Category Archives: dessert

Meyer Lemon Shortcake

1 February 2013 by local kitchen

I’ve been getting the most of out my Meyer lemons, if I do say so myself: one perfumed the cavity of this dancing chicken, some went into this marmalade, and this one, and yet another (cranberry + Meyer lemon) that I haven’t even told you about yet. I made this glowing, sunshiny Meyer curd, just to offset the drizzly, cold & grey January weather the other day, and then I candied one, with a bit of rosemary tossed into the […]

Categories: citrus, dessert, eggs, winter • Tags: citrus, cooking, dessert, food, recipes, winter

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes with Red Currant Preserves

24 July 2012 by local kitchen

Today is my friend Nadine’s birthday. In addition to a yearly tradition of my suffering through an early-morning yoga class with her (this year at the Bedford Post Inn Yoga Loft, which I will admit is a lovely space), I usually make her a birthday cake. It’s always chocolate, since she is a certified chocoholic, and often incorporates a seasonal berry, because what’s a July birthday without wineberries or blackberries or currants? This spring and summer have been so busy for me […]

Categories: chocolate, currants, dessert, mint, preserves, summer, year round • Tags: chocolate, cooking, dessert, food, gluten free, local, quick & easy, recipes

Rhubarb Cherry Ginger Crumble (Gluten-Free)

4 June 2012 by local kitchen

So, you know what happens now, right? Twenty-five pounds of rhubarb from Grandma’s garden that I need to work my way through means all rhubarb, all the time for the next 10 posts. I’m contemplating changing the blog name to Rhubarb Kitchen. I jest, I jest. Mostly. I know that some of you out there are not so fond of the pink stalks (perish the thought), so I will try not to deluge you with too many rhubarb recipes in a row. […]

Categories: baking, cherries, dessert, oats, rhubarb, spring, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: baking, cherries, cooking, dessert, food, gluten free, local, quick & easy, recipes, rhubarb

Blackberry Citrus Cake

15 April 2012 by local kitchen

Wow, did I put up a lot of blackberries last summer. I blame the gorgeous rolling hills at Greig Farm, and the excellent company, for picking, well, a whole lot of berries. Buckets and buckets. For which, now, I’m profoundly grateful: after berry-braised beef, and a blackberry-smothered birthday cake (with blackberry jam + cream cheese frosting!) for a certain newly-minted 8 year-old, not to mention jam and syrup and boozy berries galore, I’ve still got a couple of pounds in the […]

Categories: berries, breakfast, citrus, dessert, summer, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: berries, cake, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, whole grain

Blood Orange Curd + Bars

9 March 2012 by local kitchen

You thought citrus was done, didn’t you? You thought maybe, just maybe, I was going to get back to, I don’t know, eating locally? Oh, granted, I snuck some peel into this dinner, and added the last wrinkly kumquats to these roasted veg, but for the most part, it’s been All Quiet On The Citrus Front ’round these parts, for a few days at least. But the Ides of March are just around the corner (What?? Wasn’t it just Christmas?) and, what with […]

Categories: baking, citrus, dessert, whole wheat flour, winter • Tags: baking, bar, blood orange, citrus, cooking, dessert, food, recipes, winter

Mom’s Lemon Pound Cake

23 December 2011 by local kitchen

As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t learn to cook at my mother’s knee: my Mom, in fact, doesn’t really like to cook. It’s just not her thing; raising three children that were extremely picky eaters might have had something to do with that (there’s only so much excitement to be garnered from Shake ‘n Bake chicken legs and frozen corn niblets, after all). But what she may have lacked in the exciting-dinner department, she more than made up for in […]

Categories: baking, cake, citrus, dessert, holiday • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, dessert, food, holidays, local, quick & easy, recipes

Filbertines

15 December 2011 by local kitchen

Do you remember the Buck Pets? You might if you, like me, spent most of the late ’80’s and early ’90’s in tiny, beer-soaked music halls, clad in combat boots and excessive amounts of safety pins (including 7 in your left ear: never doubt that I am an overachiever in all walks of life), reveling in what was arguably some of the best music of the last two decades. What does this have to do with cookies, you ask? Well, not […]

Categories: baking, dessert, gifts, holiday, snack, year round • Tags: baking, cookies, cooking, food, holiday, local, recipes

Chicken Pot Pasties

27 November 2011 by local kitchen

We visited family in Maine for Thanksgiving and while I was happy to leave the task of roasting a 30-lb turkey to Tai’s Aunt Sue, I’m sort of bummed that I don’t have mountains of turkey leftovers to work my way through. Because this recipe was fantastic with cooked chicken but I’m sure would be equally wonderful with turkey: and with leftover Thanksgiving turkey gravy, some roasted carrots, creamed onions, maybe slivered green beans, you could create the entire filling from […]

