Category Archives: dessert

Use It or Lose It! Apple Walnut Parmesan Crumble

1 March 2011 by local kitchen

Sometimes I am lazy. Often, especially in late winter it seems, I just can’t work up the motivation to put together a fancy dessert, or even to roll out a pie crust (I blame the lack of Vitamin D). But, even in winter, friends come to visit, or Tai works a week of 15-hour days back-to-back and I can’t just crack open a box of Entenmann’s and say “Here you go, kids!” It’s just not my style. But I can do the next […]

Categories: apples, baking, cheese, dessert, fall, oats, quick & easy, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: apples, baking, cooking, dessert, fall, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian, winter

Use It or Lose It! Glazed Blueberry Tart with Lime Curd

17 February 2011 by local kitchen

We had a dinner guest last night, a former colleague and my former boss, in fact. We’ve both moved on in our careers since then, but I’m not above trying to impress the old boss, nor above trying to impress anyone who tastes my cooking for the first time, if truth be told. I wanted an impressive dessert, but I’ve been absolutely swamped with work this week, so it needed to be fairly easy to throw together. I had made […]

Categories: berries, citrus, dessert, Use it or Lose it!, winter, year round • Tags: baking, berries, blueberries, cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes, tart

The Other Football

5 February 2011 by local kitchen

Haven’t decided yet what you’re cooking for the Superbowl? Just in case the other 7,000 “big game” round-ups out there haven’t inspired, here are a few ideas from my kitchen. Enjoy the game tomorrow tonight – and since I have lots of friends from Pennsylvania (and not so many in Wisconsin) – Go Steelers although I live in New York, I was born & raised in Boston: Go Pats! ———————————————————– Finger Food Nachos (wow ’em with homemade Refried Beans and homemade Corn Tortilla chips!) Crispy Baked […]

Categories: appetizer, dessert, holiday, main course, winter • Tags: appetizers, chili, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, superbowl

Eggless Oatmeal Cookies

18 January 2011 by local kitchen

Hey, guess what? The weather is nasty. Well, it is winter after all, and it is the Northeast. Snow, sleet and freezing rain are to be expected, but a steady pummeling of “wintry mix” (that most cruel of winter weather euphemisms), temperatures hovering in the mid 20’s, and ice slicking the already-two-feet-worth of snow on the ground is reason enough to make me want to curl up on the couch with a mug of tea and a good book (or, in real life, a […]

Categories: baking, chocolate, dessert, oats, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cookies, cooking, dessert, eggless, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Browned Butter Rice Krispie Treats

4 January 2011 by local kitchen

You know how I’ve been organizing? Well, I had half a bag of these gigundo marshmallows leftover from Tai’s birthday weekend: seriously, these things were huge, too big for roasting over a fire, really, as the middle did not get melty even when you burned the crap out of the outside (my preferred marshmallow ‘technique’ – set ’em fire, blow ’em out, enjoy). And since my organizing fever tackled the Dread Food Cabinet (no, not “dreaded;” “dread” as in Dread Pirate Roberts), […]

Categories: dessert, non-local luxuries, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, dessert, food, quick & easy, recipes, rice krispie treats

Use it or Lose it! Drunken Cherry Pie

30 November 2010 by local kitchen

Hands up – who still has turkey? Yep, I’m with you, sista. Even though we got a small bird (11.5 lbs), and we’ve been eating turkey steadily since Thursday, there is a lot left. We don’t eat a lot of meat in general, so at 3 to 4 ounces at a time… well, it’s going to take a while. I’m going to have to make a turkey soup, or chili, or pot pie, or something (I know – shocking revelations at […]

Categories: baking, cherries, dessert, fall, pastry, pie, Use it or Lose it!, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: baking, cherries, cooking, dessert, drunken, food, leaf lattice, local, pie, recipes, vegetarian

Peach Preserves with Forsythia & Chile

24 August 2010 by local kitchen

I know it’s Tuesday morning and all, but I need you to do something for me: run, don’t walk, to your nearest peach orchard or farm stand, grab a bag of peaches (before they disappear), and make this preserve. This, my friends, could very well be the perfect peach preserve: sweet yet tangy, beautiful texture of plump slices of fruit in a just-barely-set jam, just the right floral note from the forsythia and the sweet heat finish of fiery pequin peppers […]

Categories: breakfast, canning, dessert, peaches, preserves, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, dessert, food, local, preserving, recipes

Pirate Peaches

17 August 2010 by local kitchen

An oldie but a goodie, I’ve made this peach rum sauce for three years running and it always disappears quickly. This is the first year, however, that I’ve used The Kraken rum, yet – how could I resist? Not only does it conjure up images of sandy beaches, swaying palms, and swoon-worthy pirates, it happens to be delicious. Added to peaches and three kinds of unrefined sugar? It’s delectable. Enjoy it on ice cream, over pound cake or cheesecake. Have […]

