Tag: food

Use it or Lose it! Drunken Cherry Pie

30 November 2010 by local kitchen

Hands up – who still has turkey? Yep, I’m with you, sista. Even though we got a small bird (11.5 lbs), and we’ve been eating turkey steadily since Thursday, there is a lot left. We don’t eat a lot of meat in general, so at 3 to 4 ounces at a time… well, it’s going to take a while. I’m going to have to make a turkey soup, or chili, or pot pie, or something (I know – shocking revelations at […]

Categories: baking, cherries, dessert, fall, pastry, pie, Use it or Lose it!, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: baking, cherries, cooking, dessert, drunken, food, leaf lattice, local, pie, recipes, vegetarian

A Kitchen Remodel

29 November 2010 by local kitchen

…without spending 6 months making coffee in the bathroom sink. You may have noticed that I’ve been doing some organizing & redecorating in my kitchen of late. Well, it was only a matter of time before I turned my attention to the virtual kitchen, my home here at the Local Kitchen blog. Behold, the new design of Local Kitchen! A few changes: a new URL: http://localkitchenblog.com a new theme, with painfully-modfied CSS details by yours truly a cleaner header area, with custom […]

Categories: community • Tags: cooking, food, new blog design, recipes

Locavirgin: Roasted Cauliflower with Bacon

27 November 2010 by local kitchen

So, you get it right, the way this blog works? Every other cooking blog on the planet regales you with Thanksgiving recipes in the weeks prior to the event. Bah, I say. Humbug! Now that everyone else is featuring turkey tacos, turkey tamales and turkey tettrazini, I’ll give you… Thanksgiving dishes! The ones that were on my table. Because, you know that I love to test recipes on the fly (and making any of my Thanksgiving recipes in advance would […]

Categories: 100% local, cauliflower, fall, holiday, Locavirgin, pork, roasting, side dish, winter • Tags: bacon, cauliflower, cooking, fall, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, side dishes

Fresh Cranberry Salsa

23 November 2010 by local kitchen

Having a last-minute Thanksgiving? Relax – you are not alone. I just tested out this fresh cranberry salsa for my own Thanksgiving table: it took me under 23 minutes from start to finish (yes, I timed myself) and that included rooting around in the Thanksgiving-stuffed fridge for ingredients, searching the packed-to-the-gills utensil drawer for the apple corer (and eventually turning it up in the dishwasher – oops), weighing the ingredients, and jotting down the recipe for you, the time-stressed Thanksgiving cook. […]

Categories: apples, cilantro, condiments, cranberries, fall, quick & easy, salsa, winter • Tags: cooking, cranberries, fall, food, holiday, local, quick & easy, recipes, salsa, thanksgiving, vegetarian

Last Minute Thanksgiving

20 November 2010 by local kitchen

I found out on Monday that I was cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year. Then I promptly flew to New Orleans for three days. No, I was not running away; I was at a conference, one that was very busy and fun, but this year, seemed particularly ill-timed. Usually, we go up to Maine for Thanksgiving, to visit Tai’s relatives and join in their big, loud, happy day, with 15 of us crammed around one long table, 5 dogs under the table […]

Categories: 100% local, farmer's markets • Tags: cooking, farmer's markets, food, local, recipes, seasonal, thanksgiving

Apple Jelly with Lemon & Lavender

18 November 2010 by local kitchen

Another jelly? Could it be that I’m becoming a jelly fiend like someone else we know? Not bloody likely, but, I do like how this one came out. With the extra acid from a full sliced lemon, it took a little less sugar than the apple quince jelly to yield a gel. The set is a little more firm, but still satisfyingly squishy, almost, but not quite, the set of a marmalade. Not surprising as the poached lemon peel in the […]

Categories: apples, breakfast, Can Jam, canning, citrus, fall, jellies, preserving • Tags: apples, canning, cooking, fall, food, jelly, local, preserves, preserving, recipes

Use it or Lose it! Fruit Butter Granola

16 November 2010 by local kitchen

Ever since I tried the pumpkin granola recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod (thanks to Marisa’s link) I’ve been thinking more about the potential for using fruit purées, sauces and butters in granola. The concept of replacing oil with fruit purée is not a new one: applesauce, prunes and dates are common replacements for oil in many a quickbread. I just had not thought to apply this method to granola; I’m so glad that Maria & Josh over at Two […]

Categories: breakfast, fruit, grains & legumes, nuts, oats, snack, Use it or Lose it!, year round • Tags: baking, breakfast, food, fruit butter, granola, local, quick & easy, recipes, snacks, vegetarian

Can Jam: Apple Quince Jelly with Vanilla Bean

14 November 2010 by local kitchen

The last Tigress Can Jam of the year but one, and the lovely Cosmic Cowgirl comes to the rescue with the November choice of pomes: apples, pears and quince, oh my! And a rescue it was, indeed, as I still had 20 lbs of apples, leftover from my October picking excursion to Fishkill Farms with Julia, Kate and Liz, going soft in the garage. From that very same excursion, I had a couple of beautiful quince, and some of the most perfect […]

