Category Archives: summer

So what? Soba Noodles.

17 July 2009 by local kitchen

Scene: Sitting around the dinner table at Nadine, Stan and Kami’s house. Tai & Kami are arguing about something silly, as they often do. Tai: So? Kami: So what? Soba noodles! We now say this constantly; taking our social cues from a 5 year-old is apprently how we get our jollies. And we do – we giggle every time we say it. Much like a 5 year-old girl. This salad is cool and refreshing, tart and crunchy with a […]

Categories: Asian greens, cabbage, carrot, chives, citrus, cucumber, main course, nuts, pasta, peas, salad, scallions, side dish, summer • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, salad

Lemon Black Cherry Muffins

16 July 2009 by local kitchen

More sweet cherry-lovin: a moist, lemony whole grain muffin with the pop! of fresh sweet black cherries. My first thought on tasting these muffins was: WOW! A literal taste explosion – this is not a cozy, down-home, Grandma’s apple pie kind of recipe. This is WOW. A wake-up-your-taste-buds, can’t-believe-how-good-it-is, let-me-freeze-half-this-batch-right-now-before-I-eat-the-whole-thing kind of recipe. These muffins are indulgent – what with the lemon zest, lemon juice and lemon extract, you might as well be munching on flatbreads and cherries, lounging under a […]

Categories: baking, breakfast, cherries, citrus, dessert, summer, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cherries, cooking, food, local, recipes

Bone-in Chicken Breasts on the Grill

15 July 2009 by local kitchen

Let’s face it: there are few things more convenient than boneless, skinless chicken breasts. They even come in packages of chicken tenders: no slicing required! So easy. Yet, for me, that’s the basic definition of fast food: what you gain in convenience you sacrifice in flavor, not to mention all of the other good reasons to eat locally; supporting your farming neighbors, keeping open land from development, promoting sustainability. Most small farmers cannot afford to sell boneless, skinless chicken breasts: the extra processing […]

Categories: 100% local, chicken, grill, main course, summer • Tags: BBQ, bone-in, chicken, cooking, dinner, food, grilled, grilling, local, recipes, summer

Deli Dill Pickles

14 July 2009 by local kitchen

Have I mentioned that Tai loves pickles? I mean Loves them, with a capital L. I think making pickles last year may have been the best thing I’ve ever done for him. So, even though I despise pickles with a white-hot passion, when I saw Kirby cucumbers at the farmer’s market on Saturday, I simply had to pick up a bunch and start a batch o’ pickles brewing. Because, really, when it’s this easy to make someone happy, how can […]

Categories: canning, condiments, cucumber, dill, fermenting, pickles, preserving, summer • Tags: cooking, fermenting, food, local, preserving, recipes

Cherry Walnut Conserve

10 July 2009 by local kitchen

The sweet cherry recipes just keep rolling off the presses here at Local Kitchen. This jam is tangy, even a bit sour, from the addition of oranges and lemons, but it is sweet on the finish with a subtle hint of amaretto and a nice crunch from the walnuts. Nicely complex on toast and I’ll bet it will make an excellent quick marinade for chicken, pork or duck. So what is “conserve” anyway? Near as I can tell, it is […]

Categories: canning, cherries, citrus, jams, nuts, preserving, summer, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cherries, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Red, White & Black

8 July 2009 by local kitchen

One last recipe for the last days of strawberry season here in the Northeast. This strawberry, white balsamic vinegar and black pepper jam has a fantastic flavor profile; almost savory, with the balsamic vinegar kick, yet sweet enough to enjoy on a muffin or scone. Lovely flecks of crushed black pepper give it added zing and visual appeal. The set was very loose, almost a thick sauce more than a jam, likely due to my overly ripe strawberries and limited sugar. But even […]

Categories: berries, canning, condiments, jams, preserving, spring, summer • Tags: balsamic, canning, cooking, food, jam, local, preserving, recipes, savory, strawberries

Sweet Cherry Chutney

7 July 2009 by local kitchen

We enjoyed this tangy, flavorful chutney while picnicing in the park at Kensico Dam on July 3rd, listening to the Westchester Philharmonic and enjoying, in succession, a rainbow, a nearly full moon rising, and fireworks. As if the non-rainy weather, good company, and music were not enough, we also enjoyed Curried Apple Chutney, Flageolet and Roasted Garlic Spread, sugar snap peas from Alison’s CSA as well as some carrots, hummus, salsa, tortilla chips, and crackers. Quite the feast, rounded out by two local […]

Categories: apples, canning, cherries, chutneys, preserving, raisins, summer • Tags: canning, cherries, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Homemade Berry Cordial

