Category: DIY foods

Salad Dressing of the Week: Yogurt Blue Cheese

  This is a rich, luxurious, and even slightly healthier take on a classic blue cheese dressing.  It certainly marries beautifully with a big old bacon-scattered wedge salad, or as a spread on a tomato and wheat toast sandwich.  But also try it alongside grilled zucchini, eggplant, and even grilled peaches. Blue cheeses tend to… Continue reading Salad Dressing of the Week: Yogurt Blue Cheese

Salad Dressing of the Week: Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette

I love this dressing and use it all year long–but particularly in the summer over a bowl of fresh sliced cucumbers, or a batch of quick-blanched fresh broccoli or green beans, or sauteed greens, all from the garden. Toasted sesame oil, one of my most favorite pantry staples ever, is widely available, but if you… Continue reading Salad Dressing of the Week: Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette

Salad Dressing of the Week: Avocado, Lime and Cilantro

I made this quickly in the blender this week, to go over a cold rice salad with shredded poached chicken, local corn, a few early tomatoes and chunks of avocado.  Mostly the goal was to distribute the little bit of avocado I had on hand as much as possible throughout the salad.  We loved the… Continue reading Salad Dressing of the Week: Avocado, Lime and Cilantro

Salad Dressing of the Week: Roasted Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette (with a hint of white pepper)

  Make this right now, with all those plump ephemeral strawberries lurking around.   (If you are making this out of season–gasp–consider adding a small pinch of sugar to the berry puree to help boost the flavorless winter berries). If you can make it past eating it directly from the mixing bowl, serve this dressing… Continue reading Salad Dressing of the Week: Roasted Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette (with a hint of white pepper)

Salad Dressing of the Week: Sherry Vinegar and Hazelnut Vinaigrette

Last night I was having dinner with some of my favorite lady friends, and we were talking about salad dressings, as you do with your lady friends.  They were saying that they each always make their same standby dressing, and were enjoying this new blog feature to help get out of their ruts. We shared… Continue reading Salad Dressing of the Week: Sherry Vinegar and Hazelnut Vinaigrette

Salad Dressing of the Week: Fresh Oregano and Dijon Vinaigrette

For another step in my continued fight to close down the salad dressing aisle in grocery stores, I’ll offer you a homemade salad dressing recipe each week. Fresh oregano certainly has a pronounced flavor, but actually so much more mellow and herbal and complex than what dried drab green flecks and pizza restaurant shakers have… Continue reading Salad Dressing of the Week: Fresh Oregano and Dijon Vinaigrette

Preserved Meyer Lemons

April 1st.  The “I think I can, I think I can…” continues.  I think I can make it to the end of this relentless Catskill’s winter.  Right now, even as I type this, one day after we were admiring deep purple crocuses at my mother’s for Easter, there are wide swirls of snow flurries mocking… Continue reading Preserved Meyer Lemons

Scallions: Eating within a 10 foot radius

DIY Scallions: 10 days (background) and 36 hours (foreground) of growth.   Full disclosure:  in season or not, I use a lot of scallions.  I love their subtle oniony vibe, pop of color, and exotic feel.  I love their tubey shape and making thin cuts on an extreme angle for geometric garnishes.  I love that… Continue reading Scallions: Eating within a 10 foot radius

Technique Tuesday: DIY Herbal Tea

It always is the case that this time of year is when I finally start to think about drying and putting away some fresh herbs from the garden.  Maybe it is because I am so busy using them fresh in the previous months, or I’m subconsciously trying to put them away as late as possible… Continue reading Technique Tuesday: DIY Herbal Tea

How to make Basil Oil

This may be the garnish to end all garnishes.  I remember so vividly the day we learned this in culinary school, and how I raced home to try it myself, feeling like I had just unlocked some illusive five star chef secret. This simple little technique gives you magnificent, fragrant green gold to drizzle about… Continue reading How to make Basil Oil

Flower Adorned Ice Cubes

Remember those old lady knickknacks of the late 70s of a flower completely frozen in a globe of lucite?  There were a few geriatric abodes I visited during that era, and those stopped-in-their-tracks flowers were always a fascination.  So perfect and yet so bizarrely frozen. You can make your own, a bit more ephemeral, version… Continue reading Flower Adorned Ice Cubes

Garlic Scape and Herb Pancake

  Move over scallions.  I may have to cheat on you. My love affair with dim sum scallion pancakes is no secret.  There are few times I can think of when they don’t appeal to me.  (or make me start to go all Pavlovian as I even type the words.)  Though green and doing very… Continue reading Garlic Scape and Herb Pancake

Lemon Verbena and Thyme Soda Syrup, and Sorbet too!

  Our herb garden is growing like weeds.  Well, truth be told, the weeds are also growing like weeds.  But between the weeds are fragrant, mystical herbs, that are spicing up meals and will also shortly be hoarded away in ziplocks in the freezer for less bountiful months. My favorite herb is lemon verbena.  It… Continue reading Lemon Verbena and Thyme Soda Syrup, and Sorbet too!

Cardamom and Coriander Soda Syrup

The cilantro we planted in our garden around Memorial Day, has already started to bolt some from the heat in recent weeks–it is nearly July after all–and shortly will start to go to seed.  Those seeds, as you may or may not know, are coriander.  They will first be plump and bright green, a wonderful… Continue reading Cardamom and Coriander Soda Syrup

Buttermilk Honey Wheat English Muffins

  I don’t know about you, but I am a tad worn out from all of the high-spirited holidays that have been crammed into the calendar as of late.  Earth Day, Easter, Passover, National Eggs Benedict Day (I wish I was kidding), Arbor Day, May Day, Cinco De Mayo, and even a wedding of the… Continue reading Buttermilk Honey Wheat English Muffins

Ramp Compound Butter

A huge part of the allure of pungent, earthy, and exotic ramps, is that their season and availability is so fleeting. With only about a month to harvest until their flavor becomes too strong, the annual pilgrimages into the muddy woods for chefs and epicurians has commenced (or early-bird trips to the farmer’s markets for… Continue reading Ramp Compound Butter

Homemade Butter

Ever since the first time I whipped my own fresh whipped cream, I have kept my gaze obcessively glued to it, in dreaded fear of over-whipping and having it turn into butter.  The horror!  Imagine!  And so to this day I anxiously sweat that critical make or break, stiff peak to useless butter, moment. But… Continue reading Homemade Butter

Homemade Mango Lime Soda Syrup

Here is another soda syrup recipe to accompany yesterday’s homemade ginger soda syrup.  Super refreshing and light, making me crave flip flops and sunscreen.  Try mixing a little of both syrups together for mango-lime-gingerlicious beach blanket bingo in a glass.  Who says it’s only april?   HOMEMADE MANGO LIME SODA SYRUP by Catie Schwalb makes… Continue reading Homemade Mango Lime Soda Syrup

Homemade Ginger Soda Syrup

Perhaps because of the few (very few) days of slightly decent weather we’ve had lately, my attention has recently shifted from hot teas and afternoon hot mochas to cold, effervescent beverages. We are not big soda drinkers in our house, almost none at all, for all of the obvious reasons (high fructose corn syrup, chemicals,… Continue reading Homemade Ginger Soda Syrup

Olive Oil Everything Crackers

Here is another cracker recipe with which to send you off into the weekend! This recipe and the Cornmeal and Chive Cracker recipe from earlier this week contrast each other nicely, and would make a sublime little cracker basket assortment.  This cracker is a little more subtle in flavor and more tender in texture than… Continue reading Olive Oil Everything Crackers

Cornmeal and Chive Crackers

In my ongoing quest to eliminate store-bought processed foods from our kitchen and life, this week I tackled crackers.  There is a long and growing list food items that I no longer even think of not making myself, and yet almost weekly I think nothing of tossing (overpriced) box after box of these crisp vices… Continue reading Cornmeal and Chive Crackers

Homemade Irish Cream

  Kiss me!  I’m nearly 1/4 Irish! The tradition of enjoying a “drop of the hard stuff” on St. Patrick’s Day is an old custom known as Pota Phadraig or Patrick’s Pot.  The legend goes that St. Patrick taught a stingy innkeeper a lesson, when served a less than generous portion of whiskey.  He threatened the innkeeper,… Continue reading Homemade Irish Cream

Lobster Stock recipe

Sweet, elegant, rosy, and full of the ocean, homemade lobster stock grabs my attention like little else.  Having a few quarts of this on hand in my freezer has allowed me, on more than one occasion, to pull a seafood risotto out of thin air for unexpected dinner guests.  I’ll repeat that–pull seafood risotto out… Continue reading Lobster Stock recipe

Homemade Infused Vodka and Spirits

The flavored vodka market appears to have exploded in the past few years.  On a recent trip to the spirits shop, there were shelves upon shelves of vodkas in all imaginable flavors.  Whipped cream, bacon, and sweet tea were new ones that caught my eye, but not quite my wallet. Infusing alcohols is an ancient… Continue reading Homemade Infused Vodka and Spirits

Blog-y’s first birthday!

