Tag: quick & easy

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

Asiago and Green Apple Omelet with Chipotle Bacon

18 December 2009 by local kitchen

Christimas is only a week away and it’s been a crazy week between cooking and prepping for our annual Christmas party, cleaning the house, decorating the tree, stringing the house lights, wrapping presents, writing holiday cards – phew! Add in a visit from Mom last weekend, my car breaking down (and the subsequent attempts at repairs by the long-suffering Tai), trying to get wedding thank-you notes out the door, and some last-minute jobs from clients, and it’s a wonder I’ve managed to […]

Categories: 100% local, apples, breakfast, cheese, eggs, main course, parsley, quick & easy, year round • Tags: cooking, eggs, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Lemony Mint Tea

16 December 2009 by local kitchen

If you live in the Northeast you had the same wet, wet, wet summer that I did. Horrible for tomatoes but awesome for water-loving mint. I had mint coming out of my ears, both from my garden and my CSA. I am embarrassed to admit how long it took me to think of drying mint for tea; I love mint tea, in fact, peppermint tea is one of the few that I drink on a regular basis. So, back in July […]

Categories: 100% local, herbs, mint • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Sunday Spring Cleaning: Curried Pumpkin & Kale Stew

6 December 2009 by local kitchen

I’ve long been of the belief that, if you add enough curry to something, it’s bound to be good. This stew upholds the belief: nothing spectacular, just good, tasty, warm and comforting stew for a snowy New York Sunday. The bonus is that this was a freezer-clearing special: I used some cooked cranberry beans that were hanging out in the fridge, frozen pumpkin cubes leftover from this soup, frozen kale put-up this summer, plum tomatoes that I stuck in the freezer, whole, […]

Categories: beans, fall, heirloom beans, kale & leafy greens, main course, quick & easy, stew, tomatoes, vegetarian, winter, winter squash, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, vegetarian

Easy Chicken Vindaloo

2 December 2009 by local kitchen

I love me a good vindaloo. Vindaloo is always spicy, but I like it really spicy: make me cry, but give me a flavor profile beyond just “hot,” and I’ll call it a success. I can rarely get vindaloo spicy enough in Indian restaurants (I suppose I can’t blame them when they look dubiously at my pale, freckled face and fuzzy red head, ordering my vindaloo “really spicy.” They just assume that I am not used to “Indian-spicy.” Little do they know!). But the […]

Categories: chicken, hot chile peppers, main course, potato, quick & easy, rice, stew, year round • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, Indian, local, quick & easy, recipes, spicy

Pepita Brittle

1 December 2009 by local kitchen

Candy making is not my forté. I’ve experimented many times in the past, usually while attempting holiday gifts, with toffee, pecan caramel turtles, candied orange peel, hard candy lemon drops, and I can’t tell you how many batches I’ve ruined and how many serious stovetop messes made me contemplate simply moving rather than facing the clean up. I seem to be forever overcooking the sugar/syrup, probably due to a cheap, inaccurate candy thermometer, resulting in caramels that would break your teeth and hard […]

Categories: candy, chocolate, dessert, non-local luxuries, nuts, year round • Tags: cooking, dessert, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Dark Days: Goat Cheese, Chive and Cranberry Scones

29 November 2009 by local kitchen

I had every intention of making a local dinner of Flying Pigs pork cutlets stuffed with CSA frozen arugula, Nettle Meadow chevre and Cranberry Hill organic cranberries. Tai was drooling at the mere thought. However, as the afternoon waned I realized that I was just not in the mood for meat, even though the pork was thawing away on the counter. So I stuck Flying Pigs back in the fridge for tomorrow and made the same basic flavors (and ingredients) into […]

Categories: 100% local, baking, breads, breakfast, cheese, chives, cranberries, Dark Days Local, fall, herbs, quick & easy, whole wheat flour, winter, year round • Tags: baking, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, whole grain breads

Dark Days: Apple Cider Chicken with Sage Mashed Potatoes

21 November 2009 by local kitchen

About a week ago, I signed up for the Dark Days Challenge, hosted by food blogger (not so) Urban Hennery, in which locavores strive to keep in touch with their local foodshed throughout the long, cold, dark days of winter and to “cook one meal each week focused on SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients” and write about it on their blogs. Shouldn’t be such a challenge for a self-styled Local Kitchen blogger, no? Well, you might be surprised. Atlhough I have a chest freezer stocked full […]

