Tag: local

100% Local: Lettuce Soup

13 July 2011 by local kitchen

Lettuce soup? Really? I know. It sounds like something out of Willy Wonka or Oliver Twist. But when faced with six heads of lettuce in the fridge, a seeming million green salads, and lettuce wraps for dinner every night for a week, a girl’s got to push her lettuce boundaries (or buy a rabbit). It’s also one of the few ways I can think of to preserve lettuce, while we are in the height of the early summer bounty, because […]

Categories: 100% local, chives, lettuce, soup, spring, summer, thyme • Tags: cooking, food, lettuce, local, quick & easy, recipes, soup

Strawberry Jam with Mint, Basil & Habanero

10 July 2011 by local kitchen

It’s cruel to do this to you, I know, since strawberries are long gone in most parts of America. But I still have some fresh, local strawberries in the fridge (albeit they are starting to look a little peaky), and they are just coming into full season for our friends in the North. If you are one of the lucky ones that still has fresh strawberries in your neighborhood, or one of the industrious ones who put-up a few pounds in […]

Categories: basil, berries, canning, hot chile peppers, jams, mint, preserving • Tags: berries, canning, chiles, food, local, preserving, recipes, strawberries

Crispy Pork with Rhubarb Sauce

7 July 2011 by local kitchen

As if rhubarbaritas weren’t reason enough, I’m here to give you another excuse for squirreling away as much seasonal rhubarb as you can get your paws on: Crispy Pork with Rhubarb Sauce. The recipe was somewhat loosely adapted from this one by Jamie Oliver, who, now that I have made two of his recipes, I am declaring a genius: this dish is that good. A not-very-exciting cut of pork (he used pork belly, while I had a pound of Flying […]

Categories: herbs, lettuce, main course, pork, rhubarb, scallions, spring, summer, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, jamie oliver, local, pork, recipes, rhubarb

Strawberry: Whole Berry Preserves

4 July 2011 by local kitchen

I know that most of you are beyond strawberry season and are thinking about blueberries, raspberries and even peaches; however, life got in the way of my strawberry ambitions this year and I just managed to squeak some picking into the tail end of the New York season. Because we were at the very end of the season, we ended up picking a lot of teeny, tiny strawberries: larger ones were already picked, or had rotted on the ground, but […]

Categories: berries, canning, preserves, preserving, spring, summer • Tags: berries, canning, cooking, food, local, pasta, preserving, recipes, strawberries

Strawberry Yogurt Cake

30 June 2011 by local kitchen

My house has been invaded by ants. Not the big, nasty carpenter ants, but the tiny, black, almost-can’t-see-em sugar ants: we get them every June. It usually only lasts for a week or two: they congregate around the kitchen sink, for the water and the dropped crumbs, and I clean like a crazy woman and buy some ant traps, and they eventually disappear. Why June? I have no idea. Is this when they have a big population spike after the long, […]

Categories: baking, berries, breakfast, cake, dessert, grains & legumes, summer, whole wheat flour • Tags: baking, cake, cooking, dessert, food, local, recipes, strawberries, whole grains

Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps

27 June 2011 by local kitchen

Although the summer solstice is a few days behind us now, the vegetables in my CSA basket are still talking of late Spring: scallions, herbs, sugar snap peas and greens, greens, greens. As we do every year at this time, playing the waiting game before leafy things make way for firmer, rounder fruits from the garden, we are drowning in greens: bok choi, chard, kale, tatsoi, spinach, arugula, and more kinds of lettuce than you can shake a stick at. […]

Categories: Asian greens, chicken, lettuce, main course, spring, stir-fry, summer • Tags: Asian, chicken, chinese, cooking, food, lettuce, local, recipes, stir-fry, wraps

Bite-Sized Spaghetti Nests with Chard & Bacon

24 June 2011 by local kitchen

I’ve been participating in an informal food photography contest for a couple of months now on professional food photographer Dario Milano’s blog Food Pixels. Our growing crew of bloggers, photographers and foodniks is pretty talented and it’s always interesting to see how different people interpret each ‘assignment.’ The latest contest challenge is “spaghetti:” a broad topic to be sure, but also an interesting photographic challenge, as most spaghetti dishes are messy, saucy, ultra-casual. Since for the last assignment (“brown food“) I […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, cheese, holiday, kale & leafy greens, oregano, pasta, pork, year round • Tags: appetizers, bacon, cooking, food, greens, local, pasta, recipes

Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas

15 June 2011 by local kitchen

Whole wheat goodness.

