Category Archives: preserving

Maple Bourbon Peach Butter

14 September 2012 by local kitchen

I’m very late to peaches this year: I picked up my first batch at last weekend’s farmer’s market and let them ripen for a few days on the counter while I thought about what I wanted to do with them. Since they were tiny, organic and late-season fruit, I couldn’t face peeling them: my 3 and 1/2 lbs must have been about 25 peaches. I decided on a peach butter, since I hadn’t made one in a couple of years, […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, peaches, preserving, spreads, summer, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, peaches, preserving, recipes, summer

Basic Red Salsa

6 September 2012 by local kitchen

I realized the other day, when in possession of a bushel of organically grown tomatoes from Fishkill Farms I started thinking about my must-haves for tomato preserving this year, that I had never published my basic red salsa recipe. There are lots of salsa recipes represented here at Local Kitchen, both fresh & canned: witness the ludicrously spicy 9-chile salsa, the smoky-sweet grilled corn salsa, a roasted tomato & chipotle salsa, and the my-Spanish-gender-agreement-sucks salsa rojo. There is the classic […]

Categories: bell pepper, canning, cilantro, hot chile peppers, preserving, salsa, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, summer, tomatoes, vegetarian

Marinated Dried Eggplant

27 August 2012 by local kitchen

“Eggplant bacon.” The very words are enough to make me wrinkle up my nose in distaste. One, because I don’t agree with the basic concept of trying to make one food imitate another (I like veggie burgers as much as the next girl, but let’s be honest: they taste nothing like a beef burger), and two, because, well: eggplant is gross and bacon is BACON. I wish I liked eggplant, I really do. Especially this year: it seems to be […]

Categories: drying, eggplant, preserving, snack, summer • Tags: cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, vegetarian

Plum, Nectarine & Chile Jam

25 August 2012 by local kitchen

I’ve been a slacker on putting up fruit this summer. Sure, I picked some strawberries: but I only got 10 lbs and I froze most of those (though I did make two small batches of jam, including a strawberry, rhubarb & ginger knockout that I never got around to telling you about). There was a ton of rhubarb, and 40 lbs of cherries, so maybe I just petered out early? Because blueberries have passed me by, except for a early, short […]

Categories: canning, hot chile peppers, jams, peaches, plums, preserving • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserves, preserving, recipes

Garden Antipasto

19 August 2012 by local kitchen

Eggplant, eggplant, eggplant. Never have we received so much eggplant in the CSA: growing eggplants must be fond of torrential rain storms interspersed with bright, sunny days. The peppers have been no slouch either: pale green Cubanelles, tiny, dark purple bells, fat red and yellow sweet peppers, they’ve all been making their way into my meals of late, but there are so many that they need to find their way into my freezer and pantry as well. Enter canned antipasto: […]

Categories: appetizer, bell pepper, canning, condiments, eggplant, pickles, preserving, summer, thyme • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Nectarine Preserves with Watermelon & Mint

6 August 2012 by local kitchen

I love nectarines. I like them much better than peaches, for eating out of hand: I prefer the smooth skin to a peach’s fuzz; I like them firm, almost under-ripe, so that they crunch like an apple rather than smoosh like a peach; I love the gradations in color, of both the skin and the pinky-maroon flecks around the pit. Most of all, I love the taste: bright & tart, where the peach can sometimes be unctuously sweet, and with […]

Categories: canning, melon, mint, peaches, preserves, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Heatwave Preserving: Crock-Pot Cherry Butter

30 June 2012 by local kitchen

The heat is upon us again, my friends: it’s 90 degrees in my neck of the woods this afternoon and it was 94 yesterday. Not nearly as drastic as most of the rest of the country (nor as frightening as the conditions in Colorado right now) but still: hot. Last week, in the midst of a few back-to-back 96-degree days, I brought home a boatload of sweet cherries, following a lovely, lazy afternoon visit with Julia, her son splashing in the […]

Categories: canning, cherries, preserving, spreads, summer • Tags: canning, cherries, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Smoky Chipotle Cherries

26 June 2012 by local kitchen

Cherry season is upon us, coming and going fast & furious like nearly every other fruit in the short Northeast summer. And while cherries did not fare well in the Hudson Valley this year (again!), due to a warmer-than-seasonal March, followed by freezing temps and lots of rain in April, there are some out there to be found. Belltown Orchards in Glastonbury, CT is open for you-pick of both sweet & sour cherries (assuming they still have some left); I’ve […]

Categories: canning, cherries, hot chile peppers, preserves, preserving, summer, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cherries, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Food in Jars: Winner!

