Category Archives: year round

Dark Days: Sausage & Pepper Pizza

28 December 2009 by local kitchen

Last night we had the happy coincidence of two friends traveling back home from Christmas celebrations, both of whom decided to stop and spend the night with us en route. We had a delicious, impromptu, and local dinner of sausage & pepper pizza, served up with Saranac ales, good conversation, and many laughs. Thanks, Frannie & Christina, for a great night! Happy holidays everyone! ————————————————————- Sausage & Pepper Pizza INGREDIENTS 1 recipe Quick(er) Whole Grain Pizza dough 1/2 lb smoked […]

Categories: 100% local, basil, cheese, Dark Days Local, main course, pizza, sausage, tomatoes, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, pizza, recipes

Black Bean Veggie Chili

27 December 2009 by local kitchen

As a nice respite from all of the rich, heavy holiday food, as well as a warm bowl of comfort food against the chill and dreary 39-degree rainy day, yesterday I made a big pot of chili. Packed full of veggies and protein-laden black beans, this dish is winter locavore cooking at its best: peppers chopped and quick-frozen back in August only need pouring into a measuring cup; sweet corn, blanched and cut off the cob, frozen at the peak of […]

Categories: 100% local, beans, carrot, celery, cilantro, corn, garlic, hot chile peppers, main course, parsley, stew, tomatoes, vegetarian, winter, year round • Tags: black bean, cooking, food, local, recipes

Dark Days: Swiss Chard Quiche Minis

21 December 2009 by local kitchen

Undaunted by the blizzard, a few intrepid souls made it to our annual Christmas party on Saturday night. Luckily for them, there was no shortage of yummy food on hand. My kitchen counter was groaning under the weight of this sausage bread, made with linguica and local smoked mozzarella, Wild Hive rosemary bread crostini with olive oil, garlic and basil, a selection of local cheeses, curried apple chutney, sweet cherry chutney, cranberry apple butter and cranberry sauce, homemade stuffed grape leaves […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, breakfast, cheese, Dark Days Local, eggs, kale & leafy greens, main course, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian

Asiago and Green Apple Omelet with Chipotle Bacon

18 December 2009 by local kitchen

Christimas is only a week away and it’s been a crazy week between cooking and prepping for our annual Christmas party, cleaning the house, decorating the tree, stringing the house lights, wrapping presents, writing holiday cards – phew! Add in a visit from Mom last weekend, my car breaking down (and the subsequent attempts at repairs by the long-suffering Tai), trying to get wedding thank-you notes out the door, and some last-minute jobs from clients, and it’s a wonder I’ve managed to […]

Categories: 100% local, apples, breakfast, cheese, eggs, main course, parsley, quick & easy, year round • Tags: cooking, eggs, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Dark Days: Herb-Roasted Turkey Breast

14 December 2009 by local kitchen

Ever notice how when one thing runs out in your pantry everything else seems to follow? I had one of those weeks. We have a Christmas party every year, and I’ve been prepping all week. In making pastry dough for this apple pie and mini swiss chard quiches, I ran out of Wild Hive pastry flour and had to pick some up from the store (and let me tell you – Bob’s Red Mill is SO not the same!). Then I noticed that the all-purpose and […]

Categories: 100% local, Dark Days Local, herbs, main course, roasting, turkey, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes

Sunday Spring Cleaning: Curried Pumpkin & Kale Stew

6 December 2009 by local kitchen

I’ve long been of the belief that, if you add enough curry to something, it’s bound to be good. This stew upholds the belief: nothing spectacular, just good, tasty, warm and comforting stew for a snowy New York Sunday. The bonus is that this was a freezer-clearing special: I used some cooked cranberry beans that were hanging out in the fridge, frozen pumpkin cubes leftover from this soup, frozen kale put-up this summer, plum tomatoes that I stuck in the freezer, whole, […]

Categories: beans, fall, heirloom beans, kale & leafy greens, main course, quick & easy, stew, tomatoes, vegetarian, winter, winter squash, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Dark Days: Rhubarb Rosemary Pork Cutlets with Onion & Beet Sauce

4 December 2009 by local kitchen

Some meals are a revelation. Strangely enough, I often find that when I’m not really thinking about it, throwing something together from the contents of my fridge on a busy weeknight, is when I make my most startling discoveries. This meal fits the bill. I had those pork cutlets, of the not-cutlets-but-scones fame. They were thawed a couple of days ago and really needed to be cooked. (Not only am I completely obsessive about not wasting food, there has got to […]

Categories: Dark Days Local, jellies, main course, pork, rhubarb, roasting, rosemary, sage, spring, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, pork, recipes