Categories: breads, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: bread, cooking, food, local, Mexican, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian, whole grain breads

Use It or Lose It! Sugar Snap Peas Glazed with Pear & Fennel

13 June 2011 by local kitchen

After my oh-so healthy breakfast, I decided that some vegetables were in order for lunch. And since I am trying to get some work done today, a quick & easy lunch was also in order. Enter glazed sugar snap peas. I picked up about a pound of sugar snap peas from Migliorelli Farm at my farmer’s market on Saturday. Sugar snaps are one of my favorite Spring vegetables: coming in right at the tail end of asparagus season, their fresh, green sweetness consoles […]

Categories: pears, peas, quick & easy, side dish, spring, summer, Use it or Lose it!, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, fennel, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, sugar snap peas, vegetarian

Cranberry Orange Rhubarb Popsicles

7 June 2011 by local kitchen

The weather forecast is calling for back-to-back 95+ degree days here in New York: a perfect time to use up my leftover rhubarb pulp to make a frosty treat. With some frozen Cape Cod cranberries, a bit of orange juice and sugar for sweetener and a touch of tequila (because, why not?) to keep everything toothsomely delicious, I have to say that these are pretty darn good. I don’t have popsicle molds, nor Dixie cups, nor a craft-cabinet stocked with […]

Categories: citrus, cranberries, rhubarb, snack, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes, snacks, summer

Chinese Noodles with Peanut Sauce

2 June 2011 by local kitchen

I’m going away for the weekend and have about 1,000,000,000 things to get done before I leave: so wouldn’t you know that we lost power for the entire afternoon? Ah, NYSEG. Frustrating New Yorkers since 1852. So, a quick one. It’s been hot: sticky hot, super humid, super hazy. Instant summer, coming on the heels of 50 degrees and raining. Down goes the space heater to the garage, up comes the fan. Exit braised meats and roasted root vegetables, enter crisp […]

Categories: Asian greens, cabbage, celery, cilantro, cucumber, hot chile peppers, main course, nuts, pasta, sauces, side dish, summer, vegetarian • Tags: chinese, cooking, food, local, noodles, peanuts, recipes, summer, vegetarian

Rhubarb & Black Currant Jam

30 May 2011 by local kitchen

I feel like some tout in a seedy doorway, at once bored and alert, tossing out my banter with practiced skill, repetitious yet intriguing, tacky yet titillating. Except, instead of GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!, the neon sign over my head blinks RHUBARB! RHUBARB! RHUBARB! “Come on and get your rhubarb heAH, just one taste my lovlies, just one taste, it’s sweet, it’s sour, it’s tangy and tingly, step right up now, step right up!” Maybe I should just throw in the towel on […]

Categories: canning, currants, jams, preserving, rhubarb, spring, summer • Tags: canning, cooking, currants, food, jam, local, preserving, quince, recipes, rhubarb

Rhubarbaritas

27 May 2011 by local kitchen

From me to you: an easy-peasy preserving recipe, a fancy cocktail for holiday-weekend fun, and a way to enjoy rhubarb long after it has disappeared from the market and the garden. It’s been a busy, busy time here in the last few weeks. Tai has been working overtime, trying to make up for all the lost outdoor time during our incredibly rainy April, and I’ve been drowning in a particularly knotty data analysis with a deadline of earlier this week. Yesterday, […]

Categories: canning, condiments, preserving, rhubarb, spring, wine, beer & liquor • Tags: canning, cocktails, cooking, drinks, food, local, preserving, recipes, rhubarb

Fresh Chive Pasta

19 May 2011 by local kitchen

Rain. Rain, rain, rain. There’s been a lot of it. We are lucky in the Northeast not to be dealing with the floods that have ravaged the middle of the country, but still: rain. It gets you down when days and days go by with no sight of the sun and the incessant drip, drip, drip of rain off the eaves threatens to drive you ’round the twist. I firmly believe, however, that every cloud has its silver lining: the […]

Categories: 100% local, chives, eggs, main course, pasta, quick & easy, side dish, spring, vegetarian, whole wheat flour • Tags: chives, cooking, food, local, pasta, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian, whole grains

Strawberry Pinot Noir Preserves

16 May 2011 by local kitchen

The Great Freezer Clean-Out 2011 continues: this time with a Ferber-esque strawberry preserve, made with Pennsylvania pinot noir from Sand Castle Winery. I unearthed a giant bag full of strawberries from last June in my freezer assessment of last week. Half the bag went to one of my favorite strawberry recipes, strawberry rhubarb & caramelized onion jam; for the remaining 2 pounds, I wanted to do something new. I poked through Mes Confitures to see what she may have in […]

Categories: berries, canning, preserves, preserving, wine, beer & liquor, year round • Tags: canning, cooking, dessert, food, jam, local, preserving, recipes, spring, strawberries