Category Archives: year round

Lina Cisco’s Bean Spread

6 March 2009 by local kitchen

In light of the ongoing Great Dried Bean Challenge ’09, I’ve been searching on-line, and in my various cookbooks, for heirloom bean recipes. I’ve come to the conclusion that there are basically three beans in America: white, red, and black. The white beans are almost always Great Northern or cannellini, the red beans are kidney or pinto (a type of kidney bean) and the black beans just “black.” So imagine my surprise when, thinking I might try to grow & […]

Categories: heirloom beans, herbs, parsley, vegetarian, year round • Tags: beans, cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian

Sausage, Herb & Mozzarella Bread

6 March 2009 by local kitchen

It’s been a crazy week. My business tends to be feast or famine; this week has defnitely been a feast, work-wise, but a famine, cooking-wise. I’ve had no time, in between 12-hour days at the computer, to cook a thing and I realized today how much I missed it. Cooking, and most especially baking bread, can be enormously relaxing. There’s a science to measuring and combining the ingredients that is soothing in it’s detail and familiar rhythms; kneading the dough […]

Categories: baking, breads, cheese, fall, pork, sausage, spring, winter, year round • Tags: cheese, cooking, food, local, pork, recipes, whole grain breads

30-Minute Mozzarella

5 March 2009 by local kitchen

Here is another great recipe from Ricki Carroll’s Home Cheese Making. This recipe makes a delicious mozzarella that has all of the characteristics of the milk used to make it so can be endlessly varied. It really is a very quick recipe – it may not take you only 30 minutes on your first try, but once you get the hang of it, it will go very quickly. It’s faster for me to make this cheese than to go to […]

Categories: cheese, milk, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cheese, cooking, food, local, recipes

Cider-Braised Pork Shoulder with Caramelized Onion Sauce

28 February 2009 by local kitchen

It’s not hard to get good flavor from a heritage pork shoulder, nicely browned on the outside then braised for hours in a low oven, until the meat is moist, juicy and falling-apart tender. Add some fresh-pressed apple cider to the mix, and a healthy dose of caramelized onion, and you’ve got a sweet-savory mix that is out of this world. This is one of Tai’s favorite dishes and the relative ease of preparation belies the moans & groans of […]

Categories: 100% local, apples, braising, pork, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, dinner, fall, food, local, main course, pork, recipes, winter

12-Grain Pizza Dough

24 February 2009 by local kitchen

Several times now friends have told me that this is the “best pizza crust ever.” Such superlatives have decreasing meaning in our superlative-rich culture, when “best laxative ever” can be tossed off without batting an eye, yet, for any cook who enjoys giving pleasure through the food that he or she prepares, they are wonderful words indeed. This dough is suitable for a thick or a thin crust pizza; either way it is chewy, with great crunch from the multi-grains […]

Categories: breads, pizza, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, pizza, recipes, whole grain breads

Cheddar Scallion Scones

19 February 2009 by local kitchen

These cheddar scallion scones serve as my basic savory scone recipe and I’ve made dozens of different versions over the years. I’ve since come to believe that the scones turn out even better with just a little butter in the dough (duh) and so have updated the recipe below to include a small amount (2 tbsp) of butter. I still call these my “cheater” scones, as I don’t work the butter into the flour, just toss in small chunks and let them […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, breads, cheese, quick & easy, scallions, vegetarian, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, spring, vegetarian, whole grain breads

Red Chile Chicken & Cilantro Pesto Salad

18 February 2009 by local kitchen

I love when I can pull a bunch of stuff out of the pantry or the freezer and whip up a healthy, delicious meal in under 30 minutes. Of course, when that happens, usually some form of preparation has happened along the way; you can either buy prepared foods, thereby allowing a multi-national corporation into your kitchen, or you can do it yourself and know where your food came from, how it was prepared, and how it tasted at the peak […]

Categories: chicken, cilantro, hot chile peppers, main course, side dish, winter, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Dried Red Chile Sauce

18 February 2009 by local kitchen

As the end of February creeps closer, I’ve been poking through the pantry and the freezer thinking of ways to use up my winter stores: before we know it, the tender shoots of Spring will be appearing in the fields, yards, and farmer’s markets near me, and the dried & frozen fruits and vegetables that have been so wonderful all winter long will lose their appeal. I collect dried chiles like other people collect Fiestaware: for a chile-head like me, a new or intriguing variety is nearly […]

