Category Archives: spring

Easy Breezy Pea(sy) Salad

26 April 2009 by local kitchen

Update: Funny to see how hot it was in April, three years ago, when here we are in June 2012 and it’s been chilly, grey and rainy for days. This time around, with fresh peas-from-the-pod, ever so slightly steamed, and radishes & lettuce from the first CSA of the year, this salad was still easy, breezy, pea(sy) good. —————————– This crazy “Spring” weather, with temps approaching 90 degrees, has got me not wanting to do much of anything beyond laying in front of […]

Categories: cheese, dill, lettuce, peas, radish, salad, spring, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, radish, recipes, salad, spring, vegetarian

Caldo Verde

20 April 2009 by local kitchen

Ten years ago, I spent three weeks in Portugal, tooling about the countryside in a rented Suzuki (the “A” car for the “E” price), sight-seeing, visiting family & friends, and watching a whole lot of football (soccer, in our football-heathen country). I still remember having caldo verde, literally “green soup,” nearly every day. It’s a traditional dish in Portugal, and on the menu pretty much everywhere you go, with a broth as light as air but full of flavor, bright […]

Categories: 100% local, fall, kale & leafy greens, pork, potato, sausage, soup, spring, winter • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, soup

Sunday Spring Cleaning: Olive Tapenade with Arugula & Sun-dried Tomato

19 April 2009 by local kitchen

I’m not really a big olive fan. I don’t mind black olives, sliced on pizza or sprinkled on the top of nachos or an enchilada, but you’ll never catch me munching on one of those monster Spanish olives, stuffed with pimentos. I think it’s a combination of texture and taste – I’m not fond of pickled things in general, but I do like olive tapenade, in moderation; something about chopping up the olives with a little garlic & oil makes them […]

Categories: condiments, non-local luxuries, olives, spreads, spring, vegetarian, year round • Tags: condiments, cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian

Grilled Salsa Chicken & Fire-roasted Corn

16 April 2009 by local kitchen

Just in time for a gorgeous, sunny Spring weekend: quick & easy grilled marinated chicken and roasted corn – the flavors of summer (without the 98% humidity!). Given how simple this meal is, it’s unbelievable how flavorful it is. The corn is a revelation; pure summer, captured at it’s peak last August and roasted over smoky coals until the flavor makes you want to write an opera (Ode To Corn? A-Maizing Maize? Corn Cob Blues? OK, I’ll stop now). Seriously, […]

Categories: 100% local, chicken, fall, grill, main course, peaches, quick & easy, roasting, salsa, spring, summer • Tags: cooking, food, grilling, local, recipes

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Roasted Vegetable Stock

15 April 2009 by local kitchen

I picked up three(!) new cookbooks this weekend, while visiting Melissa & Erik down in PA. Yes, I probably need new cookbooks like I need new holes in my head, and I have no idea where I’m going to fit them (cookbook annex in the loft, perhaps?), but I couldn’t resist. They were all (all!) 50% off (such a sucker for a bargain); it was an independently-owned cooking store (the Cookery Ware Shop – why, oh why, don’t we have one […]

Categories: 100% local, celery, parsley, radish, roasting, soup, spring, stock, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, soup, vegetarian

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Sunday Spring Cleaning: Trifle

14 April 2009 by local kitchen

OK, so I know it’s Tuesday, not Sunday. But I was away visiting friends for the weekend, and anyway, last week was rough in my kitchen. No cooking other than lots and lots of cake… (Also, I apologize for the lack of pretty pictures, but I still don’t have my camera back from Kami’s birthday party). Trifle is another of those things for which about a billion recipes exist. There are many good things about trifle: it’s truly quick & […]

Categories: berries, citrus, dessert, fruit, jams, jellies, peaches, spring, summer, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes

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Kami’s Birthday Cake: A Cautionary Tale

13 April 2009 by local kitchen

Those who have been paying attention know that I had been testing cake recipes for Kami’s birthday cake, which was due for her birthday dinner, last Thursday. Well, let’s just be brief and say “the best laid plans of mice and men (and crazy red-headed baking chicks)…” Let’s just review the cakes I’ve baked over the last couple of weeks: A mini-version of the Pink Lady cake over at Smitten Kitchen. I cut the recipe to 1/4 of the original […]

Categories: berries, dessert, spring, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, disaster, food, local, recipes

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

6 April 2009 by local kitchen

I’ve been testing out cake (and filling, and frosting) recipes for Kami’s birthday celebration this Thursday. Kami is turning five years old this Thursday – and while her parents are certainly dear friends of mine, Kami and I are fast friends in our own right. She has very discriminating taste for an almost-5-year-old, so I generally try to pull out all the stops for her birthday cake. Not as easy as it sounds, when you consider that most “pull out […]