Mission Fig and Port Wine Mustard

3 December 2009 by local kitchen

Seems like it’s been All Mustard All the Time around here lately, but I have had all of these interesting mustard ideas floating around in my head and I want to try to them out before they disappear. And yes, I do realize that it’s more than a bit strange to be obsessing over mustard flavors when, a) I don’t like mustard and, b) I don’t eat mustard. But other people do, including my mustardophile husband, and a pretty little jar of […]

Categories: canning, condiments, fruit, mustard, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, figs, food, local, mustard, port wine, recipes

Easy Chicken Vindaloo

2 December 2009 by local kitchen

I love me a good vindaloo. Vindaloo is always spicy, but I like it really spicy: make me cry, but give me a flavor profile beyond just “hot,” and I’ll call it a success. I can rarely get vindaloo spicy enough in Indian restaurants (I suppose I can’t blame them when they look dubiously at my pale, freckled face and fuzzy red head, ordering my vindaloo “really spicy.” They just assume that I am not used to “Indian-spicy.” Little do they know!). But the […]

Categories: chicken, hot chile peppers, main course, potato, quick & easy, rice, stew, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, Indian, local, quick & easy, recipes, spicy

Pepita Brittle

1 December 2009 by local kitchen

Candy making is not my forté. I’ve experimented many times in the past, usually while attempting holiday gifts, with toffee, pecan caramel turtles, candied orange peel, hard candy lemon drops, and I can’t tell you how many batches I’ve ruined and how many serious stovetop messes made me contemplate simply moving rather than facing the clean up. I seem to be forever overcooking the sugar/syrup, probably due to a cheap, inaccurate candy thermometer, resulting in caramels that would break your teeth and hard […]

Categories: candy, chocolate, dessert, non-local luxuries, nuts, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Dark Days: Goat Cheese, Chive and Cranberry Scones

29 November 2009 by local kitchen

I had every intention of making a local dinner of Flying Pigs pork cutlets stuffed with CSA frozen arugula, Nettle Meadow chevre and Cranberry Hill organic cranberries. Tai was drooling at the mere thought. However, as the afternoon waned I realized that I was just not in the mood for meat, even though the pork was thawing away on the counter. So I stuck Flying Pigs back in the fridge for tomorrow and made the same basic flavors (and ingredients) into […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, breads, breakfast, cheese, chives, cranberries, Dark Days Local, fall, herbs, quick & easy, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, whole grain breads

Fiery Habanero Mustard

28 November 2009 by local kitchen

At its simplest, prepared mustard is a basic mix of mustard seed and water, ground into a paste, and as such, could hardly be easier for the home cook. Mustard lovers may tell you, however, that the devil is in the details: which mustard seeds to use? which soaking liquid to use? Which vegetables, fruits, herbs or spices will flavor the mustard? This simple mustard gets its punch from fiery habanero chile peppers: yellow mustard seeds are soaked in habanero-infused […]

Categories: canning, condiments, hot chile peppers, mustard, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, food, local, recipes

Smoked Paprika & Orange Roasted Chicken

24 November 2009 by local kitchen

Smoked paprika is a rich and flavorful spice, with no real chile heat but the warmth of paprika, the smoky flavor of a wood fire and somehow, the flavor of bacon. This orange & smoked paprika paste yields a very flavorful bird; while I’ve been unable to get a crispy skin despite a few attempts, the meat is highly flavored with smoky paprika and tart-sweet orange, so it is a worthwhile recipe (and the carcass makes an amazing chicken stock). […]

Categories: chicken, citrus, fall, main course, roasting, winter, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, dinner, food, local, main course, orange, recipes, roasting, smoked paprika

Use It or Lose It! PB&J Cookies

22 November 2009 by local kitchen

I was rotating stock in the “pantry” the other day (aka “the garage“), separating 2008 home-canned goods from 2009 (Yes, my life is a thrill a minute! Don’t you want to be me?), when I realized that I had a couple of jars of homemade preserves leftover from May and June of ’08. As I try to use these up within about a year (and we’re well past that now) I decided it was high time these came upstairs to the fridge. […]

Categories: baking, dessert, jams, non-local luxuries, nuts, Use it or Lose it!, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes, thumbprint cookies, using jam

Winter Lager Mustard

16 November 2009 by local kitchen

I took a break from all sorts of apple recipes over the weekend to replenish Tai’s supply of my homemade mustard. We are down to one 4-oz jar of the last batch of cranberry habanero mustard, and the world knows no tragedy quite like the possibility of us running out of mustard, so a-mustard making I will go. Mustard is surprisingly easy to make. Although you need to soak the mustard seeds for a few hours, once that is done the whole process […]

Categories: condiments, mustard, non-local luxuries, wine, beer & liquor, winter, year round • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes