| Local cooking and eating in New York's Hudson Valley.

Labels: A Tutorial

14 October 2010 by local kitchen

I get a lot of questions, comments and compliments about my jar labels: if I buy them (and where!) or if I make them (and how??). I’m very flattered and I want everyone to be able to create their own inexpensive, not-so-labor-intensive, yet pretty labels for her (or his!) fabulous canned goods. Because, after all, presentation is everything in cooking: when I give jars as gifts, I get as many oohs and ahhs over the labels on the jars as I do over […]

Categories: canning, techniques, tools & gear • Tags: canning, techniques

100% Local: Maine Graple Syrup

11 October 2010 by local kitchen

More goodness from my haul of Concord grapes from Tai’s grandmom Louisa’s Downeast Maine grapevines: grape + maple = graple syrup! This syrup is like Voltaire: if it didn’t exist, someone would have to invent it. Mostly so that someone could run around the house singing “graple, graple, graple, I made you out of clay…graple, graple, graple, with graple I will play!” Until that someone’s husband shakes his head, rolls his eyes, says “You’re insane,” and escapes to the garage. This recipe […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, condiments, fall, foraging, grapes, preserving, sauces, wild foods • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, dessert, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Crock-Pot African Chicken

10 October 2010 by local kitchen

My friend Nadine very generously gave me a Crock-Pot for my birthday, and while I’ve never really lusted after one (I didn’t know they were so sleek and modern now; I remember too well my Mom’s enormous brown crockery Crock-Pot that weighed about 30 pounds and sat unused in the cabinet over the stove), I’m getting excited about the possibility of Crock-Pot apple butter, or pumpkin butter, maybe even ketchup before tomatoes disappear for the season. But as a test run, […]

Categories: chicken, crock-pot, tools & gear, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, local, recipes

Purple Basil Vinegar

8 October 2010 by local kitchen

Purple basil is a lovely thing: a deep, dark, almost black purple, with that familiar basil flavor & aroma, but just slightly mellower; a little sweeter, a little less grassy, perhaps just a touch more refined. Dare I say regal? Must be the purple. Whenever I get some, I feel I must do something special with it, not just toss it into salads, bruschetta, pasta or pesto like most of the green basil that comes my way. Are you still […]

Categories: 100% local, basil, herbs, preserving, summer, vinegar • Tags: cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Tartilicious Concord Grape Jam

6 October 2010 by local kitchen

I came back from Maine with 13 pounds of Tai’s grandmother’s homegrown grapes, a Concord varietal that are amazingly delicious. So I’ve been busy this week with various batches of grape jam, jelly and syrup. I wish I could share with you the smell of the house as these grapes cook down into jammy goodness: delicious hardly does it justice. Delectable, delightful, swoonworthy. All of the above. This jam is as simple as it gets: grapes and a little bit […]

Categories: canning, fall, grapes, jams, preserving • Tags: canning, cooking, dessert, food, local, preserving, recipes

Pumpkin Granola

4 October 2010 by local kitchen

Since I made my very first batch of homemade granola last year, based on Kristin’s recipe at The Kitchen Sink, I’ve never gone back. I’m not the biggest granola fan, but Tai loves it, and will gladly eat a bowl of granola in milk every morning of his life, and I have to admit when this granola comes out of the oven I find myself sneaking pinches of sweetly-spicy oats & nuts as it cools. Let me tell you folks – […]

Categories: apples, breakfast, cranberries, fall, nuts, oats, quick & easy, snack, winter squash, year round • Tags: breakfast, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Tomato Jam

2 October 2010 by local kitchen

I was going to name this “Marisa’s Former Coworker John’s Wife Amy’s Tomato Jam” but it seemed a bit of a mouthful. No disrespect to Amy, or to Marisa, but this is one of those recipes that everyone seems to adore and I simply… don’t. Granted, I made a whole bunch of changes, so I can’t say that I really tested the original recipe, but it did start out somewhat close to the original – I just kept adding more & more […]

Categories: canning, jams, preserving, seasons, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Boozy Pear Sauce