6 July 2009 by local kitchen

With the last two quarts of strawberries from the weekend’s picking, I decided to make some cordial. Last year I made a wild raspberry cordial (shown in the picture, mixed with seltzer), based on Leda Meredith’s recipe, that came out quite nicely. It’s a bit too sweet for me to drink on it’s own (one friend said that it tasted just like Manischewitz wine!), but it’s delightfully refreshing when mixed with seltzer or sparkling water and it adds a lovely berry […]

Categories: berries, fall, fermenting, preserving, spring, summer, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: berries, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Preserving Cherries

5 July 2009 by local kitchen

At last, the overdue post on preserving cherries; hopefully, here in time before the end of cherry season! After having picked 40 pounds of sweet black cherries, and then Googling about and looking in my many cookbooks for things to do with 40 lbs of cherries, I am convinced that sweet cherries get a bad rap. Everywhere you look it’s sour cherry-this and sour cherry-that; a few recipes call for “tart” cherries; other than clafouti, it seems that the world […]

Categories: 100% local, cherries, drying, fruit, summer • Tags: canning, cherries, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Cherry Vanilla Preserves

2 July 2009 by local kitchen

Rollin, rollin, rollin, keep them cherries rollin, Rawhide! I’ve spent the week preserving cherries for all I’m worth; frozen cherries, dried cherries, cherry rhubarb pie filling, drunken cherries, cherry chutney, lemon cherry muffins and cherry vanilla preserves. I feel like a cherry-pitting machine. I’m whipping up cherry recipes so fast that I don’t have time to post them. It’s just the teeniest bit possible that 40 lbs of cherries was a wee bit ambitious. Shut up, you did not tell me so. […]

Categories: apples, breakfast, canning, cherries, citrus, dessert, jams, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cherries, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Drunken Cherries

1 July 2009 by local kitchen

Two of my favorite things: local, sustainably-grown fruit, that I get to pick myself, while spending quality time with my sweetie, on a rare and gorgeous sunny summer day, and… booze. A match made in heaven! Adapted from Brandied Cherries in The Glass Pantry by Georgeanne Brennan ———————————————————- Drunken Cherries INGREDIENTS 4 lbs cherries (sweet, tart or sour) 1 cup sugar (organic evaporated cane juice) 1/4 cup filtered water 4 cups brandy, rum, Cointreau, or other liquor METHODS Sterilize 4 glass […]

Categories: canning, cherries, dessert, preserving, summer, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: booze, canning, cherries, cooking, food, liquor, local, preserving, recipes

Pork Tenderloin on the Grill

30 June 2009 by local kitchen

It’s amazing what a few days of sun can do; my tomato plants and nasturtiums have burst into bloom, wild black raspberries are ripening in the backyard, and I am feeling motivated and productive. Could it be that summer is here at last? In celebration of summer-like temperatures and the complete lack of any sort of precipitation, Tai fired up the grill last night and we cooked some tiny little pork tenderloins from New England Farms. Although I often put […]

Categories: 100% local, grill, main course, pork, sauces, summer • Tags: cooking, food, grilling, local, pork, recipes

Christina’s Garden Vegetable Soup

29 June 2009 by local kitchen

I’m not the biggest cabbage fan; too many boiled dinners as a kid, I guess. However, every summer we get a couple of ridiculously huge cabbages from the CSA – we have one in the fridge right now that is the size of my torso. So, not liking cabbage in general, and defnitely not a fan of either sauerkraut or cole slaw, what’s a girl with a ton o’ cabbage to do? I posed this question a couple of years […]

Categories: 100% local, cabbage, carrot, dill, fall, parsley, soup, summer, vegetarian • Tags: cabbage, cooking, food, local, recipes, soup, vegetarian

Sweet Cherry Rhubarb Pie Filling

27 June 2009 by local kitchen

The first in a long list of cherry preserving recipes. My fingernails may be permanently dyed purple, but I’ve got 11 pounds queued up for the dehydrator, 3 pounds pitted and in the new freezer, and 3 batches of cherry rhubarb pie filling. I’ve also thanked various deities for this amazingly handy and effective cherry pitter – and thanked Amazon for cheap-o, overnight, Saturday delivery! More recipes to follow! Adapted from Cherry Rhubarb Lattice Pie in The Pie and Pastry Bible by […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, cherries, dessert, freezing, pie, rhubarb, summer • Tags: canning, cherries, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, rhubarb

Fresh Strawberry Tart

25 June 2009 by local kitchen

My Mom has been visiting for the last couple of days, in the midst of her annual summer roadtrip from her home in Asheville, NC, up to our hometown of Gloucester, MA. Since I still had about a pound of berries left from last week’s big strawbery haul, I decided to make us a fresh strawberry tart for dessert. This tart came together quite easily as I used frozen pastry dough scraps, strawberry syrup garnered from the frozen/juiced/dried strawberries, and […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, berries, citrus, dessert, fruit, pastry, pie, spring, summer • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes, strawberries