon Hummus

23 October 2014 by local kitchen

Strange but true: I ate some of the best hummus in Brazil. Smack-dab in the middle of the Amazon jungle, to be exact, about 1000 miles from nowhere, otherwise known as Manaus. While I and my intrepid band of World Cup travelers endured a purgatorial stay at the Hotel Brasil (an establishment that made you wonder what heinous crime you committed in a previous life to get yourself stuck there) in advance of the second US match, we spent a […]

Categories: appetizer, chickpeas, grains & legumes, mint, quick & easy, snack, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cooking, food, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Mirepoix, Sofrito, & Soup Base for the Freezer

16 October 2014 by local kitchen

Have you ever noticed how each season’s preserving takes on a life of its own? Sure, you have the standards that you put up every year: canned tomatoes, your husband’s favorite pickle, ears and ears of frozen grilled corn. But each season it seems a certain method of preservation wins the day. Either the canning pot is bubbling away non-stop, or you have six different crocks fermenting on the counter, or everything in sight gets spread out in the dehydrator. […]

Categories: 100% local, freezing, preserving, soup, spring, summer • Tags: cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Figgy Granola Bars

8 October 2014 by local kitchen

Gettin’ figgy wit it. I know. That was bad. I apologize. Ahem. Let’s move on, shall we? A simple little granola bar with a base of dried figs, oats, and almonds. Inspired by the 5 ingredient granola bars at Minimalist Baker, but of course, I tossed that 5 ingredient thing right out the window, adding coffee (because: morning), pepitas (because: Fall!) and flax seeds (because: health!), not to mention salt (because: who makes granola bars without salt??). The real beauty […]

Categories: breakfast, grains & legumes, nuts, oats, quick & easy, snack, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Bacon Cheddar Biscuits

23 September 2014 by local kitchen

A certain wonderful husband is celebrating a birthday today. Since there is only one morning person in this house, last night I made him a batch of bacon cheddar biscuits so he would have something delicious and celebratory for breakfast. Once I tasted one, I knew I had to share the recipe here: delicious and celebratory they are. Also smoky, salty, rich, flaky: fabulous. Happiest of birthdays to my sweet love. And happiest of biscuits to yours! Adapted from $72 […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, breads, breakfast, cheese, pork, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, whole grain breads

Nectarine Plum Butter

16 September 2014 by local kitchen

I have a confession to make: this fruit butter sat on my stove, in the Staub, for three days before I managed to cook it fully down and get it into jars. My friend Tanya had pointed me to a recent article on the Kitchn about when a health inspector visited Faith’s kitchen, and I had to laugh: I had a sponge near the sink, half an apple that had been sitting on my cutting board for hours, and a […]

Categories: canning, fall, peaches, plums, preserving, spreads, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving

Roasted Heirloom Tomato Sauce

10 September 2014 by local kitchen

And the tomato recipes go rolling, rolling, rolling on. Last week I picked up a bushel of organic paste tomatoes from Fishkill Farms; at the same time, I got 20 lbs of heirloom paste tomatoes, a gorgeous red-and-yellow-stripey varietal with a deep magenta flesh, few seeds, and fantastic flavor. (I also grabbed some orchard nectarines, heirloom baby orange sweet peppers, NY maple syrup, and Flying Pigs‘ hot Italian sausage. Fishkill has a great year-round farm market, full of all sorts […]

Categories: canning, preserving, sauces, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, summer, tomatoes

Curried Yellow Tomato Chutney

7 September 2014 by local kitchen

Rarely do I meet a chutney that I do not like. Which is strange, because chutney is basically a pickle and I hate pickles. Hmmm. The exception that proves the rule, perhaps? At any rate, this chutney – this chutney with its adorable, tiny, yellow peach tomatoes, its subtle hint of sweetness, its lightly curried Indian flavors and just enough heat on the finish – this chutney is no exception. It’s simply lovely. I have to give it up for […]

Categories: chutneys, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, tomatoes

Garden-Busting Roasted Tomato Sauce

24 August 2014 by local kitchen

Is the garden erupting with end-of-summer bounty? Are the piles of CSA vegetables taking over your fridge and kitchen counters? Are you feeling as lazy about canning as I am this summer? Well then, you’re in luck! This easy-peasy roasted vegetable tomato sauce solves all those problems and more, in addition to the perennial question, “What’s for dinner?” While I am slowly (oh-so-slowly) surfacing from my post-World Cup funk (two loonnnnggg years before qualifying for 2018 starts), I can’t quite […]

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

Green Bean, Corn & Bacon Salad with a Chipotle-Lime Dressing

21 August 2014 by local kitchen

I’m sometimes at a loss when it comes to green beans. I mean, sure: when I’ve got a handful or two, the way I will buy them at the farmer’s market, I’ll toss them into a curry or noodle dish, no problem. But often it seems, when beans are ready, they are READY: the harvest comes fast & furious, and we end up with two bulging gallon Ziplocs in the fridge, courtesy of the CSA (and of me avoiding green […]

Categories: corn, green beans, quick & easy, salad, summer • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, salad

Fattoush

17 August 2014 by local kitchen

Fattoush. Fattoush. Fattoush. It’s just fun to say, no? Traditionally, fattoush is a Lebanese mezze, a salad composed of tomatoes and cucumbers, often radishes and green peppers, and some form of greens, usually purslane. It was also a type of Middle Eastern panzanella: a way to use up day-old stale pita bread, which was fried into crispy croutons and then tossed with a fragrant salad, flavored with the distinctive sour note of a sumac, lemon & olive oil dressing. In […]

Categories: arugula, cucumber, mint, parsley, salad, summer, tomatoes, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, salad, summer

Whole Wheat Lavash

13 August 2014 by local kitchen

Well: it’s been a sad, sad week in the world so far. First, yet another unarmed young black man, Michael Brown, is shot to death by police: anger, frustration and protests erupt in Ferguson, Missouri. Then, Robin Williams, who brought joy to so many, lost the ultimate battle against his demons. Tributes and stories, hundreds of fabulous stories, poured in from every corner of the internet. Then Lauren Bacall died. And there’s the unrelentingly rainy weather. And Israel-Palestine. And the […]

Categories: baking, breads, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, recipes, whole grain breads

Traveler’s Vegetable Curry

9 July 2014 by local kitchen

I’m baaaaack! Did you miss me? I spent three & a half weeks in Brazil, but it seems like months: everything is so green and lush at home, strawberries have come and gone (and maybe cherries too?), when I left school was still in session, but now it’s after the 4th of July and summer is in full swing. First things first: did you see the game yesterday?? My, oh my, oh my. Poor Brazil. I feel somewhat guilty (like […]

Categories: cilantro, main course, quick & easy, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Candied Ramp & Fennel Jam

13 May 2014 by local kitchen

Speaking of sugar: how about some candied ramp & fennel jam? Just a quick one today, as I am drowning in data and have been for days, but I took a half-hour lunch break to whip up this small-batch jam from a lovely bunch of ramps Tai brought home from Holbrook Farm the other day. With leaves finally filling out the trees, ramp season will soon be behind us as the sun gets blocked from the forest floor. I’m squeezing […]

Categories: fennel, jams, leek, quick & easy, spring • Tags: cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes