Category Archives: spring

Honey-Sweetened Rhubarb Rosemary Jam

15 June 2013 by local kitchen

At the farmer’s market this morning, I convinced a woman to buy the last of the rhubarb and freeze it for a pie. She was hovering near the rhubarb box and asked the vendor how long rhubarb would be in season. The vendor (clearly not a farmer, and new to the stand) said she wasn’t sure, but she thought the season was short (it’s not). I told the woman that rhubarb likes cool weather, so when it gets really hot, […]

Categories: canning, jams, preserving, rhubarb, rosemary, spring • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, rhubarb, sugar-free

Blubarb Jam

29 May 2013 by local kitchen

Blubarb. Bluuuuuuuuuuubarb. Sounds like a particularly dense cartoon pirate, doesn’t it? I picture Barney, in a white, puffy Seinfeld shirt and an eye patch. With a rakish sword at his side, of course (if he can find a sword belt to fit around that rather prodigious middle. He’s probably been eating too much blubarb jam.). So: blubarb. Blueberry + rhubarb = blubarb. Wild Maine blueberries, in this case, harvested last August, frozen, and sold to a grateful locavore, who missed […]

Categories: berries, canning, jams, preserving, rhubarb, spring, summer, year round • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, rhubarb

Rhubarb Crumble with Ginger & Meyer Lemon

13 May 2013 by local kitchen

There’s a great conversation going on over at the Facebook page today, centered on this vastly irritating op-ed in the New York Times stating that it is “nearly impossible for a single parent or even two parents working full time to cook every meal from scratch.” Let’s set aside the fact that people without kids, married or single, can find themselves too busy to cook just as often as their child-rearing friends, and focus on the real problem with the piece: […]

Categories: baking, breakfast, dessert, oats, rhubarb, spring, whole wheat flour • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Ramp & Sausage Lasagna

1 May 2013 by local kitchen

Spring has officially sprung in New York: buds are out on the trees, forsythia is in bloom, peepers are filling our twilights with their song, and I found rhubarb and ramps at the farmer’s market over the weekend. Even better than peepers & ramps, Spring has brought Miss Kate back to the ‘hood, with canning classes last weekend in Coventry, demos in Manhattan this weekend, and a few days of relaxing Chez Local Kitchen in between. I had the good […]

Categories: cheese, leek, main course, pork, sausage, spring • Tags: cooking, food, local, main course, pasta, pork, recipes

Double Chocolate Ombré Cake {Kami’s Cake 2013}

25 April 2013 by local kitchen

For longer than I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve been making birthday cakes for my friend Kami. There have been successes (a fantastic strawberry-pink yellow cake with a piped frosting garden by Tai the Pastry Chef, a lovely golden orange mousseline cake with royal icing butterflies) and disasters (an attempt at this cake that looked, well, absolutely nothing like that, and the Great Kami Cake Disaster of Aught-Nine); regardless, there has always been fun and laughter, good food and love. And while […]

Categories: baking, cake, holiday, spring, Use it or Lose it!, year round • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, dessert, holiday, recipes

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

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

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

Asian Kaleslaw

20 June 2012 by local kitchen

Yes, you read that right: kaleslaw. Not coleslaw (which is somehow not called cabbageslaw. Hmm.). No gloppy mayonnaise, no pale green cabbage, no (for the love all things holy) raisins (Who’s brilliant idea was that anyway? Dear Person Who Thought Raisins in Coleslaw was a Brilliant Plan: We need to have a chat.). Just thin strips of bright green kale, crunchy carrots and radishes, toasted peanuts and sesame, all tied together with a bright, slightly sweet and just-a-hint spicy Asian dressing. I know, I know: […]

Categories: carrot, fall, kale & leafy greens, quick & easy, radish, salad, side dish, spring • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, salad, sides, spring

Rhubarb Cherry Ginger Crumble (Gluten-Free)

4 June 2012 by local kitchen

So, you know what happens now, right? Twenty-five pounds of rhubarb from Grandma’s garden that I need to work my way through means all rhubarb, all the time for the next 10 posts. I’m contemplating changing the blog name to Rhubarb Kitchen. I jest, I jest. Mostly. I know that some of you out there are not so fond of the pink stalks (perish the thought), so I will try not to deluge you with too many rhubarb recipes in a row. […]

Categories: baking, cherries, dessert, oats, rhubarb, spring, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: baking, cherries, cooking, dessert, food, gluten free, local, quick & easy, recipes, rhubarb

Rhubarb Prosecco Jelly

30 May 2012 by local kitchen

Even before I brought home 25 lbs of rhubarb from Tai’s Grandma’s massive Maine rhubarb patch, I had begun the season’s rhubarbapalooza with about 8 lbs of gorgeous, fat and deeply magenta stalks courtesy of Madura Farm. Since the pale pinky-green stalks are far more common in New England, I pounced on these beauties, and knew that I would save them for preserves where color counts: rhubeena and jelly. Last year, when I was leafing through my new copy of Sherri Brooks […]

Categories: canning, jellies, preserving, rhubarb, spring, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, rhubarb, spring

Preparing for Preserving Season

14 May 2012 by local kitchen

This weekend, in addition to enjoying the glorious weather, getting to the farmer’s market, and finally getting my hands on some rhubarb, I did something strange: I planned ahead. Planning: it’s not something I do a lot of in my everyday life. Oh, I do it all the time in my work life: plans, and contingency plans, worst-case sceanario and best-case scenario. Every conceivable outcome of a study or analysis has to be considered and planned for in order to […]

Categories: preserving, spring, tools & gear • Tags: canning, planning, preserving

Saffron Couscous

30 March 2012 by local kitchen

Need a quick & easy side dish for dinner this weekend? Of course you do! Everyone always talks about quick meals for weeknight dinners: the dreaded “30 minutes or less!” And I can understand it: after a long day of work, traffic, kids and errands, energy can be in short supply, even for the most ardent home cook. Most of the time, I enjoy taking my time while cooking: I put music on the stereo, pour myself a glass of wine, and […]

Categories: grains & legumes, quick & easy, side dish, spring, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, side dish, vegetarian, whole grain breads

Pork Fried Rice

18 March 2012 by local kitchen

Now that St. Patrick’s Day is safely behind us, I can talk about this dish that has cabbage, lots of green vegetables, and pinkish meat, without it having anything to do with traditional Irish boiled dinner. A head of bok choi (frozen last Spring and unearthed from the depths of the chest freezer), a few farmer’s market finds, some leftover rice and the last of the pork spare ribs made for a quick, easy, yet very satisfying lunch. According to Food & Wine, pork […]

Categories: Asian greens, carrot, main course, pork, rice, side dish, spring, year round • Tags: chinese, cooking, food, local, main course, pork, quick & easy, recipes, rice

Strawberry, Lemon & Rosemary Scones

25 July 2011 by local kitchen

On this blessedly cool and rainy Monday it’s a relief to get back in my kitchen after the doldrums of Hotpocalypse Week. And what better way to celebrate a return to baking weather than a scone? A little sweet, a little savory, and made with the very tail end of the season’s strawberries, there’s just nothing not to like about these little babies. But the best part? They’re not popsicles. Happy rainy Monday! Adapted from my Cranberry-Orange Scones, originally adapted from […]

Categories: berries, breakfast, rosemary, snack, spring, summer, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, berries, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, strawberries