Category Archives: winter

Bertucci’s Sausage Soup

14 January 2013 by local kitchen

Back in my laboratory days on Mem Drive, when my co-workers and I felt like traveling further afield than The Sail Loft for lunch, we often ended up at Bertucci’s, home of excellent brick-oven pizza, addictive dinner rolls (hot from the oven!) and the infamous Bertucci’s Sausage Soup. I’ve eaten a lot of this soup in my day: in fact, the real battle in sitting down to lunch at Bertucci’s was in deciding between the delicious brick-oven pizza and the […]

Categories: kale & leafy greens, rice, sausage, soup, tomatoes, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, kale, local, recipes, sausage, soup

Quinoa with Roasted Butternut Squash & Sausage

9 January 2013 by local kitchen

I’ve mentioned Liana Krissoff’s new cookbook Whole Grains for a New Generation a couple of times now, on Facebook and Twitter, mostly because it’s been a ridiculous bargain on Amazon ($3, really?!). I ordered a copy for myself before Christmas (when it was a still-ridiculous $5) thanks to a tip from Emily at Nomnivorous, and I’ve been paging through it, planning various meals, since we returned from Maine. It’s a lovely book: nice, heavy paper stock, lots of photographs, with […]

Categories: fall, grains & legumes, main course, quinoa, sausage, winter, winter squash • Tags: cooking, fall, food, local, quick & easy, quinoa, recipes, sausage, winter

Tepary Bean, Pork & Winter Vegetable Soup

5 January 2013 by local kitchen

Have you ever had tepary beans? Apparently, once upon a time, they were an important food source for Native Americans in the American Southwest, and the history of their use dates back over 6,000 years in Mexico. Yet, until recently, I had never heard of the tepary bean (whose name seems to derive from t’pawi, Papago Indian for “it’s a bean”) and without Rancho Gordo, I probably would not have been able to find them. Tepary beans are drought-resistant, native […]

Categories: carrot, celery, heirloom beans, leek, main course, pork, scallions, soup, winter • Tags: cooking, food, heirloom beans, local, pork, recipes, soup, winter

Round-Up: Citrus

2 January 2013 by local kitchen

Apparently I can’t resist rounding up my own recipes this week. But I was trying to read through some of my favorite citrus recipes of previous years and I realized how difficult it was to find them all. So, I put together a citrus page, and included a handy link-box in the right-hand sidebar. Way more fun than taking down the Christmas tree! Enjoy.

Categories: citrus, winter • Tags: citrus, cooking, food, recipes, round-up, winter

Roasted Curried Cauliflower

17 December 2012 by local kitchen

Nearly two years ago, I made a pumpkin soup, and tried to sort out my grief, anger and frustration following the tragic shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords, and 17 others, on a sunny Saturday morning in Tuscon, AZ. At the time, I had some hope that we would take real steps to prevent the all too common gun violence in our country: because of the prominence of Rep. Giffords, because of the number of people injured and killed, because of […]

Categories: cauliflower, fall, side dish, vegetarian, winter • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian, winter

Curried Kale & Potato Latkes

7 December 2012 by local kitchen

I’m back home (Grandma is doing very well, and has a pantry stocked with homemade granola, chicken soup and beef chili that should last until I get up there again) and working through a backlog of interwebs reading, when I stumbled upon this Hanukkah gem by Bubala Please: making latkes. I’ll warn you now: about every third word is a swear, so this is not safe for work (unless you have earphones) and there is liberal use of the term […]

Categories: appetizer, kale & leafy greens, potato, vegetarian, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, holiday, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian, winter

Downeast Beef Chili

4 December 2012 by local kitchen

As you might have heard, I’ve been staying with Tai’s grandmother Louisa, in Downeast Maine, since before Thanksgiving. Louisa is awesome: she is bright, warm, and generous, and has always made me feel welcome and an important part of this big, wacky family into which I married. But Louisa is 88 years old, and while she has maintained an amazing amount of independence and vitality throughout her ‘golden years,’ in the last six months or so she has suffered some […]

Categories: 100% local, beans, beef, bell pepper, carrot, heirloom beans, hot chile peppers, main course, stew, winter • Tags: beans, beef, chiles, cooking, food, local, recipes, winter

Superstew Sandy

5 November 2012 by local kitchen

Seven days. Seven days since Sandy visited the East Coast with her high winds and devastating storm surge. Seven days that I, and hundreds of thousands of others in the tri-state area, have been without electricity. Seven days: and we are still without power Chez Local Kitchen, and our estimate for power restoration is the feels-oh-so-far-away Wednesday night at 11 pm. In some ways it feels much longer: while we are very lucky, with no damage to our property, despite […]

