Category Archives: seasons

Meyer Lemon Cavatelli

22 April 2013 by local kitchen

I realize that I just talked about citrus-zest pasta a month ago, but I got such a lovely surprise in the mail last week: a big box of end-of-season organic Meyers from Karen at Lemon Ladies Orchard. Karen & I are by way of being friends: although we’ve never met in person, we interact frequently over social media, chat now and then on email, and when I confessed to her last year that I wasn’t quite sure what all the […]

Categories: citrus, drying, pasta, spring, vegetarian, winter • Tags: citrus, cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian

Put ’em Up! Fruit: Classic Blueberry Jam, Pan-Roasted Chicken with Blueberry Reduction, and A Giveaway

11 April 2013 by local kitchen

By now, you’ve heard about Put ’em Up! Fruit, the new book from Sherri Brooks Vinton, right? I mean, Marisa was dishing about it, as was Sean, and Autumn made the glorious sounding lemon, red onion & oregano jam. And with giveaways all over the blogosphere for the next two weeks, surely it won’t be long before you have a copy in your hot little hands. Right? When Storey Publishing emailed to ask if I’d like to participate in a […]

Categories: berries, chicken, jams, main course, preserving, quick & easy, roasting, Use it or Lose it!, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: canning, chicken, cooking, dinner, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Citrusy Red Lentil Salad

5 April 2013 by local kitchen

The last couple of days have finally felt like Spring in New York: bright sunshine, temps approaching 60 degrees F, tiny, pale green buds popping up on the trees and bright green new growth in our tiny patches of “lawn.” Amazingly enough, this run of warm, sunny weather is supposed to continue right through the weekend and into next week: could it be that Spring is actually here? (I wouldn’t lay bets that we’ve seen the last of this winter’s […]

Categories: citrus, grains & legumes, parsley, radish, salad, side dish, spring, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, salad, spring, vegan, vegetarian

Mexican Black Bean Pizza

2 April 2013 by local kitchen

I threw together this pizza for a quick lunch the other day. While homemade black bean pizza might not be your idea of “quick & easy” lunch fare, it mostly consisted of tossing together a bunch of already-prepared things: cooked black beans, par-baked and frozen pizza crust, salsa from last summer; and adding a bit of fresh veg and cheese. As it was, it took longer to preheat the oven than to put this pizza together and 20 minutes later […]

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

Rangpur Lime Tequila Bars

25 March 2013 by local kitchen

Using a cookbook is like dating: you get attracted by an aesthetically pleasing cover, spend 5 or 10 minutes checking it out, and then, almost on a whim, you bring it home. During that first recipe, you’re tentative, accommodating: trying to stay within safe boundaries, do it his (or her) way. A couple of recipes in, you’re ready to assert yourself: “No, that’s way too much sugar,” or “Boil for how long?” After about a half a dozen times together, most […]

Categories: baking, citrus, dessert, eggs, whole wheat flour, wine, beer & liquor, winter • Tags: baking, cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes, winter

Use It or Lose It! Drunken Cherry Chicken

20 March 2013 by local kitchen

In addition to my main stores in the garage pantry, I keep a small stash of jarred goods in a corner of one of my way-too-deep and inconveniently-high kitchen cabinets (the extra-convenient one above the fridge). I was pawing through the jars the other day (balanced precariously on the invaluable kitchen step stool), hoping I could avoid a snowy trip downstairs to pick up a jar of salsa, when I unearthed a dusty jar of drunken cherries: from 2009. Oops. […]

Categories: braising, cherries, chicken, main course, Use it or Lose it!, wine, beer & liquor, winter • Tags: cherries, chicken, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Rangpur Lime Preserves with Honey & Chile

16 March 2013 by local kitchen

Y’all know my friend, Shae, right? She of the fabulous jamz and the pigeon love? If you do, you may have heard that Shae was recently diagnosed with some form of IBD, a blanket term that describes inflammation and/or irritation of the GI tract, typically of autoimmune origin. While this diagnosis has sadly put the kibosh on Shae’s fledgling jam business, she has responded in typically optimistic fashion, telling me that she sees it as both a challenge and an […]

Categories: 100% local, citrus, jams, preserves, winter • Tags: canning, cooking, food, GAPS, local, preserving, recipes, SCD

Lemon Lime Linguine

6 March 2013 by local kitchen

I should be home by now. Curled up on my couch, exhausted from a long day’s travel, but happy to see my husband after nearly a week away, and excited by the thought of my own bed. Apparently Winter Storm Whatever-Silly-Name-We’ve-Picked-This-Week had other plans. I got up in the wee small hours of the morning, still dark outside, bleary-eyed from yet another fun night in San Francisco. My friend Christina graciously offered to drive me to the airport before she headed […]

