Hot Milk Cake with Berry Sauce

By rachelvanduzerMay 20, 2020April 21, 2023 Berries, Cooking Methods, Desserts, Featured, Recipe-Round-Up, Recipes

Photos by Abbi Bull While this spring has looked nothing like any of us planned on, it’s always helpful to look for the silver lining. College student Abbi Bull was enjoying her semester at Cairn University when the pandemic hit. She had to move back home and continue studies online. While she had been…

Homemade Fresh Mozzarella

By rachelvanduzerFebruary 19, 2020February 20, 2020 Appetizers, Cooking Methods, Featured

Something got into me recently, and I’ve been all about turning milk into dairy products lately. Perhaps it’s this gray winter weather that has me longing for summer and all the locally grown food that comes along with it. I’ve made my own ricotta cheese, yogurt, clotted cream and more recently – fresh mozzarella. Making…

Recipes So Easy They’re Hardly Recipes

By JenniferHetrickNovember 29, 2016April 21, 2023 Breakfast, Cooking Methods, Featured, Recipes, Sandwiches

Being too busy to live nowadays, which is often a norm in our culture, means that we don’t always have time or energy to make meals that take a lot of effort. Many jobs requiring employees to do the workloads of several people and living in a culture where accomplishing tasks is more valued than resting…

Trying, Failing, and Continuing to Preserve the Harvest

By rebeccatalbotAugust 18, 2016August 20, 2016 Cooking Methods, Featured, Summer Produce

Yesterday I tried something that didn’t work at all. And to make matters worse, I spent about 10 hours on it and roped some family members into the process. I tried making candied watermelon rind. I was pretty excited because not only would this be delicious (surely, surely) it would also be frugal, repurposing a useless, maligned…

Modifying Recipes to Cook with the Seasons

By rebeccatalbotAugust 3, 2016April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Farm-to-Table, Featured, Recipes, Summer Produce, Tomatoes

Summer in Pennsylvania, for me, means swimming in my parents’ pond. Or at least hanging out on the dock with the adults and drinking iced tea while the kids swim. A few of my friends’ and relatives’ kids have waded into the pond sporting inflatable “swimmies” on their arms. Remember those things? The way they…

Must-Have Party Recipes: Foods That Go Quickly at Parties

By JenniferHetrickDecember 22, 2015April 21, 2023 Appetizers, Cooking Methods, Featured, Leafy Greens, Recipes lettuce, mushrooms, pecans, recipes, spinach, tomatoes

With Christmas and New Year’s Eve festivities just around the corner, here are some recipes for party foods that are known to be devoured in no time. An empty dish versus food that sits around and gets cold is a good sign! (Remember to check our winter and holiday hours before you head out to…

KITCHEN COPY: POMEGRANATE

By chucksmithDecember 16, 2015December 16, 2015 Beverages, Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Recipes, Seasonal pomegranate, recipes, winter produce

Although most pomegranates are and have been cultivated throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and the Indian subcontinent for centuries, today the fruit can be found growing in California and Arizona. Besides being a wellspring of minerals, raw pomegranate seeds provide a whopping 12 percent of the daily value for vitamin C, and are an excellent…

KITCHEN COPY: AMAZING ALMONDS

By chucksmithDecember 3, 2015March 15, 2016 Beverages, Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Recipes almonds, gluten-free, recipes

In my last post, I mentioned that I suffer from lactose intolerance. And when I write suffer, I mean suffer. Giving up ice cream has been one of the most difficult and challenging things I’ve ever had to do. But as delicious as ice cream may be, the onslaught of abdominal pain and discomfort which resulted from…

KITCHEN COPY: RAMBUTAN!

By chucksmithNovember 19, 2015April 21, 2023 Beverages, Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Recipes cocktails, rambutan, recipes

It’s difficult to describe the rambutan…It helps to be familiar with the texture and flavor of Lychee fruit, and the strange, otherworldliness of sea urchins. According to Wikipedia, the rambutan (a name which refers to the tree and the fruit) is native to tropical regions of Southeast Asia and is related to the lychee, longan, and mamoncillo. The fruit is…

KITCHEN COPY:FRESH CRANBERRIES

By chucksmithNovember 4, 2015April 21, 2023 Berries, Cooking Methods, Featured, Holiday, Kitchen Copy, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal berries, breakfast, cranberries, gluten-free, local ingredients, locally grown produce, recipes

I’ve been told that men tend to gain a lot of weight in their thirties. I keep hoping that will happen to me. I could stand to gain a pound or two. But all I’ve gotten so far is lactose intolerance, and a gluten allergy. I reluctantly confess this. It was only recently that I was a…

KITCHEN COPY:SWISS CHARD

By chucksmithOctober 21, 2015April 21, 2023 Appetizers, Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal local ingredients, locally grown produce, peach salsa, recipes, swiss chard, vegetables, vegetarian