Categories: baking, berries, cheese, dessert, sauces, spring, summer, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian

Goat Cheese Pizza with Garlicky Kale

4 April 2009 by local kitchen

Quick & easy, flavorful and healthy; perfect for weekend Pizza Night and a nice change from the tomato-sauce-and-mozzarella variety. Serve with a nice glass of wine and vintage Woody Allen – perfection! ————————————————————- Goat Cheese Pizza with Garlicky Kale INGREDIENTS 1 recipe Quick(er) Whole Grain Pizza Dough OR 12-Grain Pizza Dough about 1/4 cup olive oil 4-5 large kale leaves (5 oz), washed & coarsely chopped (with center stem) 1 stalk fresh/green garlic, well-washed and sliced fine, OR 4 large […]

Categories: cheese, fall, kale & leafy greens, pizza, spring, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, winter • Tags: cooking, food, local, pizza, recipes

Herby Grilled Potatoes

1 April 2009 by local kitchen

A gorgeous, sunny spring day, a rock scramble/hike in the woods with your honey, top down on the convertible on the way home – what could be better? I’ll tell you what – the First Grill of the Season. These grilled potatoes are fluffy inside, like a french fry, but crisp and smoky on the outside from the grill. Serve with Flying Pigs Jamaican Jerk sausage, grilled bell pepper and ice cold Sam Adams. Spring is a wonderful thing. —————————————————————- […]

Categories: 100% local, chives, dill, fall, grill, parsley, potato, side dish, spring, summer, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, grill, local, potato, recipes, vegetarian

Spring Stir-Fry: Chicken, Radish & Green Garlic

30 March 2009 by local kitchen

I’m always on the lookout for interesting radish recipes. Radishes are one of the first things to show up in the farmer’s market in spring that is not a leek, squash, potato or leafy green, hence, I always pick some up (look! they’re pink! crisp! new!) and then, after about three fresh salads with sliced raw radishes, wonder what I’m going to do with the other dozen pink wonders. I was a bit suspicious of stir-fried radish, but this dish was […]

Categories: chicken, cilantro, citrus, garlic, hot chile peppers, main course, quick & easy, radish, spring • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, garlic, green garlic, local, main course, quick & easy, radish, recipes, stir-fry

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Sausage & Leek Frittata

16 March 2009 by local kitchen

We had a Chiquita’s Weekend at my house this weekend, which mainly consists of lots of eating, drinking and staying up ’till 4:00 am. While there is nearly always lots of good food, and I like to try out new recipes, tradition dictates that I make a frittata at some point during the weekend. I make frittata often, as they make for a quick & easy breakfast or lunch and are a good way to use up leftovers or excess veggies; this being the […]

Categories: 100% local, cheese, eggs, fall, herbs, leek, main course, parsley, pork, sausage, spring, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, pork, recipes

Glazed Blackberry Tart

11 March 2009 by local kitchen

It’s March and I’ve been cleaning out the freezer of last season’s bounty, preparing for the new season’s bounty that is right around the corner. One of the recipes I’ve been experimenting with is a glazed berry tart, using local berries from my freezer. The first version was a strawberry-black raspberry-wild blueberry pie with concentrated juices from each of these thawed berries; the berries were delicious, and the pastry stayed perfectly crisp, but the glaze was too thin (not enough cornstarch […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, berries, pastry, pie, spring, vegetarian, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes

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Simple Vinaigrette

10 March 2009 by local kitchen

My one my favorite little cookbooks is Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom, a compendium of useful tips & techniques from one of my cooking heroes, Julia Childs. After all, once you’ve been cooking for a while, you basically know what your favorite flavors are and how they go together; we rely on recipes for inspiration or information on how to cook a new ingredient. But Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom contains all those little tidbits that we tend to forget if we didn’t go […]

Categories: herbs, parsley, spring, vegetarian, vinegar, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes

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Sausage, Herb & Mozzarella Bread

6 March 2009 by local kitchen

It’s been a crazy week. My business tends to be feast or famine; this week has defnitely been a feast, work-wise, but a famine, cooking-wise. I’ve had no time, in between 12-hour days at the computer, to cook a thing and I realized today how much I missed it. Cooking, and most especially baking bread, can be enormously relaxing. There’s a science to measuring and combining the ingredients that is soothing in it’s detail and familiar rhythms; kneading the dough […]

Categories: baking, breads, cheese, fall, pork, sausage, spring, winter, year round • Tags: cheese, cooking, food, local, pork, recipes, whole grain breads