Categories: 100% local, bell pepper, chicken, corn, disaster, fall, main course, sausage, stew, thyme, winter • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, hurricane, local, recipes, sandy, sausage, stew

Mac and Cheese with Balsamic-Roasted Tomatoes & Country Bacon

24 October 2012 by local kitchen

For the last month or so (not at all coincident with my 45th birthday, I’m sure) I’ve been trying to get into shape. Get back into shape, I should say, as usually I am pretty fit, by American standards: when a “fun weekend” means scaling 200-foot cliffs or hiking 12 miles & 6000 feet, you need the muscles, heart & lungs to make those journeys more pleasure than pain. Sadly, there haven’t been a lot of crags or peaks on […]

Categories: cheese, main course, winter, year round • Tags: cheese, cooking, food, local, main course, pasta, recipes, winter

Maple-Glazed Brussels Sprout Salad

9 May 2012 by local kitchen

I hate Brussels sprouts. But as I say that, I realize: I’m not sure I’ve ever actually eaten Brussels sprouts before today. You see, most people generally boil them (why, oh why?) and is there anything more unappetizing than the smell of boiled cabbage? Are we living in Willy Wonka’s England? Am I Mrs. Bucket, trying to feed Charlie and Grandpa Joe and all of the other Buckets on single-leaf cabbage soup? No. No, I’m not. So why did I buy Brussels sprouts, […]

Categories: cabbage, cranberries, fall, nuts, salad, side dish, vegetarian, winter • Tags: cooking, fall, food, local, recipes, salad, vegetarian, winter

Use It or Lose It! Bean & Sausage Chili

22 March 2012 by local kitchen

It’s not like this site really needs another heirloom bean recipe; and I think I’ve fairly covered the spectrum of pork sausage possibilities. But this recipe isn’t really about beans, or sausage, or even chili for that matter: it’s about how “putting up” isn’t just about jam. And about how put-ups aren’t always meant to stand alone: while some, it’s true, are glorious on the oft-recommended cheese tray, I could eat a cheese tray for dinner every night of the […]

Categories: 100% local, beans, bell pepper, fall, heirloom beans, main course, pork, sausage, tomatoes, Use it or Lose it!, winter • Tags: chili, cooking, food, local, main course, recipes

Blood Orange Curd + Bars

9 March 2012 by local kitchen

You thought citrus was done, didn’t you? You thought maybe, just maybe, I was going to get back to, I don’t know, eating locally? Oh, granted, I snuck some peel into this dinner, and added the last wrinkly kumquats to these roasted veg, but for the most part, it’s been All Quiet On The Citrus Front ’round these parts, for a few days at least. But the Ides of March are just around the corner (What?? Wasn’t it just Christmas?) and, what with […]

Categories: baking, citrus, dessert, whole wheat flour, winter • Tags: baking, bar, blood orange, citrus, cooking, dessert, food, recipes, winter

Use It or Lose It! Salsa-Braised Turkey Breast with Chile & Citrus Peel

4 March 2012 by local kitchen

Take half a turkey breast: brown the outside. Add it to a pot with liquid and vegetables. Simmer. Rest meat, reduce sauce, serve. Such a simple procedure and one I’ve done many times, often, like now, when I have things that need clearing out of the fridge and freezer: an open pint of salsa; a gallon Ziploc full of fat, frozen jalapeños; another jammed with citrus peels. It’s generally tasty, sometimes ugly, but almost always satisfying in the filling-up and using-up categories. Occasionally, […]

Categories: braising, citrus, hot chile peppers, main course, turkey, Use it or Lose it!, winter • Tags: cooking, food, local, main course, quick & easy, recipes, turkey

Blood Orange Black Bean Blini

28 February 2012 by local kitchen

Have you ever made blini? I must admit, other than knowing that they were vaguely pancake-like, mostly Russian, and usually served with caviar, I didn’t know much about them until yesterday. They are essentially a pancake, but one that relies on yeast for leavening, rather than baking powder or soda. Traditionally made with buckwheat flour, I nevertheless found a few recipes online for a cornmeal version which appealed (especially since I did not have any buckwheat flour in the house). And why, you ask […]

Categories: appetizer, beans, breakfast, cilantro, citrus, main course, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, winter • Tags: beans, cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian

Roasted Summer Vegetables

25 February 2012 by local kitchen

A week or two ago, my friend Crunchy Metro Mom posed a question on her blog: what one-off meals (that is, meals destined for one night only, with no leftovers) do you rely upon in your weekly meal planning and what tips do you have for quick & easy one-off meals that don’t rely heavily on prepared or processed foods? Now, there is no question that we can eat very differently here at Local Kitchen than they do at Crunchy Metro […]

Categories: 100% local, bell pepper, corn, roasting, side dish, vegetable, vegetarian, winter, year round, zucchini • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, sides, vegetables, vegetarian