Has it ever happened to you that two things enter your life at the same time, and forever after it’s nearly impossible to think of one without also thinking of the other? It happened to me about twelve years ago. It happened to me with Swiss chard, and my wife. I can’t cook Swiss chard without also…

KITCHEN COPY: SWEET SAUSAGE

By chucksmithOctober 7, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Recipes local ingredients, recipes, sausage

If I didn’t have other cookbooks to keep it pinned between, my Fanny Farmer cookbook would completely fall to pieces. It’s true. Just about every page within its sad, decrepit cover has become unglued. And the spine has given up entirely. On a few occasions I’ve almost thrown it into the recycling. But every time I voice these intentions, my wife pleads…

KITCHEN COPY:A PRETTY PUMPKIN

By chucksmithSeptember 24, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal local ingredients, locally grown produce, pumpkins, recipes

Right about now the Mums begin rolling into Wolff’s and taking over the place like some kind of bizarre alien invasion. It seems like every day more cloudbursts of color are added to the expanding floral grid. Their arrival coincides with the onset of chilly mornings, corn shocks, and overwhelming swells of heirloom pumpkins. The pumpkin’s…

KITCHEN COPY: HONEYCRISP APPLE LIME GRANITA

By chucksmithSeptember 9, 2015October 18, 2016 Apples, Beverages, Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal apples, honeycrisp, local ingredients, locally grown fruit, recipes

Some things take a long time to learn about oneself, while other things take none at all. After scaling, gutting, and prepping fish for a brief stint at a small Greek restaurant in Federal Hill, Baltimore, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do in the kitchen. And it wasn’t cleaning fish. It only took a…

KITCHEN COPY: WATERMELON-TINI

By chucksmithAugust 26, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce locally grown fruit, locally grown produce, recipes, summer produce, watermelon

The single memory from my childhood of eating watermelon centers more upon the large, black, unpleasant, inedible seeds than it does the deliciously sweet and totally consumable flesh. It is a memory which speaks volumes about the kind of person I am. It’s no secret how I would answer the proverbial glass-half-full or glass-half-empty question. As far as I’m concerned, the glass…

KITCHEN COPY:NOTEWORTHY NECTARINES

By chucksmithAugust 12, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce local ingredients, locally grown fruit, locally grown produce, nectarines, peaches, recipes, summer produce

I’m fully allowed to taste the produce at Wolff’s Apple House. As their resident chef, it’s part of my job. Nevertheless, there is always a moment (right about the time I lift the fruit from the display) when it feels criminal. Like I’m getting away with something. Like I’m stealing something precious from others. Which leads me to a confession. Earlier today,…

KITCHEN COPY: HEAVENLY HEIRLOOMS

By chucksmithJuly 29, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Locally Grown, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Tomatoes local ingredients, locally grown produce, locally grown tomatoes, recipes, tomatoes, vegetables, vegetarian

Some heirloom tomato varieties hardly resemble tomatoes at all. That’s what one might think, anyway. The truth is that only in the last hundred years did tomatoes become so uniformly round, and red, and (Let’s admit it!) often flavorless. That’s all changed, of course. Americans have rediscovered (thanks to hard-working small farmers) how to embrace seasonality, and a desire to experience the…

KITCHEN COPY:FLAVORFUL FINOCCHIONA

By chucksmithJuly 2, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Photos, Prepared Foods, Recipes, What's New eggs, recipes

On any given day Wolff’s buyer, Lisa McWaters, is in the process of introducing a new product onto the shelves. The process can take anywhere from a day, to several weeks. There is usually a trial period where Wolff’s employees get a chance to preview an item, or help determine whether it should be carried…

KITCHEN COPY:A HANDSOME PEAR

By chucksmithJune 17, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Pears, Recipes, Sandwiches gruyere, pears, recipes, sandwiches

If you met me ten years ago and we struck up a conversation about favorite foods, I would have proudly admitted that I preferred sandwiches over all else. Especially grilled sandwiches. The same holds true today… I love grilled sandwiches. A grilled cheese sandwich was the first thing I ever cooked. Or rather, it was the first thing I enjoyed cooking. When I…

KITCHEN COPY: SCANDALOUS STRING BEANS

By chucksmithJune 3, 2015April 21, 2023 Appetizers, Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Locally Grown, Photos, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce basil, green beans, local ingredients, locally grown produce, recipes, vegetarian

Whether whores first invented puttanesca is no concern of mine. The sauce is bright, flavorful, pungent, and goes with just about anything you can scrounge together. Including the ubiquitous green bean. Literally translated, alla puttanesca means “in the style of a prostitute.” It is a culinary legend whose origins (like so many inventions) are clouded with speculation. There are various…