Categories: appetizer, citrus, main course, spring, vegetarian, winter • Tags: citrus, cooking, food, local, recipes, spring, vegetarian, winter

Jacket Potato

27 February 2013 by local kitchen

My friend Christina was in the UK last week and she ended up in Windsor, by the castle. She snapped a pic of a pub we had visited last spring, whiling away a stormy afternoon (and a substantial hangover) with lunch and a pint, while the rest of our crew toured the castle. Just seeing a blurry, nighttime snapshot of the front of the pub brought me back to that afternoon: the warm & cozy (and dry!) wooden booths, the […]

Categories: 100% local, main course, potato, quick & easy, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, potatoes, quick & easy, recipes

Cook The Books! Chinese Porkstickers

22 February 2013 by local kitchen

I have issues, it would appear, with ground meat. Of the 500-odd recipes on this site, exactly one contains ground meat. It’s not something I’ve really noticed, but when I got around to thinking about this month’s Cook The Books (very late in the day, natch), it reared its ugly head. Because, you see, I wanted to participate: but I had not found time to scope out my tiny local library on the (extremely) off-chance that they would have Andrea […]

Categories: appetizer, pork, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: chinese, dumplings, food, local, pork, recipes

Toasted Israeli Couscous with Winter Squash & Preserved Lemon

10 February 2013 by local kitchen

Conversation I had with myself today: Me: “Can you still say “Israeli” couscous? I mean, is that kosher?” Myself: “Heh. Kosher. Get it?” Me: “You’re not helping. Is “Israeli” couscous still what we call it, or is that like saying “Oriental” when you’re not talking about a carpet? I: “Why don’t we call them Asian carpets anyway? How come oriental carpet is still OK, but oriental anything else is verboten?” Myself: “Well, Asian tends to piss off India, since they […]

Categories: citrus, fall, parsley, side dish, vegetarian, winter, winter squash • Tags: cooking, fall, food, local, recipes, sides, winter

Pumpkin Spanakopita

6 February 2013 by local kitchen

Pumpkin spanakopita, bitches! Today the US men’s national soccer team kicks off the real deal of World Cup qualifying: The Hex. Ten games over the next eight months that will determine whether or not we go to The Big Show: Brazil 2014. The stakes are high, our fate is uncertain: of course I am nervous. So I am psyching myself up by watching inspiring US Soccer commercials, tacking “bitches!” (complete with obligatory fist pump) onto everything I say, and… making […]

Categories: appetizer, cheese, eggs, fall, kale & leafy greens, vegetarian, winter, winter squash • Tags: cooking, fall, food, local, pumpkin, recipes, starters, vegetarian, winter

Meyer Lemon Shortcake

1 February 2013 by local kitchen

I’ve been getting the most of out my Meyer lemons, if I do say so myself: one perfumed the cavity of this dancing chicken, some went into this marmalade, and this one, and yet another (cranberry + Meyer lemon) that I haven’t even told you about yet. I made this glowing, sunshiny Meyer curd, just to offset the drizzly, cold & grey January weather the other day, and then I candied one, with a bit of rosemary tossed into the […]

Categories: citrus, dessert, eggs, winter • Tags: citrus, cooking, dessert, food, recipes, winter

Cocked-up-a-Leekie Soup

24 January 2013 by local kitchen

Cock-a-leekie, cock-a-leekie, cock-a-leekie: it’s too much fun to say! Have you ever had cock-a-leekie soup? It’s a traditional Scottish soup, made of chicken stock, leeks and little else (except prunes. Ew.). Despite many business trips to Edinburgh in my past, and the fact that I am of Scottish descent (my maternal grandfather emigrated from Glasgow), I’ve never had it. If I had ever seen it on a restaurant menu, I probably would have ordered it (despite the prunes; ew), just […]

Categories: chicken, leek, parsley, soup, winter • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, local, main course, quick & easy, recipes, soup

Cook The Books! Dancing Chicken

17 January 2013 by local kitchen

Have you heard about Cook The Books? Meg at Grow and Resist and Briggs at Oh, Briggsy dreamed up a little challenge for 2013: cooking out of those big, heavy, paper-stuffed things you have crammed onto a shelf somewhere near your kitchen. Yep, that’s right: forcing us to crack a spine, rather than tip-tap-tappity through the Interwebs to plan dinner. The nerve! I do love cookbooks, despite the fact that I rarely follow a recipe. It’s just that my recipes are […]

Categories: 100% local, carrot, chicken, fall, potato, roasting, winter, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, local, main course, recipes