Category Archives: celery

Rainy Day Chicken Soup with Wild Rice & Barley

23 October 2016 by local kitchen

Hey-howdy, neighbor! Here it is, nearly November, and I’m realizing that this is my third post of 2016. Maybe I’ll squeeze in one more this year so I can at least average one a quarter. #cough So there it is. There are reasons, good reasons, mostly, for my dilatory posting history over the last year: work suddenly picked up, a lot, with a half dozen active clients and several big projects to juggle at once; work travel has also been […]

Categories: 100% local, carrot, celery, chicken, fall, soup, winter • Tags: chicken, fall, soup, whole grains, winter

Leftover Love: Swiss Chard Lasagna with Celeriac Bechamel

26 January 2014 by local kitchen

“Soup in a lasagna,” I hear you say. “She’s finally gone completely ’round the bend.” Perhaps, Grasshopper. Perhaps. But I submit to you: what is a creamy, velvety celeriac soup anyway if not essentially a savory, vegetable-heavy white sauce? And, while technically not a bechamel, as the sauce is not thickened with a roux but with celeriac soup, “celeriac bechamel” sounded much better than “savory vegetable white sauce.” Branding, my dears: branding. Leftovers need it. Not that this lasagna needs […]

Categories: 100% local, carrot, celery, cheese, fennel, kale & leafy greens, main course, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, winter • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian, winter

Leftover Love: Celeriac Soup

23 January 2014 by local kitchen

I will never in a 1,000,000 years understand the hate-on for leftovers. What could possibly be wrong with having delicious meals in the fridge that you don’t have to cook? How does this not make breakfast stress-free? Workday lunches more economical and nutritious? Busy weeknight dinners a breeze? Are we so entranced by the variety of options available to us in the modern age – Mexican on Tuesday, Thai on Wednesday, Italian on Thursday – that we find eating the same […]

Categories: celery, soup, vegetarian, winter • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, soup, vegetarian

Toasted Couscous Salad with Fennel & Kumquats

9 January 2014 by local kitchen

Can we talk about the tyranny of 5-ingredient recipes? I mean, what line of bullshit have we swallowed that makes us think that limiting a recipe to just five ingredients will make our lives better, simpler, or “down right irresistible?” Don’t get me wrong: we all know that the essence of good cooking is restraint. But to arbitrarily limit ourselves to only five ingredients (not counting salt, pepper, water, a splash of olive oil, a dash of lemon, a…..) out of […]

Categories: cabbage, celery, citrus, fennel, grains & legumes, quick & easy, salad, side dish, vegetarian, winter • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, salad, vegetarian, winter

100% Local: Summer Tomato & Corn Soup

25 August 2013 by local kitchen

From a wonderful trip to San Francisco & wine country for the happiest of reasons, my friend Melissa’s 50th birthday, to an unexpected and bittersweet trip to Boston for the saddest of reasons, August has sped by in a whirlwind of trains, planes and automobiles, good times with old friends and new, many laughs and not a few tears. I’m well behind on the season’s preserving, but in between trips I did manage to whip up this fabulous light, summery […]

Categories: 100% local, celery, corn, oregano, soup, summer, tomatoes, vegetarian, zucchini • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, summer, vegetarian

Tepary Bean, Pork & Winter Vegetable Soup

5 January 2013 by local kitchen

Have you ever had tepary beans? Apparently, once upon a time, they were an important food source for Native Americans in the American Southwest, and the history of their use dates back over 6,000 years in Mexico. Yet, until recently, I had never heard of the tepary bean (whose name seems to derive from t’pawi, Papago Indian for “it’s a bean”) and without Rancho Gordo, I probably would not have been able to find them. Tepary beans are drought-resistant, native […]

Categories: carrot, celery, heirloom beans, leek, main course, pork, scallions, soup, winter • Tags: cooking, food, heirloom beans, local, pork, recipes, soup, winter

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

Chunky Black Bean Soup

2 November 2011 by local kitchen

How many black bean soup recipes does one blog need? Apparently at least one more. I made this soup on Sunday afternoon, in the midst of a (another) 3-day power outage from the latest freak storm, this one an October snow storm that dumped more than a foot of wet, heavy snow in our neighborhood. Tree branches cracked like gunshots, telephone poles snapped like toothpicks: our neighborhood is a mess. Most of Connecticut and our little swathe of New York […]

Categories: 100% local, beans, carrot, celery, garlic, green beans, scallions, soup, winter, year round • Tags: beans, cooking, food, local, main course, recipes, soup, vegetarian