Categories: hot chile peppers, sauces, Use it or Lose it!, vegetarian, year round • Tags: condiments, cooking, food, local, Mexican, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Spicy Oven Fries

16 February 2009 by local kitchen

These smell so good when they are cooking, it actually hurts. Hurts so good. Adapted loosely from a recipe in Greatest Ever Potato, Papplewick Press, Nottingham, UK. ————————————————————– Spicy Oven Fries INGREDIENTS 2 lb mixed potatoes (purple, red, gold, Russet, sweet – whatever is on hand) 3 tbsp (1.5 oz) butter, melted, or olive oil, or local sunflower oil 1 tsp chile powder (ground from home-dried red chiles from Madura Farm) 1 and 1/2 tsp sea salt METHODS Scrub potatoes well […]

Categories: 100% local, fall, hot chile peppers, potato, side dish, snack, vegetarian, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, fries, local, potato, recipes, snacks

Beanpot

15 February 2009 by local kitchen

Update, February 2013: It’s fun to go back in time and read some of these early posts on the blog. While I can think back to the time when I didn’t cook with dried beans, I had forgotten that I didn’t “cook with beans all that often.” It seems crazy to me now, when rarely a week goes by without a pot of beans simmering away on my stove, but I think that’s the beauty of learning to cook with […]

Categories: beans, heirloom beans, winter, year round • Tags: beans, cooking, food, local, recipes, techniques

Spinach Ricotta Gnocchi

14 February 2009 by local kitchen

Have you ever made gnocchi from scratch? Chances are, if you have, your first attempt was less than stellar: dense, miniature hockey pucks of gummy dough rather than light, airy pillows of flavor, beautifully grooved and dimpled to catch your favorite sauce. Gnocchi are not difficult, any more than homemade bread or scones are difficult, but it does take a bit of practice, as well as a bit of confidence in the kitchen, to get it right. Maybe that’s why […]

Categories: 100% local, cheese, herbs, pasta, spinach, spring, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, Italian, local, pasta, recipes, whole grain flour

Whole Milk Ricotta

9 February 2009 by local kitchen

Ricotta cheese is typically made from the whey that is leftover from making ewe’s milk cheese. This whole milk version is similar in technique, yet you can make it from milk that you pick up at the market (or farm) and it has a much higher yield than whey ricotta. Homemade ricotta is ridiculously easy to make, tastes delicious, and you control the texture; rich & creamy or drier with a more intense cheese flavor. The ingredients are exactly as […]

Categories: 100% local, cheese, meat & dairy, milk, preserving, quick & easy, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes

Cranberry-Orange Scones

6 February 2009 by local kitchen

It’s that time of year again: the dreaded Valentine’s Day looms, like a visit to the DMV or a root canal, just around the corner. It was quite ingenious, I will admit, to invent a holiday that irritates everyone: single, married, or dating, there is just no getting away from V-day. So, what’s a girl to do? I don’t really know, other than avoiding going out to dinner (it’s got to be the worst night of the year for a restaurant […]

Categories: baking, breads, breakfast, citrus, cranberries, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, berries, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, whole grain breads, winter

Whole Wheat Crackers

2 February 2009 by local kitchen

Somehow, I find, it’s always the simplest homemade foods that impress people the most: mustard, pasta, crackers. I’ve made these crackers many, many times over the years and people are always impressed: in fact, more than once I’ve heard, “It never occurred to me that you could make crackers!” But make crackers you can, and quite easily too. At their most basic, crackers are simply flour, water and a bit of fat, with a healthy dose of salt for flavor. […]

Categories: 100% local, snack, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, recipes, whole grain breads

Rich Chicken Stock

30 January 2009 by local kitchen

I confess I often use canned chicken stock (well, “boxed” is more appropriate now, I guess) or bouillon-type base. Yes, I know, not very local of me (not to mention not very ‘chef-like’) but my efforts to eat lower on the food chain result in eating less meat in general and the need for soup stock definitely overwhelms the amount of stock bones that pile up in the freezer. Nevertheless, making your own stock is the way to go, whenever you […]

Categories: 100% local, chicken, soup, stock, year round