1 October 2010 by local kitchen

The last recipe from my pear-picking adventure with Julia (in hot, hot summer sunshine that seems like ages away from today’s chilly, rainy damp) this sauce is about as easy as it gets. I took the last 6 and 1/2 pounds of teeny, tiny D’Anjou pears, simmered them in water to soften, pushed them through the food mill, and separated juice from pulp in a jelly bag. The juice became Pear Syrup with Fennel while the pulp? The pulp helped […]

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

Tomato Paste

29 September 2010 by local kitchen

Tomato paste is one of those basic pantry staples that I love to put up. As much as I love creating interesting, and sometimes wacky, jams & preserves, it gives me a great sense of satisfaction when cooking to reach into the pantry and pull out basics that I preserved myself: canned tomatoes, applesauce, dried basil, ground chile pepper. And tomato paste, of course. I first made tomato paste two years ago, when we were flush with tomatoes in the Northeast, and […]

Categories: tomatoes • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Pear Syrup with Fennel

28 September 2010 by local kitchen

We are back from the Interweb-less wilds of Maine and rural New Hampshire and there is much to share: wild Maine blueberries, tart-sweet Concord grapes, chocolate birthday cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting and boozy pear sauce filling and grilling chicken & vegetables over a wood fire by headlamp. But first, a simple, and simply delicious, pear syrup. When I made the pear butter with white wine and fennel a couple of weeks ago, I was so captivated by the fragrance of […]

Categories: canning, fall, pears, preserving • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

October Can Jam Reveal

23 September 2010 by local kitchen

Did anyone else have the Mystery Date board game when they were young? Now that I think back on it, it may well be the least politically-correct game ever invented, but I got hours of enjoyment out of spinning the door handle and ‘revealing’ the future man in my life. I was also a fan of Let’s Make a Deal (I’ll take door number 3, Monty); I always like the risk that you’ll trade away something good for something fantastic, […]

Categories: Can Jam, community • Tags: canning, recipes

Roasted Tomato & Eggplant Soup

20 September 2010 by local kitchen

We’re off to Points North for a while; a stopover in Boston to visit friends, a trip to Maine to visit family and then over to Rumney, NH for some climbing and outdoorsy fun. Some husband of mine has a milestone birthday this week, so we are celebrating with good friends, family, outdoor time and, of course, good food. Since it’s always colder than you think in Maine, and I always do some cooking when we are up there, I’m […]

Categories: chickpeas, cilantro, eggplant, garlic, parsley, roasting, soup, summer, tomatoes, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, soup, vegetarian

Salsa Rojo

18 September 2010 by local kitchen

A basic red salsa with a nod to Mexico: grilled corn, guajillo chile, cumin and cilantro. Corn in salsa? Why, yes, thank you for noticing. I’m not sure why you never seem to find corn included in salsa recipes, since corn and tomatoes are such a natural pair. Maybe it’s because salsa always seems to be served with corn: corn tortillas, chips, nachos, etc. But I got it into my head to add some of Tai’s delicious grilled corn to […]

Categories: 100% local, canning, cilantro, corn, hot chile peppers, preserving, salsa, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, tomatoes

Can Jam: Nectarine, Pear & Chile Jam

16 September 2010 by local kitchen

September already and three-quarters of the Can Jam entries tucked away in the pantry, dreaming of winter. Where did the year go? I have to admit that when Miss Kate over at Hip Girl’s Guide to Homemaking announced stone fruit as the September Can Jam fruit-of-focus, I’m sure I let out a huge groan. Having just preserved about a bizillion-and-one pounds of peaches, not to mention plums, apricots and nectarines, I thought that I was done with stone fruits for the season. […]

Categories: Can Jam, canning, fall, hot chile peppers, jams, peaches, pears, preserving, summer, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Fire Roasted Tomato & Ancho Chile Sauce

15 September 2010 by local kitchen

I think the Canning Gods have forgiven me for whatever transgression prompted the Great Green Ketchup Debacle of 2010, because this recipe? This recipe kicks ass. I can hardly describe the flavor to you without overusing rhapsodic superlatives (and “thaumaturgic” doesn’t quite seem to fit); it is rich, smoky, definitely a tomato sauce but halfway to a molé, with strong chocolate overtones and just a hint of capsaicin bite. In the space of 24 hours, we have already eaten it on […]

Categories: canning, hot chile peppers, preserving, sauces, summer, tomatoes • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, tomatoes