Categories: canning, dessert, peaches, preserving, sauces, summer, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cooking, dessert, food, local, preserving, recipes

Procrastinaty Peach Butter

12 August 2010 by local kitchen

I’ve noticed a bizarre phenomenon with peaches this year: although my peaches were quite firm, some rock hard, when I picked them (as I mentioned in the last post), they began to brown and rot very quickly, many of them in less than 24 hours. Wondering if this could be specific to the peaches at Fishkill Farm, I tweeted about it and instantly heard back from several tweeps in the Northeast saying the same exact thing: rock to rot in a […]

Categories: breakfast, canning, dessert, peaches, preserving, spreads, summer • Tags: breakfast, canning, cooking, dessert, food, local, preserving, recipes

Peach Chocolate Dessert Sauce

10 August 2010 by local kitchen

Peach chocolate sauce, the first of many peach preserves to come, rolled out of the canner this morning at far-too-early o’clock. In case you missed the discussion on Twitter, Tai, Alison & I went peach picking at Fishkill Farms on Sunday. It was hot & sunny, then it rained, then it was hot & sunny again. We picked, and picked, and then picked some more: 40 lbs of peaches later (and 2 quarts of nectarines, and 3 quarts of Italian plums, […]

Categories: canning, chocolate, dessert, peaches, preserving, sauces, summer, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cooking, dessert, food, local, preserving, recipes

Red Raspberry & Dark Chocolate Refrigerator Jam

5 August 2010 by local kitchen

“So what convinced you to sacrifice good chocolate to a jam?” Nadine said. I had to laugh. My friend Nadine is a certifed chocoholic, as am I, and like most chocoholics, tends to like her chocolate in its purest form: chocolate. Whether it be melted into a cake center, heated as a drink, or a sweet square morsel after dinner, good quality chocolate is so purely indulgent, in and of itself, that it seems the ultimate in lily gilding to gussy […]

Categories: berries, chocolate, dessert, jams, preserving, summer, year round • Tags: berries, chocolate, cooking, dessert, food, local, preserving, recipes

Chipotle Bacon Caramels

29 July 2010 by local kitchen

With all these zucchini, eggplant, scallions and cukes to deal with, it seems more than a little ludricrous to be making candy right now. Not to mention that standing over a pot of boiling sugar in the height of summer is not what everyone would choose to do. Then again, I’m known for my less-than-conventional decisions, not to mention my ludicrousness (ludicrosity?). And sometimes a girl just needs bacon. And candy. Or bacon candy. I know what you’re thinking; bacon […]

Categories: candy, dessert, pork, year round • Tags: bacon, caramel, chipotle, cooking, dessert, food, homemade candy, local, pork, recipes

Strawberry Syrup

20 July 2010 by local kitchen

I left for South Africa in early June, when strawberries were peaking here but I had six million other things that I needed to do before the trip. Tai spent an afternoon strawberry picking at Jones Family Farms up in Shelton and about all I had time to do was hull them and toss them in the chest freezer. Since I’ve been back I’ve managed to grab a little time, in between heat waves, to thaw a big bag of strawberries, collect the juice, […]

Categories: berries, canning, condiments, dessert, preserving, spring • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Sour Cherry & Almond Preserves

8 July 2010 by local kitchen

I got up at 6:30 am on Tuesday morning, when it was a mere 84 degrees outside, in order to make cherry preserves before the thermometer hit triple digits again. Why, you ask, am I making jam during a heat wave? Is it self-reliance or self-flaggelation? Is it a New England Yankee refusal-to-let-adversity-bring-me-down attitude or a belligerent New Yorker screw-you-weather-you’re-not-the-boss-of-me? Is it so that I can don my holier-than-thou, local-organic-sustainable hairshirt and proudly proclaim “I made jam during the Great Heatwave of […]

Categories: breakfast, canning, cherries, dessert, nuts, preserves, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cherries, cooking, food, local, recipes

Can Jam: Black Cherry, Rhubarb & Red Wine Preserves

24 June 2010 by local kitchen

You might think I’m stuck in a can-jammin’ rut: last month, strawberry, rhubarb & Amaretto sauce. This month, swap sweet black cherries for the strawberries, red wine for the Amaretto, and Bob’s your uncle, it’s practically the same recipe. Except it’s oh so not. When I think of preserves, this recipe is exactly what comes to mind: chunks of fruit, just barely broken down by a quick-as-you-can boil, suspended in a thick, syrupy glaze that is not stiff enough to […]

Categories: Can Jam, canning, cherries, dessert, jams, preserving, rhubarb, spring, summer, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cooking, food, preserving, recipes