My mother and grandmother, 1951. Just a year ago today I published my first blog post.  There have been a bunch of changes over the year (including the name and url), but I am so thrilled where I have landed and am so excited for all that is ahead. In the past twelve months I’ve… Continue reading Blog-y’s first birthday!

Scallion Pancakes

Scallion pancakes.  Oh how I love thee. These remarkable, little chewy, salty, scallion-y, layered disks of oily crunchy heaven completely stole my heart when I first had them my first year living in the city a decade and a half ago.  Often I would grab a late night snack of scallion pancakes and dumplings on… Continue reading Scallion Pancakes

Ode to The Minimalist

It was announced yesterday that Mark Bittman’s weekly column in the New York Times will end its thirteen year delicious, informative, enthusiastic, and encouraging run. I have learned many lessons from Mr. Bittman’s column.  Starting in 1997, a year after I graduated from college, I cooked recipe after recipe from his writing and suggestions and… Continue reading Ode to The Minimalist

Flavored Salt

In honor of last week’s National Popcorn Day, I’ve done some tinkering in the kitchen with flavorings.  My favorite project was coming up with different flavored salts.  It is outrageous that I haven’t done this sooner, and even more outrageous the number of super costly little precious jars of flavored finishing salts that I have sitting… Continue reading Flavored Salt

Pie Crust 101

Bleached flour, partially hydrogenated lard with BHA and BHT, wheat starch, water, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate and sodium propionate (preservatives), Yellow 5, and Red 40. Butter, Flour, Salt, Water, and sometimes an egg. The first is a list of just some of the ingredients of a popular, store-bought, ready-to-unroll, pie crust. The second is what… Continue reading Pie Crust 101

Last minute gifts: Recipe Kits

The Kitchn.com recently had a great piece with a bunch of ideas for gift kits that include everything to make a new recipe or culinary project.  From kimchi to ricotta to granola, the article suggests groupings of ingredients, instructions and any special container or tool. I’ve done similar things for gifts through the years, and… Continue reading Last minute gifts: Recipe Kits

Edible Gift Series: Make Your Own Cookie Cutters

I just saw this great tutorial on Instuctables.com on how to make your own cookie cutters. Genius idea.  Particularly for hard-to-shop-for-relatives-with-quirky-interests (you know who you are…).  Make a cutter that suits them, whip up a batch of cookies, bundle up said cookies, and tie their custom cutter on top with a big shiny bow for… Continue reading Edible Gift Series: Make Your Own Cookie Cutters

Edible Gift Series: Homemade Vanilla Extract

There is little that will get me running to the kitchen faster than reading about a new (or most of the time, quite old) culinary trick to produce a food or ingredient that I had never thought about making by hand.  Food and Wine magazine has a great feature this month on the Best Handmade… Continue reading Edible Gift Series: Homemade Vanilla Extract

Salad Dressing 101

Just about four years ago, Mark Bittman wrote a great piece in the New York Times; A Well-Dressed Salad Wears Only Homemade, and it got me thinkin’.  Why did salad dressings feel like such a mystery?  Why is there usually a huge amount of grocery store real estate devoted to them?  Why are they so… Continue reading Salad Dressing 101

Put it away put it away put it away now.

Red hot chili peppers.  Sweet orange bell peppers.  Long curly Jimmy Nardello peppers.  Short stubby serrano peppers. All of them. Peppers are still abundant at the farmers’ market, super sweet this time of the season, and the easiest vegetable to put away for the winter months.  You don’t need to peel them or blanch them… Continue reading Put it away put it away put it away now.

Roasted Cherry Tomato Vinaigrette

Our 52 heirloom tomato plants are in their final days, but have heroically yielded hundreds of pounds of beautiful fruit this year.  A very triumphant relief, following the yield of six (yes, just six) tomatoes we got from the same number of plants last summer in the throws of the huge tomato blight.  We are… Continue reading Roasted Cherry Tomato Vinaigrette

Spicy-Tart Pickled Ramp Recipe

This past weekend friends who live near us upstate, on an area overrun with ramps, graciously invited us over for our second annual swap of all-we-can-pick ramps for a pick-up truck full of our “like gold” sheep manure for their garden. (So very cutting-edge-hipster-locavore.   Then again, poop for weeds…) After a very muddy morning,… Continue reading Spicy-Tart Pickled Ramp Recipe

Homemade Fresh Ricotta

Lately we have been getting the most wonderful fresh milk from Dirie’s Farm, a small family-owned dairy farm near us.  The milk has a whole melody of flavor, that clearly illustrates what people are talking about when they refer to the terroir in wine.  You can taste this area.  You can taste the differences in… Continue reading Homemade Fresh Ricotta