Category Archives: holiday

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

Holiday Party Menu 2014

22 December 2014 by local kitchen

The menu for this year’s Christmas party was pretty epic, if I do say so myself: bourbon-glazed pork belly, savory cheddar shortbreads, grilled skirt steak tacos, an amazing maple-mustard pulled pork, and more nibbles than you think you could possibly go through, but go through we did. I never get the chance to take photos; the light is Christmas-tree festive, but horrible for photography, and I’m always too busy running around and cooking to even think of it (hence I’ve […]

Categories: holiday, winter • Tags: cooking, food, holiday, local, recipes

Kami’s Birthday Cake 2014

10 April 2014 by local kitchen

I loved this cake. I loved its perfectly imperfect messy abandon. I loved its sweet-tart Meyer cloud cream, made with the very last of my Meyer lemon stash, and generously dolloped between layers of cake. I loved those layers of cake: orange-zest-spiked, tender and moist, perfectly flat. I loved the droopy, thick & luscious cream cheese icing, made a glorious pinky-purple with a reduced beet purée, and I loved the finishing touch, a light sprinkle of homemade orange sugar, for […]

Categories: baking, cake, citrus, dessert, holiday, spring, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, recipes

Favorite Posts of 2013

2 January 2014 by local kitchen

Happy 2014! I know some of you are back at work today (and those of you in the Northeast are wondering if the year’s first #snowpocalypse will send you home early) while some of you may feel that vacation is just starting: no more parties, no more traveling, no more commitments, just you, the couch and a pile of movies to keep you company. So, whether you are bored at work, wishing you were home playing in the snow, or […]

Categories: holiday, year round • Tags: 2013, best of, cooking, food, local, recipes

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

Use It or Lose It! Finnish Jam Tarts

9 December 2013 by local kitchen

My great-grandfather emigrated from Finland. From which area of the country, I have no idea, since talking about our roots is not something that we really do in my family. Despite the fact that I remember him (although I thought, as a child of 3 or so, that he was my grandmother’s husband, not her father: there’s no difference between 60 and 80 years old when you are a kid, I guess), I know very little about him, save his […]

Categories: baking, dessert, holiday, Use it or Lose it!, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, cookies, cooking, food, holiday, local, recipes

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

Double Chocolate Ombré Cake {Kami’s Cake 2013}

25 April 2013 by local kitchen

For longer than I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve been making birthday cakes for my friend Kami. There have been successes (a fantastic strawberry-pink yellow cake with a piped frosting garden by Tai the Pastry Chef, a lovely golden orange mousseline cake with royal icing butterflies) and disasters (an attempt at this cake that looked, well, absolutely nothing like that, and the Great Kami Cake Disaster of Aught-Nine); regardless, there has always been fun and laughter, good food and love. And while […]

Categories: baking, cake, holiday, spring, Use it or Lose it!, year round • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, dessert, holiday, recipes

Mini Linguiça Drop Muffins

27 January 2012 by local kitchen

We interrupt this citrus-filled January for a horse of a different color: mini linguiça drop muffins! I had a dream about these muffins last night: spicy, smoky linguiça, sharp cheddar cheese, tangy buttermilk, nutty whole wheat flour. I woke up with my stomach growling, a woman on a mission to recreate my dream. (On a side note, when I’m actually dreaming about processed pork products, I think it’s safe to say I might have overdosed, just a wee bit, on citrus. […]

Categories: appetizer, baking, breads, breakfast, cheese, holiday, oregano, pork, sausage, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, linguica, local, quick & easy, recipes, whole grain breads, 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

Holiday Party Food

12 December 2011 by local kitchen

Happy December, all! It’s been awfully quiet around here of late: since I started the blog nearly three years ago, I don’t think I’ve ever gone for two weeks without posting. But a bum ankle is keeping me out of the kitchen and a string of lackluster recipe attempts (good, but not great, slow-roasted spareribs; not-quite-fluffy-enough cornmeal biscuits; baby-food-esque carrot soup) have not inspired me to share. It is also, of course, the Craziest Happiest Time of The Year, and I’ve […]

Categories: holiday, winter • Tags: cooking, food, holiday, local, party, recipes

The Ones That Got Away

24 November 2011 by local kitchen

Happy Thanksgiving!

Categories: 100% local, holiday • Tags: local, thanksgiving

Use It or Lose It! Cranberry Marmalade Sauce

24 November 2011 by local kitchen

For a truly last-minute cranberry sauce: bag o’ cranberries + jar o’ marmalade + 20-minute simmer = Thanksgiving cranberry perfection! If you have a jar of marmalade that set like a rock (like mine of last year), check out my recipe below. If yours came out a bit loose, check out Shae’s version, a cranberry-marm-apple relish. Either way, you can’t go wrong; cranberries are always good. Enjoy the day, everyone! ———————————————————– Cranberry Marmalade Sauce INGREDIENTS 2 cups cranberries, fresh or […]

Categories: cranberries, fall, holiday, preserving, sauces, Use it or Lose it!, winter • Tags: berries, condiments, cooking, cranberries, fall, food, holiday, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes, thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Ideas

17 November 2011 by local kitchen

Can you believe it’s only a week away? Where has the year gone? It’s been too quiet in my kitchen (not to mention my blog) of late: I took a rather spectacular tumble while hiking across the street last week and proceeded to limp home 3 miles with a throbbing ankle and a healthy dose of humility. Since then I’ve been thumping around the house with my baseball-bat-turned-cane and spending much quality time with late 90’s TV via Netflix. Ah, […]

Categories: fall, holiday • Tags: cooking, fall, food, holiday, local, recipes, thanksgiving