Chicken & Sausage Gumbo

24 September 2011 by local kitchen

Hands up, who likes okra? <cricket, cricket> I thought so. Me either. I mean, it looks like something the Star Trek crew would have spray-painted orange and pretended was exotic, alien fruit; it’s skin is hairy and kind of spiky; fresh okra seems to get limp and slimy after 10 minutes in the fridge; and let’s not even talk about the snot that oozes out once we slice it, hmm? Yet, despite my lack of love for the spiky green […]

Categories: bell pepper, celery, fall, main course, parsley, rice, sausage, stew, year round • Tags: cooking, food, gumbo, local, main course, new orleans, recipes

Chinese Noodles with Peanut Sauce

2 June 2011 by local kitchen

I’m going away for the weekend and have about 1,000,000,000 things to get done before I leave: so wouldn’t you know that we lost power for the entire afternoon? Ah, NYSEG. Frustrating New Yorkers since 1852. So, a quick one. It’s been hot: sticky hot, super humid, super hazy. Instant summer, coming on the heels of 50 degrees and raining. Down goes the space heater to the garage, up comes the fan. Exit braised meats and roasted root vegetables, enter crisp […]

Categories: Asian greens, cabbage, celery, cilantro, cucumber, hot chile peppers, main course, nuts, pasta, sauces, side dish, summer, vegetarian • Tags: chinese, cooking, food, local, noodles, peanuts, recipes, summer, vegetarian

Pasta e Fagioli

15 April 2011 by local kitchen

Back in my Boston days, I lived for several years in a tiny (300 square-foot) but adorable apartment in the North End, Boston’s version of Little Italy (but so much more charming, in my opinion, than NYC’s Little Italy). Boston’s North End was settled in the 1600’s and has all the requisite charm of history: twisty, cobblestoned streets, narrowly packed brownstones, tiny and ancient graveyards that pop out of nowhere, the Old North Church and Paul Revere’s house. Despite ongoing gentrification, and […]

Categories: beans, carrot, celery, grains & legumes, heirloom beans, main course, pasta, soup, tomatoes, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cannelini beans, cooking, food, Italian, local, pasta e fagioli, recipes, soup, vegetarian

Spicy Mexican Red Beans & Rice

1 February 2010 by local kitchen

My girlfriend Christina gave me the best Christmas present – Rancho Gordo beans and popcorn. She lives in San Francisco now, so while I don’t get to see her very often these days, the (albeit tiny) silver lining is that she is local to the fabulous Ferry Market and when she comes home to visit, she can bring me Rancho Gordo goodies and I can consider them ‘local.’ Because it’s local to her. And she flew to me. And just happened […]

Categories: 100% local, beans, celery, heirloom beans, hot chile peppers, main course, pork, rice, sausage, stew, year round • Tags: beans, chorizo, cooking, food, local, Mexican, pork, recipes, red beans and rice

Black Bean Veggie Chili

27 December 2009 by local kitchen

As a nice respite from all of the rich, heavy holiday food, as well as a warm bowl of comfort food against the chill and dreary 39-degree rainy day, yesterday I made a big pot of chili. Packed full of veggies and protein-laden black beans, this dish is winter locavore cooking at its best: peppers chopped and quick-frozen back in August only need pouring into a measuring cup; sweet corn, blanched and cut off the cob, frozen at the peak of […]

Categories: 100% local, beans, carrot, celery, cilantro, corn, garlic, hot chile peppers, main course, parsley, stew, tomatoes, vegetarian, winter, year round • Tags: black bean, cooking, food, local, recipes

Roasted Vegetable Stock

15 April 2009 by local kitchen

I picked up three(!) new cookbooks this weekend, while visiting Melissa & Erik down in PA. Yes, I probably need new cookbooks like I need new holes in my head, and I have no idea where I’m going to fit them (cookbook annex in the loft, perhaps?), but I couldn’t resist. They were all (all!) 50% off (such a sucker for a bargain); it was an independently-owned cooking store (the Cookery Ware Shop – why, oh why, don’t we have one […]

Categories: 100% local, celery, parsley, radish, roasting, soup, spring, stock, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, soup, vegetarian

Kaela’s Chicken Soup

28 January 2009 by local kitchen

Chicken soup is pure comfort food. Everyone has their favorite recipe and most have strong opinions; rice, pasta, or potatoes, peas or no peas, homemade stock or canned. I’ve made this recipe for years – the original was from a lovely little cookbook called For Goodness’ Sake by Terry Joyce Blonder (unfortunately, now out of print). My adaptation does change with the seasons and depending on what vegetables I have in the fridge. My fiance likes what he calls “chicken shtoup;” when […]

Categories: carrot, celery, chicken, herbs, main course, parsley, soup, winter, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, local, main course, quick & easy, recipes, soup