Tag: cooking

Dark Days: Herbed Whole Wheat Breadsticks

24 January 2010 by local kitchen

A local bread dough made with clarified butter, dried garden herbs and Wild Hive whole wheat flour makes a lovely bread. Cut into strips, given it a twist and a dip in 10-grain mix for some crunch, and 10 minutes later you have a delicious, crusty-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside breadstick, perfect for your Dark Days meal o’ the week. Served with 100% local Potato Leek Soup, this was a hearty but easy meal for a cold, drizzly Sunday night. Adapted from Quick(er) Whole Grain Pizza Dough; see that recipe […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, baking, basil, breads, Dark Days Local, herbs, mint, sage, side dish, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, bread, cooking, food, local, recipes, whole grain breads

Cranberry Apple Pie

23 January 2010 by local kitchen

Another riff on Rose’s famous apple pie. Having served many versions of this pie to friends over the past couple of years, I think I can say with confidence that this one is the crowd favorite; one of the first to disappear and the first to earn talking-with-your-mouth-full praise. This version I made in a 7-inch, deep-dish pie pan for a really stacked and fruit-packed slice o’ pie (it also uses less pastry for the carb- and butter-o-phobic). I also cut […]

Categories: apples, baking, cranberries, dessert, fall, pastry, pie, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes

Orange Muffins with Blackberry Surprise

22 January 2010 by local kitchen

Deeeeelicious. These muffins defy the stereotype of ‘whole-grain muffin’ as heavy, gritty, dry, flavorless and yet “good for you.” (Remember the early 90’s when those brick-hard, dry-as-bone, tasteless bran muffins were all the rage? <shudder>). These muffins are light and fluffy, not overly sweet, with a citrusy tang and a surprise middle of gooey baked blackberry: in short, pretty darn close to Muffin Nirvana. And yet, they are good for you: whole grain flours from Wild Hive; organically-grown blackberries, packed full […]

Categories: baking, berries, breakfast, citrus, quick & easy, summer, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, berries, breakfast, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Chickpea Stir-Fry

21 January 2010 by local kitchen

I must confess that it has never occured to me to stir-fry chickpeas (or any bean, for that matter). I had cooked chickpeas in the fridge, leftover from making hummus the other day and I was looking for something quick & easy, yet delicious, for dinner. I also had some romaine lettuce (clam-shell packed and shipped from California, which Mom left here at Christmastime) that needed using, but somehow I couldn’t work up any enthusiasm for month-old-California-lettuce-mid-winter salad. (Shocker, that.) Enter chickpea […]

Categories: beans, carrot, chickpeas, cilantro, garlic, grains & legumes, hot chile peppers, lettuce, main course, quick & easy, salad, stir-fry, vegetarian, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Blackberry Lime Jam

20 January 2010 by local kitchen

We all know I am pathological about wasting food, so I had to find a way to use the lime flesh leftover from the Can Jam Lime Curd recipe. I thought about simply juicing them and freezing the juice, but really, it seemed silly to use bottled juice in the curd and then freeze the fresh juice for something else. Call me wacky. Since I was kind of back in the swing of canning, I dug some blackberries out of […]

Categories: berries, canning, citrus, jams, preserving, summer, winter, year round • Tags: berries, cooking, food, local, preserving, recipes

Can Jam: Lime Curd for Water Bath Canning

19 January 2010 by local kitchen

Apparently it is Citrus Curd Week on the Interwebs – and no one told me! I’ve been thinking for a couple of weeks now about what I was going to make for Tigress’ January Can Jam; citrus is a lovely and broad category and there are so many choices! There are a couple of marmalades that I make each winter that Tai loves; one a pink grapefruit version with bourbon vanilla bean, the other a spicy orange marmalade with Arbol chiles. […]

Categories: Can Jam, canning, citrus, dessert, eggs, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, preserving, recipes

Dark Days: Venison Chile Verde

18 January 2010 by local kitchen

Friends of ours gifted us with some venison this week, received from friends of theirs who had shot and butchered a deer. I’m not exactly sure where the deer came from but I’m pretty confident that it was somewhere in the Northeast; our friends live in Connecticut, not far from Mystic, and the deer probably came from either New Hampshire or the Adirondacks in NY. It seemed a perfect candidate for this week’s Dark Days spotlight meal. I’m not a […]

Categories: 100% local, cilantro, Dark Days Local, hot chile peppers, main course, meat & dairy, tomatillos, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes

How to Make Clarified Butter

16 January 2010 by local kitchen

As part of my commitment to the Dark Days Challenge this winter, I’ve vowed to reduce my dependence on olive oil and other non-local cooking oils. For a locavore living in the Northeast this is not the easiest task; almost every winter dish seems to start with sautéing onions and garlic, or searing meat. You need some portion of liquid fat to make most quick-breads and granola. And while we all know how much I love bacon grease, and that bacon makes […]

Categories: 100% local, techniques, year round • Tags: clarified butter, cooking, food, ghee, local, preserving, recipes

Easy Homemade Hummus

14 January 2010 by local kitchen

I know what you’re thinking: “Hmmph. Easy. Says she of the 3-day pie crust and the day-long chicken pot pie.” But, really, this recipe is easy. Easy as pie. Well, way easier than pie, actually. Easy enough for Rachel Ray (although why make hummus when it’s so much more convenient to buy it in the store? And why do I pick on this woman when I’ve never even seen her show? I’m sure she’s a lovely person. Really.). Anyway, you […]

Categories: appetizer, beans, chickpeas, chives, citrus, herbs, quick & easy, spreads, vegetarian, year round • Tags: beans, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Dark Days: Handmade Whole Wheat Pasta

10 January 2010 by local kitchen

I’ve been meaning to make fresh pasta again for a while now; I probably would not have done it today if I had not remembered that it is Sunday and I hadn’t yet planned my Dark Days meal o’ the week. Thanks, Dark Days Challenge, for giving me a kick in the pants! The last time I made whole wheat pasta, I used all whole wheat bread flour (hard red spring wheat flour from Wild Hive) and the dough was so […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, Dark Days Local, eggs, main course, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian

Yogurt Cheese Scones with Lemon & Thyme

9 January 2010 by local kitchen

The latest entry in my scone obsession, these are a savory, tangy mini scone that I made to bring to dinner tonight at our friends Amy and Bob’s house. These are an appetizer scone, great nibbled with fresh slices of apple or a nice chutney. How lemony they taste depends on the depth of flavor in your cheese; a strong cheese will allow just a hint of citrusy freshness to come though, while with a milder cheese you will really taste the […]

Categories: appetizer, baking, breads, breakfast, cheese, citrus, quick & easy, thyme, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, cheese, cooking, food, local, recipes, whole grain breads

Calypso Bean Minestrone

7 January 2010 by local kitchen

Calypso beans are so gorgeous. They are one of those fantastic heirloom varieties that you only see when you start searching out such a thing; a bean so gorgeous, you want to wear it as jewelry, so tasty that the unique flavor and texture are impossible to describe, so miraculous that if you push it into the soil, in Spring a plant will emerge. (That simple fact never fails to thrill me). Calypso beans, also called orca beans because of […]

Categories: 100% local, beans, heirloom beans, kale & leafy greens, main course, soup, vegetarian, winter • Tags: beans, cooking, food, local, recipes, soup

Local Fizzy

6 January 2010 by local kitchen

My name is Kaela and I’m an addict. Dedicated local eater that I am, there has always been one item on my grocery list that I can’t live without. One that you can’t find at any farmer’s market, is heavy to ship, requires a lot of packaging, and the closest local source is Maine. What is it, you ask (breathlessly), what magical food item is so important that you sacrifice your values, and the environment, to ship it from Maine? Sparkling […]

Categories: 100% local, tools & gear • Tags: cooking, food, local

Dark Days: Pancake FAIL

2 January 2010 by local kitchen

We’ve had many guests over the holidays and we’ve made quite a few pancake breakfasts. Tai has made a couple of batches, I’ve made a couple of batches, and while I would not say our pancakes are outstanding, they are generally pretty good (and anything that you can drown in Ronnybrook butter and New England Farms natural maple syrup can’t be all bad). In fact, Tai made a batch just yesterday, for our friends Erik & Melissa, who came up from Philly […]

Categories: 100% local, berries, breakfast, Dark Days Local, sauces, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: breakfast, cooking, food, local, recipes

Ginger & Orange Scones

29 December 2009 by local kitchen

It’s very cold here today, with temps in the teens and gusty winds up to 50 mph making it feel like 1 degree F. Brrrr! Wind is howling around our little cottage, but we are snug as bugs in a rug with the oven warming up the kitchen and the tropical flavors of orange and ginger making us dream of sunny beaches and warm breezes. This is another variation of my basic sweet scone recipe, with the added bonus of […]

Categories: baking, breakfast, citrus, dessert, non-local luxuries, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, breakfast, cooking, dessert, food, local, quick & easy, recipes