Spring has stuck a tentative toe in the pool called the Northeast; she may well pull it back out again, shivering, and leave us with a few more weeks of winter temps, but her effort garnered us two beautifully warm days. Yesterday was in the low 60’s here; I put the top down on my little VW Bug and we tooled around to every farmer’s market and little local food shop we could think of, just to enjoy the fresh air. […]
In light of the ongoing Great Dried Bean Challenge ’09, I’ve been searching on-line, and in my various cookbooks, for heirloom bean recipes. I’ve come to the conclusion that there are basically three beans in America: white, red, and black. The white beans are almost always Great Northern or cannellini, the red beans are kidney or pinto (a type of kidney bean) and the black beans just “black.” So imagine my surprise when, thinking I might try to grow & […]
Categories: heirloom beans, herbs, parsley, vegetarian, year round • Tags: beans, cooking, food, local, recipes, vegetarian
It’s been a crazy week. My business tends to be feast or famine; this week has defnitely been a feast, work-wise, but a famine, cooking-wise. I’ve had no time, in between 12-hour days at the computer, to cook a thing and I realized today how much I missed it. Cooking, and most especially baking bread, can be enormously relaxing. There’s a science to measuring and combining the ingredients that is soothing in it’s detail and familiar rhythms; kneading the dough […]
Categories: baking, breads, cheese, fall, pork, sausage, spring, winter, year round • Tags: cheese, cooking, food, local, pork, recipes, whole grain breads
Here is another great recipe from Ricki Carroll’s Home Cheese Making. This recipe makes a delicious mozzarella that has all of the characteristics of the milk used to make it so can be endlessly varied. It really is a very quick recipe – it may not take you only 30 minutes on your first try, but once you get the hang of it, it will go very quickly. It’s faster for me to make this cheese than to go to […]
Categories: cheese, milk, vegetarian, year round • Tags: cheese, cooking, food, local, recipes
It’s not hard to get good flavor from a heritage pork shoulder, nicely browned on the outside then braised for hours in a low oven, until the meat is moist, juicy and falling-apart tender. Add some fresh-pressed apple cider to the mix, and a healthy dose of caramelized onion, and you’ve got a sweet-savory mix that is out of this world. This is one of Tai’s favorite dishes and the relative ease of preparation belies the moans & groans of […]
Categories: 100% local, apples, braising, pork, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, dinner, fall, food, local, main course, pork, recipes, winter
Great on pork chops or pot roast, excellent with goat cheese on crackers, and a nice surprise on a turkey sandwich, this spicy, complex chutney is the first thing to disappear at parties. It even makes unique and flavorful mini-tarts, and when served with real vanilla ice cream, is an unforgettable dessert. I find endless uses for this chutney so I make several batches each Fall. Make up a batch or two now, while apples are still at the farmer’s markets, […]
Categories: apples, canning, chutneys, fall, preserving, vegetarian, winter • Tags: canning, cooking, food, local, recipes
Several times now friends have told me that this is the “best pizza crust ever.” Such superlatives have decreasing meaning in our superlative-rich culture, when “best laxative ever” can be tossed off without batting an eye, yet, for any cook who enjoys giving pleasure through the food that he or she prepares, they are wonderful words indeed. This dough is suitable for a thick or a thin crust pizza; either way it is chewy, with great crunch from the multi-grains […]
Categories: breads, pizza, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, pizza, recipes, whole grain breads
10 April 2013: Below is my classic applesauce recipe, the one that I put up specifically for chunky, cinnamon-rich applesauce. When I am feeling lazy, or have a basket of tiny & misshapen wild apples that resist peeling, I will often simply halve the apples, simmer, then run through a food mill and cook down to a saucy consistency. Also, over the course of the preserving season, I often find that I need the pectin boost of fresh apple juice […]
Categories: 100% local, apples, canning, fall, preserving, sauces, vegetarian, winter • Tags: apples, canning, cooking, fall, food, local, preserving, recipes
These cheddar scallion scones serve as my basic savory scone recipe and I’ve made dozens of different versions over the years. I’ve since come to believe that the scones turn out even better with just a little butter in the dough (duh) and so have updated the recipe below to include a small amount (2 tbsp) of butter. I still call these my “cheater” scones, as I don’t work the butter into the flour, just toss in small chunks and let them […]
Categories: 100% local, baking, breads, cheese, quick & easy, scallions, vegetarian, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, spring, vegetarian, whole grain breads
I love when I can pull a bunch of stuff out of the pantry or the freezer and whip up a healthy, delicious meal in under 30 minutes. Of course, when that happens, usually some form of preparation has happened along the way; you can either buy prepared foods, thereby allowing a multi-national corporation into your kitchen, or you can do it yourself and know where your food came from, how it was prepared, and how it tasted at the peak […]
Categories: chicken, cilantro, hot chile peppers, main course, side dish, winter, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes
Make this in late summer when cilantro is bursting out of the garden, and freeze in ice cube trays for serving-sized portions to use all winter long. Recipe adapted from Cilantro Pesto in The New Basics, Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. ————————————————————- Cilantro Pesto INGREDIENTS 2 cups cilantro leaves, washed & spun dry 6 cloves garlic 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1/4 cup olive oil 1/2 tsp sea salt 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper METHODS Place the cilantro, garlic […]
Categories: cilantro, fall, preserving, sauces, summer, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, recipes
As the end of February creeps closer, I’ve been poking through the pantry and the freezer thinking of ways to use up my winter stores: before we know it, the tender shoots of Spring will be appearing in the fields, yards, and farmer’s markets near me, and the dried & frozen fruits and vegetables that have been so wonderful all winter long will lose their appeal. I collect dried chiles like other people collect Fiestaware: for a chile-head like me, a new or intriguing variety is nearly […]
Categories: hot chile peppers, sauces, Use it or Lose it!, vegetarian, year round • Tags: condiments, cooking, food, local, Mexican, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian
These smell so good when they are cooking, it actually hurts. Hurts so good. Adapted loosely from a recipe in Greatest Ever Potato, Papplewick Press, Nottingham, UK. ————————————————————– Spicy Oven Fries INGREDIENTS 2 lb mixed potatoes (purple, red, gold, Russet, sweet – whatever is on hand) 3 tbsp (1.5 oz) butter, melted, or olive oil, or local sunflower oil 1 tsp chile powder (ground from home-dried red chiles from Madura Farm) 1 and 1/2 tsp sea salt METHODS Scrub potatoes well […]
Categories: 100% local, fall, hot chile peppers, potato, side dish, snack, vegetarian, winter, year round • Tags: cooking, food, fries, local, potato, recipes, snacks
A spicy, hearty, sausage-stuffed soup, the beans almost hide in this one, making it a good option for people who aren’t quite sure that they like legumes. Yet, while spicy chorizo sausage flavors this soup, it’s also packed full of vegetables, good homemade stock and heirloom beans, stretching a single pound of meat to easily feed 10 people. The recipe below makes a big pot of soup, so it’s handy that the soup freezes well, because this is just the […]
Categories: 100% local, Asian greens, beans, heirloom beans, main course, pork, sausage, soup, tomatoes, winter • Tags: beans, cooking, food, local, pork, recipes, soup, winter
Update, February 2013: It’s fun to go back in time and read some of these early posts on the blog. While I can think back to the time when I didn’t cook with dried beans, I had forgotten that I didn’t “cook with beans all that often.” It seems crazy to me now, when rarely a week goes by without a pot of beans simmering away on my stove, but I think that’s the beauty of learning to cook with […]
Categories: beans, heirloom beans, winter, year round • Tags: beans, cooking, food, local, recipes, techniques
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