23 June 2012 by local kitchen

Thanks so much to everyone who entered and who shared with us their one-and-only, most important preserve of the year. I was fascinated by your responses: by far the majority favored home-canned tomatoes, whether whole, crushed, sauced or fire-roasted, and I have to agree: I go into paranoia-overstock-mode with tomatoes these days, ever since the heartbreak of the 2009 tomato blight. But for all of the tomato love, there were many of you dedicated to berry jams, sour cherries & plums, […]

Categories: canning, community, preserving, tools & gear • Tags: canning, food in jars, giveaway, preserving

Orange Rhubarb Butter + A Giveaway!

17 June 2012 by local kitchen

Can you believe that rhubarb is still with us? Believe it: I got those lovely stalks above just yesterday at the farmer’s market. Strawberries may get all the glory of Spring, but they are here and gone in flash. Rhubarb, now: rhubarb pokes its head up in early May and just keeps on keeping on, well into July. Is it any wonder that I love it so? You know what else popped up in May? Marisa’s new cookbook, Food In […]

Categories: canning, citrus, preserving, rhubarb, spreads • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, rhubarb

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Canning Tips & Tricks From Your Favorite Bloggers (+ Me!)

10 June 2012 by local kitchen

Do you remember way back in May (3 whole weeks ago) when I said that the time to prepare for preserving was now, because once the season hits, you’ll be overwhelmed? I was right. The fridge is full to overflowing with the first CSA of the season (greens, greens and more greens!), I still have Grandma’s rhubarb to work through, the European Championships and World Cup qualifying have started, and somehow, people still want me to work for a living. […]

Categories: canning, community, preserving, techniques, tools & gear • Tags: canning, cooking, preserving, techniques

Rhubarb Prosecco Jelly

30 May 2012 by local kitchen

Even before I brought home 25 lbs of rhubarb from Tai’s Grandma’s massive Maine rhubarb patch, I had begun the season’s rhubarbapalooza with about 8 lbs of gorgeous, fat and deeply magenta stalks courtesy of Madura Farm. Since the pale pinky-green stalks are far more common in New England, I pounced on these beauties, and knew that I would save them for preserves where color counts: rhubeena and jelly. Last year, when I was leafing through my new copy of Sherri Brooks […]

Categories: canning, jellies, preserving, rhubarb, spring, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, rhubarb, spring

Preparing for Preserving Season

14 May 2012 by local kitchen

This weekend, in addition to enjoying the glorious weather, getting to the farmer’s market, and finally getting my hands on some rhubarb, I did something strange: I planned ahead. Planning: it’s not something I do a lot of in my everyday life. Oh, I do it all the time in my work life: plans, and contingency plans, worst-case sceanario and best-case scenario. Every conceivable outcome of a study or analysis has to be considered and planned for in order to […]

Categories: preserving, spring, tools & gear • Tags: canning, planning, preserving

Bubbly Meyer Marmalade

19 February 2012 by local kitchen

Tonight is the last episode of Season 2 of Downton Abbey. I know: I’m sad too. It went by so fast! Alas, the war, and the season, is over my friends, and we have nothing to do but contemplate the long, dreary, Downton-less months until Season 3 (with Shirley MacLaine! Shirley and Maggie, throwing down 1920’s style. I can hardly wait.) So what do I, a lowly food blogger with neither manor house, liveried servants, nor fabulous peacock-feathered hats, have to offer you as […]

Categories: canning, citrus, preserves, preserving, wine, beer & liquor, winter • Tags: canning, champagne, citrus, cooking, food, Meyer lemon, preserving, recipes

Meyer Mandarin Marmalade

6 February 2012 by local kitchen

Ah, New England: I’m so sorry. That one was a heartbreaker. In those last, crucial seconds, being one of those who remember it well, I kept saying, “Flutie did it!,” while Tai looked on pityingly, saying, “game over.” Ah, well. Until next year. New York: congratulations. It was a brilliant win. Time to do what you do best: celebrate! Whether you are mourning or celebrating today, or just trying to get on with your Monday after last night’s commercial viewing, it’s […]

Categories: canning, citrus, preserves, preserving, winter • Tags: canning, citrus, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, winter