Category Archives: winter

Dark Days: Green Salad with Jam & Buttermilk Dressing

31 December 2010 by local kitchen

And to ring in the New Year – salad! OK, I know it’s not very exciting. But in the midst of a busy holiday season filled with cookies and pie, pizza and peppermint bark, chocolate cake balls and artichoke dip, cranberry nut bread and eggnog, mac & cheese and yet more pie, well, the thought of a crisp green salad gets my mouth watering. So when I saw some heads of cold-frame lettuce at the last farmer’s market before the holidays, […]

Categories: 100% local, Dark Days Local, main course, quick & easy, salad, winter • Tags: cooking, dark days, food, local, quick & easy, salad, vegetarian

Dark Days: Chicken & Sweet Potato Stew

27 December 2010 by local kitchen

Snowpocalypse 2010 dumped about a foot and a half of snow on us, as we snuggled cozy and warm in our little cottage, snacking on popcorn and watching cheesy movies in day-after-Christmas bliss. Today, although the winds still howled, the sun appeared along with bright blue skies, and we forced our way out the door against 3-foot snow drifts in order to shovel out. A couple of hours later, with a clear deck, stairs and driveway, lunch was definitely in […]

Categories: 100% local, chicken, Dark Days Local, hot chile peppers, kale & leafy greens, main course, potato, stew, tomatoes, winter • Tags: chicken, cooking, dark days, food, local, recipes, winter

Cranberry Orange Nut Bread

22 December 2010 by local kitchen

From the archives ~ A Christmas tradition Chez Porter. Now updated with weights and non-crappy (well, less crappy) photos! Merry, merry! ———————————————————– When I was a kid, my Mom always made cranberry nut bread around the holidays. Now, I’m 99% certain that this was from a mix; my Mom was (and is) a horrible cook. But I loved this bread, and to this day, cranberry nut bread reminds me of Christmas. Mom is coming up from Asheville, NC tomorrow; she’s […]

Categories: baking, breakfast, citrus, cranberries, eggs, fall, non-local luxuries, nuts, winter, year round • Tags: baking, bread, breakfast, cooking, cranberries, food, local, recipes, walnuts

Dry-Brined Roasted Turkey

19 December 2010 by local kitchen

What do you cook for Christmas Day? Do you have a leisurely day of cranberry nut bread and eggnog, like we do? Do you whip up a full breakfast of eggs, bacon and pancakes? Or do you go all out with a traditional dinner, roasted turkey or goose, plum pudding and the works? Just in case roasted turkey is on your Christmas dinner agenda, I thought I would share my Thanksgiving turkey recipe with you: a simple dry-brine with sage, bay and orange […]

Categories: citrus, fall, holiday, main course, roasting, sage, turkey, winter • Tags: cooking, dry-brine, food, holiday, local, main course, recipes, turkey

Dark Days: Spicy Basil Roasted Chicken

15 December 2010 by local kitchen

Chicken is difficult. Not difficult in that it is tasteless, bland, rubbery, spongy or just plain boring: I never find those things to be true about organically-fed, pastured, humanely-raised chicken. Not difficult in that it’s too hard to cook: in fact, roasted chicken is one of the easiest dishes I make. Chicken, that most ubiquitous of American meat staples, is difficult because it is hard to find. My regular local chicken guy used to be Pat of New England Farms. Pat […]

Categories: 100% local, basil, chicken, Dark Days Local, hot chile peppers, main course, roasting, winter, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, local, main course, recipes, roasting, winter

Gifts: Food Gifts, Local & Far-Flung

14 December 2010 by local kitchen

‘Tis the season for fabulous food gifts from near & far! Small or large, fresh or preserved, local or luxuriously exotic, these are some of my favorite food items to give and receive. Check ’em out – you may just find the perfect gift for someone on your holiday list. But act fast – Christmas is a week from Saturday (yikes!). Merry, merry! Tuthilltown Spirits Local wine is pretty easy to find in New York & Connecticut; local booze? Not so […]

Categories: gifts, holiday, winter • Tags: food, food gifts, holiday, local

Dark Days: Pan-Fried Gnocchi with Roasted Pumpkin Seed Oil

13 December 2010 by local kitchen

I’m participating, along with a whole lot of other bloggers, in (not so) Urban Hennery’s Dark Days Challenge again this year: the challenge being to eat one meal a week that is made exclusively from SOLE (sustainable, organic, local & ethical) ingredients and to blog about it. Since local eating, and with that, sustainable, organic, humane and ethical eating, is the norm around here, the challenge for me is to make more 100% local meals, without any of my standard exceptions (olive oil, […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, Dark Days Local, main course, quick & easy, scallions, stir-fry, winter, winter squash, year round • Tags: cooking, food, gnocchi, local, pasta, pumpkin, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Indian-Spiced Apple Butter

9 December 2010 by local kitchen

Want to give homemade gifts this holiday season, but you didn’t spend the summer squirreling away the season’s bounty? Never fear: apples to the rescue! Apples are still abundant at area farmer’s markets and there is a dizzying array of options for holiday gift giving: from applesauce (great for new parents or friends with toddlers), jam (quick & easy, with no worrying about the ‘set’) and jelly, to chutneys, spiced or spicy (fantastic hostess gift and great on a cheese tray), […]

