Category Archives: winter

Roasted Jalapeños With Goat Cheese & Smoky Chile Cherries

31 December 2013 by local kitchen

My New Year’s gift to you: an actual “quick & easy” recipe that is spicy, sweet, creamy, smoky & delicious. Suitable for a rollickin’ holiday party or a quiet nibble at home and easily adaptable to cheeses you have in the fridge and preserves in the pantry. Roasting the jalapeños mellows their spicy bite (or you can include a mix of milder small chiles, as I have below), while a short roast and quick broil browns the cheese while maintaining […]

Categories: appetizer, cherries, fall, holiday, hot chile peppers, winter • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, vegetarian

Use It or Lose It! Finnish Jam Tarts

9 December 2013 by local kitchen

My great-grandfather emigrated from Finland. From which area of the country, I have no idea, since talking about our roots is not something that we really do in my family. Despite the fact that I remember him (although I thought, as a child of 3 or so, that he was my grandmother’s husband, not her father: there’s no difference between 60 and 80 years old when you are a kid, I guess), I know very little about him, save his […]

Categories: baking, dessert, holiday, Use it or Lose it!, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, cookies, cooking, food, holiday, local, recipes

Roasted Fresh Ham with Red Currant Glaze

17 November 2013 by local kitchen

Did I mention that I’ve got a lot of pork? Yes, yes I do. And I’m trying to make some room in the very stuffed chest freezer for chicken stock, bell peppers, pumpkin purée; the last put-ups of the season, really, before the snow flies. One good way to clear out a chunk of freezer real estate is to cook a roast. “Fresh” ham is pork from the leg, but not cured or smoked (and hence not pink) like a […]

Categories: main course, pork, roasting, Use it or Lose it!, winter • Tags: cooking, food, local, main course, pork, recipes

Saffron & Meyer Lemon Roasted Chicken

23 October 2013 by local kitchen

I had every intention of sharing a different recipe with you this week: a jam & almond crumb bar that was a big hit at a party a few weeks ago, or a Thai green curry udon noodle dish that I keep meaning to make again. But some recipes are simply too good not to share right now: saffron & Meyer lemon roasted chicken is definitely on that list. I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to roast […]

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

Meyer Lemon: Citrus Salt, Simple Syrup, Powdered Pectin & Scrub

9 May 2013 by local kitchen

So you say the pantry is already stocked with more marmalade than you can eat in a year (or two? or three? Ahem.) You’ve made lemon pasta (twice!), lemon lentil salad, boozy lemon bars, lemon curd shortcake, and lots of lemony margaritas? The craziness of Spring: visiting friends, impending work deadlines, and mandatory weeknight campfires is upon you? But still, you have this big pile of gorgeous California citrus to enjoy? Well, my friends: I’m here to help. Dispatch a dozen lovely Meyer […]

Categories: citrus, winter • Tags: citrus, food, Meyer lemon, preserving, quick & easy, 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

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

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