Cooking a Fresh Turkey

By recipesNovember 7, 2015April 21, 2023 Featured, Holiday, Main-Dishes, Recipes, Seasonal

Never cooked a fresh turkey before? Never fear! Here’s our advice.

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: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…

Peach Flatbread Pizza with Prosciutto, Mascarpone and Thyme

By rebeccatalbotJuly 16, 2015April 21, 2023 Featured, Main-Dishes, Peaches, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce

Some things make going to the gym totally worth it. This peach flatbread pizza is one of them. Last night, I returned to Women’s Workout World after a long hiatus. It was high time to return because over the course of summer vacation, I’d gotten into the habit of eating homemade ice cream and crepes…

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…

KITCHEN COPY: A RHUBARB TO REMEMBER

By chucksmithMay 20, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Recipes, Seasonal recipes, rhubarb, soup, vegetarian

The poisonous leaves of the rhubarb plant can cause a variety of symptoms including stomach pain, nausea, and breathing difficulty. The bright red stalk of the rhubarb plant, on the other hand, is totally edible and can cause delight, a sense of wellness, and sometimes (in extreme cases) euphoria. When I was about seven years old, my…

KITCHEN COPY: CONTEMPTIBLE KIWI

By chucksmithApril 21, 2015April 21, 2023 Cooking Methods, Featured, Kitchen Copy, Recipes, Seasonal, Winter Squash acorn squash, gluten-free, kiwi, recipes

At the risk of sounding totally counterculture, I would like to confess that I love tropical fruit. That is, I thoroughly enjoy consuming fruits that have been harvested in tropical regions, packaged, and shipped across the globe. I enjoy these things even while I acknowledge the impact that common farming/distributing practices have on the environment and…

KITCHEN COPY: EASILY ELEGANT LEEKS

By chucksmithMarch 25, 2015April 21, 2023 Appetizers, Featured, Holiday, Recipes, Root Vegetables, Seasonal beets, Easter, leek recipe, winter produce

Leeks have come a long way in my life since 2001. It’s been an uphill battle for this once neglected ingredient. Unlike onions and garlic, the leek is more intimidating. It seems almost alien when pulled from a grocery bag and placed on a cutting-board at home. I remember a cashier quizzically examining a bunch of…

Rutabaga Carrot Ginger Soup

By SusanEdelmanFebruary 25, 2015April 21, 2023 Farm-to-Table, Featured, Main-Dishes, Recipes, Root Vegetables, Seasonal, Soup

The rutabaga is new to me. It’s one of those vegetables I walk on past when I’m shopping at the market. Maybe it’s the funny looks. Maybe it’s the silly name. I don’t know. The closest I ever came is turnips, the rutabaga’s smaller, more attractive relative. My grandmother served mashed turnips as a holiday…

Another Kind of Art – Winter Flower Arrangements

By JenniferHetrickFebruary 18, 2015February 19, 2015 Crafts, Featured, Seasonal

A few weeks ago while outside with my dog as he enjoyed a piddle break, I found myself standing close to my garden, suddenly compelled to cut off pieces of my Trumpet Vine plant’s branches. It was the dried, broken open seedpods on them which had my brain stirring. I quickly understood that an art…

Pumpkin Pasta with Sausage and Sage

By rebeccatalbotOctober 16, 2014April 21, 2023 Featured, Main-Dishes, Pumpkin, Recipes, Seasonal, Winter Squash

Autumn collects synonyms. It’s already the only season with two interchangeable names, and from there, its monikers multiply. It’s also known as pumpkin season, apple season, cider season and more. But how long has autumn been known as the season for all kinds of pumpkin-spiced food and beverages, from pumpkin lattes to pumpkin ravioli to…

Food or Decoration? Here’s Our Heirloom Pumpkin Advice

By recipesOctober 6, 2014November 2, 2017 Featured, Pumpkin, Seasonal, Winter Squash

Heirloom pumpkins are each varieties of squash, but they tend to be larger than “winter squash” and more unique and elegant than traditional orange pumpkins. Most heirlooms are great for cooking and make great pies, soups and more. A few, however, are not recommended for cooking and we hope to help you sort that out…

Celebrating Apple Season (Part 2)

By rebeccatalbotSeptember 25, 2014September 26, 2014 Apples, Cooking Methods, Featured, Gifts from the Kitchen, Holiday, Seasonal, Vendors

Apple season means apple cider season, apple fritter season, and of course apple pie season. For aspiring bakers, apple pie season can be a frustrating time indeed. I’ve been known to put my hands on my hips and glare at a pie crust that just won’t stop sticking to the counter and ripping. And I…

Make It A (Superfood) Mocha

By rachelvanduzerSeptember 3, 2014April 21, 2023 Beverages, Featured, Recipes, Seasonal

A few summers ago, my cravings for iced coffee got the best of me. I knew that the best way to make iced coffee was to cold brew a serving of it specifically for that purpose, but it was so much easier to just refrigerate a mug of the morning’s leftover coffee. That usually worked…

15 Easy In-Season Recipes for Labor Day

By rebeccatalbotAugust 27, 2014November 2, 2017 Berries, Beverages, Featured, Peaches, Recipe-Round-Up, Recipes, Seasonal, Summer Produce, Tomatoes

How wonderful are Labor Day vacations? They snag the last bits of summer, salvaging time with family and friends before the rush of fall schedules pulls us in different directions. They celebrate cooler weather and golden sunlit evenings. They offer rest. When I was growing up, Labor Day was our favorite family vacation time. We…