Categories: apples, Can Jam, canning, condiments, fall, jellies, preserving • Tags: apple, breakfast, canning, condiments, cooking, fall, food, jelly, local, preserving, quince, recipes, vegetarian

100% Local: Pumpkin Gnocchi

12 November 2010 by local kitchen

These, my friends, are good. I might go so far as to say damn good. I’ve made gnocchi in the past and it’s always been tasty, but it has been rare to achieve a perfect texture. These are not a traditional dense potato gnocchi, which I do enjoy (although I consider them more a vehicle for a fantastic, chunky sauce than a delight all by themselves); these are the fluffy little pillows that are the pinnacle of gnocchi love: a curious combination of al dente and airy that […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, cheese, fall, main course, pasta, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, winter, winter squash • Tags: cooking, fall, food, local, pasta, pumpkin, recipes, vegetarian, whole grain, whole wheat

Habanero Lime Chipotle Mustard

11 November 2010 by local kitchen

It’s that time of year again: while preserving the bounty of Fall continues (apples, quince, and pumpkins galore), the urgency has ramped down a notch and I have time to focus on replenishing Tai’s mustard supply. This batch started out as my standard habanero recipe, except I swapped tequila for vodka. As I was reducing it in the saucepan, that tequila must have been on my mind, because at the last minue I tossed in some lime juice and a […]

Categories: canning, fall, hot chile peppers, mustard, vegetarian, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: canning, chipotle, condiments, cooking, food, food gifts, habanero, local, mustard, preserving, recipes, vegetarian

Space Solutions: Under-Cabinet Knife Rack

9 November 2010 by local kitchen

I may have mentioned that I live in a little cottage in the woods: 1000 square feet (a 900-sf footprint and a tiny, 100-sf loft with 30-inch ceilings) and basically one big room. The bathroom is the only room in the house that has a door (for which I am eternally grateful), so packed into the other 800-or-so square feet are kitchen, dining room/office, living room, entry hall and bedroom. It’s a beautiful space and one that I love: the original […]

Categories: Space Solutions • Tags: cooking, food, kitchen, knife rack, knife storage, knives, storage solutions

Smoky Black Bean Soup

8 November 2010 by local kitchen

We’re having truly New England weather today: daylight savings is barely 24 hours old, yet I woke up to dim, grey skies, a blustery Northeast wind (I keep expecting to see a witch fly by on a bicycle) and big, fat snowflakes. Followed rapidly by sleet. Or hail. Or freezing rain. Or all of the above (or my favorite weather euphemism “wintry mix.”). There is really only one thing to do when November is still in single digits, yet you […]

Categories: beans, carrot, fall, heirloom beans, hot chile peppers, main course, soup, tomatillos, vegetarian, winter • Tags: beans, black bean, cooking, fall, food, local, recipes, soup, vegetarian

Jalapeno Cornbread

5 November 2010 by local kitchen

I was nearly out of whole wheat pastry flour and, with the holidays approaching, I knew I would need some more, sooner rather than later. I placed an order with Amy at Wild Hive Farm, my wonderful local flour producers, and asked Tai to pick it up on his way home from work. At the last minute, I tacked on a “grab some corn meal, too, OK?” request to my darling hubs, because the last time I made pizza, I realized I […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, breads, corn, grains & legumes, hot chile peppers, side dish, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: baking, bread, cast iron cooking, cooking, corn, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, tex mex, vegetarian, whole grain breads

Use it or Lose it! Roasted Turkey with Plum Preserves

4 November 2010 by local kitchen

Like many of my fellow canning bloggers, I’ve had a lot of requests for recipes that fall into the “What to do with all of that jam?!” category. For me, this is a bit of a conundrum, because I’m not really sure how I use it up: I don’t eat a whole lot of jam on toast (mostly preferring peanut butter); the obvious classics, like a jam tart or thumbprint cookies, aren’t things that I make often; and despite giving some of it away, […]

Categories: 100% local, fall, main course, plums, roasting, sage, turkey, Use it or Lose it!, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, fall, food, main course, plums, preserves, quick & easy, recipes, roasting, turkey, winter

How to Make Pumpkin Purée

2 November 2010 by local kitchen

Now that Halloween is behind us, there will be a lot of pumpkins at the markets going for a song. The best pumpkins for eating are the small, 3 – 4 pound sugar or pie pumpkins. While the large, dark orange Jack o’ lanterns do not make for great eating (they are bred for size and skin color more than juicy, delicious flesh), you can often find larger-than-pie-pumpkin pumpkins and winter squash that are delicious and very economical. I cracked open […]

Categories: 100% local, fall, preserving, techniques, winter squash • Tags: cooking, fall, food, how to, local, preserving, pumpkin, recipes, techniques