Categories: apples, breakfast, canning, fall, holiday, preserving, spreads, winter • Tags: apples, canning, condiments, cooking, fall, food, fruit butter, holiday, local, preserving, recipes, vegetarian

Turkey Vindaloo

8 December 2010 by local kitchen

New World bird meets Old World spice: film @ 11. Well, it’s not the most attrative dish I’ve ever made. It certainly isn’t authentic; while turkey is common in the Americas and Europe, it’s a rarity in India, and I’m pretty sure they aren’t making vindaloo with pre-made spice packets from Penzeys. Despite those knocks against it, this dish was simple to prepare, easy on the wallet (helpful in these holiday-cash-strapped times), satisfyingly filling, and warming, for a nippy December night, and a great […]

Categories: cauliflower, main course, potato, quick & easy, stew, turkey, winter, year round • Tags: budget, cooking, food, local, main course, quick & easy, recipes, stew, turkey, vindaloo

White Bean & Roasted Turkey Soup

2 December 2010 by local kitchen

Heirloom beans, roasted Thanksgiving turkey, aromatics and sage = one delicious soup. Are you as tired of turkey as I am? While I do love the big bird, seven days straight and my body is screaming for a green salad, crisp, crunchy vegetables and anything-but-meat. So what do I do? Make soup, of course. Hear me out – it makes more sense than you think. I didn’t make it to the market last weekend, since we had so much food […]

Categories: 100% local, beans, carrot, fall, heirloom beans, potato, sage, soup, turkey, winter • Tags: cooking, fall, food, heirloom beans, leftovers, local, recipes, soup, turkey, winter, yellow eye beans

Locavirgin: Roasted Cauliflower with Bacon

27 November 2010 by local kitchen

So, you get it right, the way this blog works? Every other cooking blog on the planet regales you with Thanksgiving recipes in the weeks prior to the event. Bah, I say. Humbug! Now that everyone else is featuring turkey tacos, turkey tamales and turkey tettrazini, I’ll give you… Thanksgiving dishes! The ones that were on my table. Because, you know that I love to test recipes on the fly (and making any of my Thanksgiving recipes in advance would […]

Categories: 100% local, cauliflower, fall, holiday, Locavirgin, pork, roasting, side dish, winter • Tags: bacon, cauliflower, cooking, fall, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, side dishes

Fresh Cranberry Salsa

23 November 2010 by local kitchen

Having a last-minute Thanksgiving? Relax – you are not alone. I just tested out this fresh cranberry salsa for my own Thanksgiving table: it took me under 23 minutes from start to finish (yes, I timed myself) and that included rooting around in the Thanksgiving-stuffed fridge for ingredients, searching the packed-to-the-gills utensil drawer for the apple corer (and eventually turning it up in the dishwasher – oops), weighing the ingredients, and jotting down the recipe for you, the time-stressed Thanksgiving cook. […]

Categories: apples, cilantro, condiments, cranberries, fall, quick & easy, salsa, winter • Tags: cooking, cranberries, fall, food, holiday, local, quick & easy, recipes, salsa, thanksgiving, vegetarian

100% Local: Pumpkin Gnocchi

12 November 2010 by local kitchen

These, my friends, are good. I might go so far as to say damn good. I’ve made gnocchi in the past and it’s always been tasty, but it has been rare to achieve a perfect texture. These are not a traditional dense potato gnocchi, which I do enjoy (although I consider them more a vehicle for a fantastic, chunky sauce than a delight all by themselves); these are the fluffy little pillows that are the pinnacle of gnocchi love: a curious combination of al dente and airy that […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, cheese, fall, main course, pasta, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, winter, winter squash • Tags: cooking, fall, food, local, pasta, pumpkin, recipes, vegetarian, whole grain, whole wheat

Smoky Black Bean Soup

8 November 2010 by local kitchen

We’re having truly New England weather today: daylight savings is barely 24 hours old, yet I woke up to dim, grey skies, a blustery Northeast wind (I keep expecting to see a witch fly by on a bicycle) and big, fat snowflakes. Followed rapidly by sleet. Or hail. Or freezing rain. Or all of the above (or my favorite weather euphemism “wintry mix.”). There is really only one thing to do when November is still in single digits, yet you […]

Categories: beans, carrot, fall, heirloom beans, hot chile peppers, main course, soup, tomatillos, vegetarian, winter • Tags: beans, black bean, cooking, fall, food, local, recipes, soup, vegetarian

Use it or Lose it! Roasted Turkey with Plum Preserves

4 November 2010 by local kitchen

Like many of my fellow canning bloggers, I’ve had a lot of requests for recipes that fall into the “What to do with all of that jam?!” category. For me, this is a bit of a conundrum, because I’m not really sure how I use it up: I don’t eat a whole lot of jam on toast (mostly preferring peanut butter); the obvious classics, like a jam tart or thumbprint cookies, aren’t things that I make often; and despite giving some of it away, […]

Categories: 100% local, fall, main course, plums, roasting, sage, turkey, Use it or Lose it!, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, fall, food, main course, plums, preserves, quick & easy, recipes, roasting, turkey, winter