Category Archives: appetizer

Meyer Lemon Quichelets

21 January 2015 by local kitchen

Big box of Meyer lemons in the mail = Meyer lemon in EVERYTHING. For a few precious weeks, at least. This year is no exception: aside from the usual Meyer lemon in tea, in fizzy water, and in various boozier concoctions, I’ve roasted cauliflower & fennel with a couple of sliced Meyers, marinated chicken breasts in Meyer juice then broiled them with still more sliced lemon, perked up a chicken, black bean & vegetable soup, and made a Meyer version […]

Categories: appetizer, cheese, citrus, eggs, fennel, pastry, vegetarian, winter • Tags: cooking, eggs, food, local, recipes, starters, vegetarian

Cranberry, Chèvre & Pistachio Terrine

16 January 2015 by local kitchen

Back in the Fall, the folks at Lava sent me a bunch of their cast iron cookware to try. And even though a bunch of free cast iron sounds great on the face of it, initially I was leery: I told them that I’d be happy to test out their stuff, but that if I didn’t like it, I would not offer a giveaway nor recommend it to my readers; i.e. they were not going to buy my good opinion […]

Categories: appetizer, cheese, cranberries, holiday, nuts, winter • Tags: cooking, food, holiday, local, recipes, starters

Preserved Lemon Hummus

23 October 2014 by local kitchen

Strange but true: I ate some of the best hummus in Brazil. Smack-dab in the middle of the Amazon jungle, to be exact, about 1000 miles from nowhere, otherwise known as Manaus. While I and my intrepid band of World Cup travelers endured a purgatorial stay at the Hotel Brasil (an establishment that made you wonder what heinous crime you committed in a previous life to get yourself stuck there) in advance of the second US match, we spent a […]

Categories: appetizer, chickpeas, grains & legumes, mint, quick & easy, snack, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cooking, food, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Ramp & White Bean Fritters with Sriracha-Marmalade Sauce

25 April 2014 by local kitchen

“Oh, ramps,” I hear you sigh, sniffing delicately. “That’s so last year.” To be sure, ramp mania seems to have dimmed somewhat, after a strong showing in the opening years of the decade, to be replaced by new must-have food items such as artisanal toast and eggs that are scrambled in the shell. Which is a good thing, really, as ramps have been dangerously over-harvested in recent years: perhaps everyone has finally gotten the message about sustainable ramp foraging? Or, perhaps, it […]

Categories: appetizer, beans, leek, snack, spring, vegetarian, wild foods • Tags: beans, cooking, food, local, recipes, spring, vegetarian

Leftover Love: Chips + Dip

29 January 2014 by local kitchen

Well here we are folks: Day 7 of our Week of Leftovers. I’ve managed to post every day for a week, which is a small miracle in itself; and I’ve managed to come up with some inventive ways to fashion a week’s worth of meals out of celeriac soup, slow-roasted beef and a pot of beans. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little peek into my leftover-obsessed fridge. A week out, the last of the beef has gone into chili, the […]

Categories: appetizer, beans, condiments, parsley, snack, vegetarian, year round • Tags: beans, cooking, food, leftovers, local, quick & easy

Roasted Jalapeños With Goat Cheese & Smoky Chile Cherries

31 December 2013 by local kitchen

My New Year’s gift to you: an actual “quick & easy” recipe that is spicy, sweet, creamy, smoky & delicious. Suitable for a rollickin’ holiday party or a quiet nibble at home and easily adaptable to cheeses you have in the fridge and preserves in the pantry. Roasting the jalapeños mellows their spicy bite (or you can include a mix of milder small chiles, as I have below), while a short roast and quick broil browns the cheese while maintaining […]

Categories: appetizer, cherries, fall, holiday, hot chile peppers, winter • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, vegetarian