Categories: 100% local, carrot, celery, cheese, chicken, fall, main course, pastry, pie, snack, thyme, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: chicken, food, hand pies, local, lunch, pasties, pastry, recipes, turkey

Nectarine Ginger Pie Filling

27 September 2011 by local kitchen

It’s almost October: the leaves are turning, candy corns are crowding the store shelves and pumpkin spiced lattes are all over the Internets. So why am I talking about nectarines? Peaches and nectarines are classically August: shouldn’t I be telling you about the butternut squash risotto I made last week? (Oh, and it was good.) But September is wacky that way: it truly straddles two seasons. You look around the farmer’s market and are spoiled for choice: tomatoes, eggplant and […]

Categories: canning, dessert, peaches, pie, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, nectarine, peach, preserving, recipes, summer

Rhubarb Blueberry Pie Filling

4 August 2011 by local kitchen

Last week, when I was valiantly trying to Jenga yet another head of kale into the fridge, I reached the familiar summer breaking point: “something’s got to go.” Turns out the most likely culprit was a partially-snacked-on quart of blueberries from the farmer’s market and a couple of pounds of rhubarb, found, and pounced upon in joy, just a few days before at Holbrook Farm. Did you know that a well-managed rhubarb plot can keep growing right into August, and sometimes into […]

Categories: berries, canning, pie, preserving, summer • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes, rhubarb, summer

Blueberry Crumble

2 August 2011 by local kitchen

Fruit this year seems to keep passing me by: I either miss the season altogether, or start frantically checking my local roster of U-pick farms just as the last of the berries/cherries/stone fruits are saying goodbye. Blueberries are no exception: I have yet to go blueberry picking and the season at Jones is winding down (I’m hoping to get there this week!). I’m less stressed about the blues, however, as I still have a couple of gallon Ziplocs in my freezer: I […]

Categories: baking, berries, dessert, nuts, oats, summer, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, blueberries, dessert, food, local, pie, quick & easy, recipes, summer, vegetarian, whole grains

Use It or Lose It! Jam + Cream Cheese Frosting

27 July 2011 by local kitchen

Nearly every year, I make at least two birthday cakes: one is for my friend Kami, a practically-grown-up girl of seven this April, and one is for Kami’s mother Nadine, who as of last weekend was old enough to have a seven year-old daughter but young enough to squeal with glee at the thought of birthday cake. I’ve had my trials (who can forget the Great Kami’s Birthday Cake Debacle of ’09) and my successes (the orange mousseline buttercream cake turned out particularly lovely) […]

Categories: baking, cake, cheese, dessert, jams, Use it or Lose it!, year round • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, dessert, food, frosting, local, quick & easy, recipes

Strawberry Yogurt Cake

30 June 2011 by local kitchen

My house has been invaded by ants. Not the big, nasty carpenter ants, but the tiny, black, almost-can’t-see-em sugar ants: we get them every June. It usually only lasts for a week or two: they congregate around the kitchen sink, for the water and the dropped crumbs, and I clean like a crazy woman and buy some ant traps, and they eventually disappear. Why June? I have no idea. Is this when they have a big population spike after the long, […]

Categories: baking, berries, breakfast, cake, dessert, grains & legumes, summer, whole wheat flour • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes, strawberries, whole grains

Flourless Chocolate Chipotle Cake

2 April 2011 by local kitchen

Have you noticed a lot of non-local ingredients cropping up on the blog of late? Citrus jam, orange chicken, honey roasted nuts? While I don’t make it a goal to eat 100% from my local foodshed (in part because I believe it is harshly restrictive for no good reason, but mostly, I suspect, because I don’t like rules) I do try to limit the non-local ingredients to occasional luxuries rather than every day ingredients. They’ve been showing up more often of […]

Categories: baking, cake, chocolate, dessert, hot chile peppers, year round • Tags: chiles, chocolate, cooking, dessert, food, gluten free, quick & easy, recipes

Strawberry Chipotle Preserves

4 March 2011 by local kitchen

Can you believe that I don’t have a single jar of strawberry jam left in the garage pantry? I feel like I spent half of last summer preserving strawberries, but in reality, I guess not: there was this Ferberesque strawberry rhubarb jam, but I made it in San Francisco and left it with my friend Christina; there was this Can Jam strawberry rhubarb & caramelized onion jam, but I made that way back in March with frozen berries (sensing a trend, here?); there was a […]

Categories: berries, canning, dessert, hot chile peppers, preserves, preserving, spring • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, dessert, ferber, food, local, preserving, recipes, spring, strawberry