100% Local: Summer Tomato & Corn Soup
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
Indian-Spiced Pickled Green Beans
A couple of months ago, I bought an enormous bag of dried curry leaf from Mountain Rose Herbs. It was one of those things: I’m either just not thinking, or I forget how very light dried herbs are, and I buy a 4 oz bag only to end up with a bag of dried herbs bigger than my head. After the bag-of-oregano-the-size-of-my-torso incident, you would think I would learn. You would be wrong. The truly pathetic thing is, I know […]
Categories: canning, green beans, pickles, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, pickles, preserving, recipes, summer
Honey-Soy Braised Beef
Guilty confession time: I’m having a bit of a love affair with Gordon Ramsay. And I’ve dragged in my husband. And my good friend Fran. I can see the Daily Mirror headlines now: “GORDON RAMSAY SHOCKER! Shouty chef in 4-way sex scandal! Slams lover’s food blog as “amateurish” and “not restaurant quality!”” It all started with the completely wacky ABC Baking Company episode of Kitchen Nightmares, which I first heard about over at Eater back in May. The show was […]
Categories: beef, lettuce, main course, year round • Tags: Asian, beef, braised, cooking, food, lettuce, local, recipes
Cherry Key Lime Marmalade
Does anyone still have cherries? No? Me neither. Maybe Newfoundland? Or wait: my homies in Saskatchewan, this one’s for you! I’m late with cherries this year: as usual. Seems to be a recurring theme. (Another recurring theme? I think I’m going to miss blueberries this year. AGAIN. Sigh.) In happy news, Fishkill Farms finally had a productive cherry season: we’ve only been waiting four years. In unhappy news, they were charging $7/lb: for pick-your-own. And while I had lots of […]
Categories: canning, cherries, citrus, preserves, preserving, summer, year round • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, summer
Fresh Herb Flatbreads
More herb lovin: this time, handfuls of mixed fresh herbs are tossed in a garlic-infused olive oil and spooned over skillet-grilled homemade naan. Sprinkle on a little salt, pepper and a touch of Gruyère cheese and you’ve got a bright, fresh, addictively delicious snack, appetizer, side dish, or, as I called it today: lunch. And dinner. Pretty sure it would be breakfast as well, if there were any left. Not quite a pizza, but definitely more substantial than a cracker, […]
Categories: appetizer, basil, breads, herbs, oregano, pizza, rosemary, side dish, summer, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, summer, vegetarian, whole grain breads
Curried Potato Salad with Basil & Mint
I have three massive bunches of basil sitting in glasses of water on my counter. Well: two massive bunches now, as I used most of one bunch in these potatoes. Which were also sitting on my counter, picked up at last weekend’s farmer’s market, quickly growing sprouts despite the black tea towel protecting them from light. Ah, summer. The basil overflows, the mint grows like a weed; even the potatoes are stretching towards the sunshine. And the eating is as […]
Categories: basil, mint, potato, roasting, salad, side dish, summer • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, summer, vegan, vegetarian
Black Currant Jam
Last summer at about this time, I drove up to Rhinbeck to hang out with Julia and help her out with a jam demo she was hosting at the weekend farmer’s market. She made a simple black currant jam that day. Simple, in that it consisted of only two ingredients and took about 10 minutes to make; but the flavor? The flavor was anything but. I dream about that jam: rich, complex, layered; sweet, savory, tart, spicy; almost umami in […]
Categories: canning, currants, jams, preserving, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, food, jam, local, preserving, recipes, summer
Ginger-Chile Stir-Fried Lettuce
Another answer to that age-old question: What the hell am I going to do with all of this lettuce? Though the last few days have been tropical in New York; sunny, very hot and very humid; early summer has shown us nearly perfect growing conditions for lettuce: sunny, reasonably cool and plenty of rain. Hence, lettuce heads have grown to epic proportions and those of us with gardens or CSAs are eating salad with every meal. However, as there is only so […]
Categories: fall, hot chile peppers, lettuce, side dish, spring, summer • Tags: cooking, local, quick & easy, recipes, side dish
Early Summer Napa Slaw
Bright sunny days, cool misty nights and plenty of rain = heaven for cabbage and other leafy greens. So I wasn’t surprised when I saw the GIANT head of Napa cabbage in last week’s CSA bag. I was, however, a bit dismayed that my favorite cabbage slaw includes cherry tomatoes, which won’t make their cheery red selves known around these parts for at least a few more weeks. Enter early summer slaw: crunchy pink radishes, spicy spring onions, sweet orange […]
Categories: cabbage, carrot, quick & easy, radish, salad, scallions, side dish, summer, tarragon, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, salad, vegetarian
Santa Rosa Plum & Almond Tart
Have you had Santa Rosa plums? They’re a deep purple-black when ripe, with a blood-red interior and tangy, tart flesh. The aroma when they are perfectly ripe is indescribable: rich, floral, spicy, earthy. Amazing. Plums are not quite on the scene yet in New York; I was lucky enough to receive a small box of them in the mail from the lovely Karen of Lemon Ladies Orchard in California (along with a jar of her Santa Rosa plum jam, which […]
Categories: baking, breakfast, dessert, plums, summer • Tags: baking, cooking, dessert, food, local, plums, quick & easy, recipes, summer
Spicy Indian Potato Balls with Fresh Coriander Chutney
We all experience recipe fails now and then: whether it’s a new technique that needs some practice to master, a new ingredient with a flavor profile you’re not used to, (a stubborn insistence on ignoring all the rules and forging blindly ahead <cough>) or simply an off day in the kitchen, it happens. While it is certainly irritating to invest time and money into a recipe and have it turn out “meh“, or worse, inedible, I try not to get […]
Categories: appetizer, cilantro, kale & leafy greens, potato, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian
Tepary Bean, Sausage & Chard Soup
The verdict is in and the peoples: they like the chard. The professional chefs, recipe developers and cookbook authors? Not so much (except for Martha Rose, who, as ever, is awesome. The other Martha gets a nod too, mostly for the cool, seasonal, by-ingredient recipe index she’s got going on.). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I just don’t understand why everyone in the culinary world has a love affair with kale, but ignores her milder, softer, […]
Categories: garlic, heirloom beans, kale & leafy greens, sausage, spring, summer • Tags: cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes
Honey-Sweetened Rhubarb Rosemary Jam
At the farmer’s market this morning, I convinced a woman to buy the last of the rhubarb and freeze it for a pie. She was hovering near the rhubarb box and asked the vendor how long rhubarb would be in season. The vendor (clearly not a farmer, and new to the stand) said she wasn’t sure, but she thought the season was short (it’s not). I told the woman that rhubarb likes cool weather, so when it gets really hot, […]
Categories: canning, jams, preserving, rhubarb, rosemary, spring • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes, rhubarb, sugar-free
Leafy Greens
It’s that time of year again: time for CSA boxes, gardens, market bags, and refrigerators to be stuffed to overflowing with curly, silky, spicy, bitter, tasty, nutritious and prolific leafy greens. Around here, we eat a ton of greens all year long: check out the recipes on the new leafy greens page for inspiration in tackling your own Green Mountain. Enjoy!
Categories: 100% local, kale & leafy greens, spinach • Tags: cooking, food, leafy greens, local, recipes
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