Rosemary Roasted Cashews

23 November 2013 by local kitchen

Have you heard the news? Nuts will save your life. Literally. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has analyzed nut consumption in nearly 175,000 health professionals over a span of 30 years. They found a 20% reduction in death from any cause in people who ate nuts every day. Twenty. percent. Let that sink in for a moment. Twenty percent lower incidence of heart disease. Of diabetes. Of cancer. Respiratory disease. Neurodegenerative disease. Stroke. Even infection. (How […]

Categories: appetizer, gifts, holiday, nuts, quick & easy, rosemary, snack, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, nibbles, nuts, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Fresh Herb Flatbreads

3 August 2013 by local kitchen

More herb lovin: this time, handfuls of mixed fresh herbs are tossed in a garlic-infused olive oil and spooned over skillet-grilled homemade naan. Sprinkle on a little salt, pepper and a touch of Gruyère cheese and you’ve got a bright, fresh, addictively delicious snack, appetizer, side dish, or, as I called it today: lunch. And dinner. Pretty sure it would be breakfast as well, if there were any left. Not quite a pizza, but definitely more substantial than a cracker, […]

Categories: appetizer, basil, breads, herbs, oregano, pizza, rosemary, side dish, summer, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, summer, vegetarian, whole grain breads

Spicy Indian Potato Balls with Fresh Coriander Chutney

23 June 2013 by local kitchen

We all experience recipe fails now and then: whether it’s a new technique that needs some practice to master, a new ingredient with a flavor profile you’re not used to, (a stubborn insistence on ignoring all the rules and forging blindly ahead <cough>) or simply an off day in the kitchen, it happens. While it is certainly irritating to invest time and money into a recipe and have it turn out “meh“, or worse, inedible, I try not to get […]

Categories: appetizer, cilantro, kale & leafy greens, potato, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian

Lemon Lime Linguine

6 March 2013 by local kitchen

I should be home by now. Curled up on my couch, exhausted from a long day’s travel, but happy to see my husband after nearly a week away, and excited by the thought of my own bed. Apparently Winter Storm Whatever-Silly-Name-We’ve-Picked-This-Week had other plans. I got up in the wee small hours of the morning, still dark outside, bleary-eyed from yet another fun night in San Francisco. My friend Christina graciously offered to drive me to the airport before she headed […]

Categories: appetizer, citrus, main course, spring, vegetarian, winter • Tags: citrus, cooking, food, local, recipes, spring, vegetarian, winter

Cook The Books! Chinese Porkstickers

22 February 2013 by local kitchen

I have issues, it would appear, with ground meat. Of the 500-odd recipes on this site, exactly one contains ground meat. It’s not something I’ve really noticed, but when I got around to thinking about this month’s Cook The Books (very late in the day, natch), it reared its ugly head. Because, you see, I wanted to participate: but I had not found time to scope out my tiny local library on the (extremely) off-chance that they would have Andrea […]

Categories: appetizer, pork, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: chinese, dumplings, food, local, pork, recipes

Pumpkin Spanakopita

6 February 2013 by local kitchen

Pumpkin spanakopita, bitches! Today the US men’s national soccer team kicks off the real deal of World Cup qualifying: The Hex. Ten games over the next eight months that will determine whether or not we go to The Big Show: Brazil 2014. The stakes are high, our fate is uncertain: of course I am nervous. So I am psyching myself up by watching inspiring US Soccer commercials, tacking “bitches!” (complete with obligatory fist pump) onto everything I say, and… making […]

Categories: appetizer, cheese, eggs, fall, kale & leafy greens, vegetarian, winter, winter squash • Tags: cooking, fall, food, local, pumpkin, recipes, starters, 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

Leek & Tomato Tart

29 September 2012 by local kitchen

This tart, my friends: this tart is the shizzle. I’ve made four of these in as many weeks and they have all been fabulous: quick, easy, adaptable and the best way I know to celebrate the swan song of tomato season. And yet, I can’t take any credit for it: the deceptively simple yet gorgeously flaky tart dough comes to us from France, via David Lebovitz (naturellement), with allium and fresh herb inspiration from Todd & Diane at White on Rice […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, leek, pizza, quick & easy, snack, summer, tomatoes, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, summer, vegetarian

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