Categories: 100% local, apples, chicken, Dark Days Local, fall, main course, sage, tomatoes, whole wheat flour, winter • Tags: chicken, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes

Winter Lager Mustard

16 November 2009 by local kitchen

I took a break from all sorts of apple recipes over the weekend to replenish Tai’s supply of my homemade mustard. We are down to one 4-oz jar of the last batch of cranberry habanero mustard, and the world knows no tragedy quite like the possibility of us running out of mustard, so a-mustard making I will go. Mustard is surprisingly easy to make. Although you need to soak the mustard seeds for a few hours, once that is done the whole process […]

Categories: condiments, mustard, non-local luxuries, wine, beer & liquor, winter, year round • Tags: canning, condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Quinoa and Black Bean Salad

2 October 2009 by local kitchen

Before tomatoes completely disappear, along with the sun and warmer temps, make this festive, easy and complete-protein salad for your next back-deck barbeque or weekend picnic in the park. Simple, stores well, and is equally delicious served warm, cold or at room temperature. Adapted from Quinoa and Black Bean Salad, Gourmet, July 1994 ————————————————————– Quinoa and Black Bean Salad INGREDIENTS 3/4 cup quinoa 1 and 1/2 cups cooked black beans, rinsed (or about 1, 15-oz can) 1 tbsp red wine vinegar salt and freshly ground black […]

Categories: beans, cilantro, citrus, corn, grains & legumes, quick & easy, quinoa, salad, side dish, summer, tomatoes, year round • Tags: beans, cooking, food, local, quick & easy, quinoa, recipes, salad, summer

Tzatziki

21 September 2009 by local kitchen

I’ve had a massive craving for good Greek food lately. What happened was this: Tai & I stole a day out of our crazy schedules to go climbing last week. We spent a gorgeous Tuesday afternoon on the cliffs of the Gunks, up in New Paltz, NY. Before heading home, we decided to try a new Mediterranean restaraunt in town. Well, the most I can say is that is was disappointing. Not horrible food, per se, but totally tasteless; for […]

Categories: cucumber, dill, fall, sauces, side dish, summer • Tags: cooking, food, Greek, local, quick & easy, recipes, sauces, summer

Fresh Cantaloupe Salsa

10 August 2009 by local kitchen

After a cool, damp weekend, with honking geese flying overhead each evening, it felt like an early winter was knocking at the door. Lo and behold my surprise to wake up this morning to sticky humidity and a forecast of 88 degrees! I guess summer is not completely done with us yet. This fresh salsa is exactly what the doctor ordered for a sticky, hot August summer day: cool, crisp, tasty and takes about 10 minutes to prepare, with not […]

Categories: 100% local, cilantro, hot chile peppers, melon, quick & easy, side dish, summer • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, salad

Lime & Peanut Cole Slaw

8 August 2009 by local kitchen

We’ve been drowning in cabbage this season; with the cool days and plenty of rain, cabbages are growing to enormous size and there is one nearly every week in our CSA. Today I had no less than 5 heads of cabbage in the fridge: one I gave to our neighbors, two I put into another batch of Christina’s soup (this one with lots of fresh cilantro, green beans and broccoli, yum), and with another I made Lime & Peanut Cole Slaw. […]

Categories: cabbage, cilantro, citrus, hot chile peppers, salad, side dish, summer, tomatoes, vegetarian • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, salad, slaw

Basil-Sage Pesto

6 August 2009 by local kitchen

I love me a good basil pesto. It is one of those recipes in which the sum is so much greater than the parts, as if somehow basil becomes that much more basily in the presence of oil, garlic and spices. It’s also one of those handy condiments that are endlessly versatile, handling a simple crostini or a gourmet pizza with equal ease. To top it all off, it freezes really well and nothing brings back summer in February like […]

Categories: condiments, freezing, garlic, preserving, sage, spreads, summer • Tags: condiments, cooking, food, local, preserving, quick & easy, recipes

Locavirgin: Local Crostini

15 June 2009 by local kitchen

Crostini are always much more impressive than store-bought crackers, yet they are extremely easy to make and you control the ingredients. It is much easier to find local artisinal bread, even those made with completely local flour, than it is to find local crackers (or even local crostini). In my area, there are a few local bakeries that can be counted on to provide wonderfully tasty artisinal loaves, many made with locally sourced flour: Ross’ Bread in Ridgefield, CT is […]

Categories: 100% local, appetizer, breads, herbs, Locavirgin, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, year round • Tags: cooking, food, local, quick & easy, recipes, whole grain breads