Pickled Beets – Preserving the Winter Garden Bounty

Evelyn, Jonathan Dye, and I have eaten many pickled beets made with this recipe. They’ve been added to cheese plates, paired with gravlax and other preserved fish, and also served simply with some dark rye bread, some fresh dill, and a dollop of crème fraiche (maybe a squeeze of fresh lemon too?). Evelyn’s winter garden has been a bountiful one. She has bushels of beets and needs a way to preserve them. Pickling is the perfect treatment for a homegrown beet. Here’s what I think Evelyn should do with her winter beet bounty!

Free Seed Saving Class at Yorba Linda Public Library – 5.14.14

Join OurLocaltopia’s Farmer and Biologist Jonathan Duffy Davis, this Wednesday (5.14.14) at 7pm for a class on seed saving! Held at the Yorba Linda Public Library, this free class will give you the tools needed to effectively gather, save, store and share seeds from your backyard garden or farm.

Free Class: Cooking with Five Ingredients or Less at Yorba Linda Public Library on 2/12/14

Hello folks! Join OurLocaltopia this Wednesday Feb. 12 at 7pm for another FREE cooking class held at the Yorba Linda Public Library! This week’s topic: dishes made with five ingredients or less! These simple, delicious recipes are great for first time cooks and seasoned chefs. Class will last about 60 to 90 minutes and is held in the downstairs community room. Park in the Library’s lower lot and look for the signs directing you to the class. Samples and recipes will be available to all who attend! See ya there!

-OurLocaltopia

Tonight, 1/29: Free Healthy Lunches Class at Yorba Linda Public Library

Pack it pretty, pack it healthy! Free cooking class tonight 1/29/14 in Yorba Linda! (Lunch box borrowed from the collection of RC Miller.)

Don’t forget, folks! Tonight, at 7pm OurLocaltopia will be hosting a FREE community cooking class on creating healthy, packable lunches for adults and teens. Class will be held DOWNSTAIRS, at the Yorba Linda Public Library and will last about an hour to an hour & a half.  Recipe packets and free samples will be available to all who come! See ya there…

Peppermint Bark S’mores for Festive Holiday Entertaining!

Happy Holidays! Tis the season for office soirées, family celebrations, neighborhood gatherings… basically, parties galore. In our first December post, we feature a fun and simple twist on a summer favorite that will be a big hit at any holiday event you attend: Peppermint Bark S’mores! Really fun, really fast, and really eye-catching, these confections are filled with great peppermint flavor, synonymous with the Holiday Season. 

Thanksgiving Tips, Dry-Brined Turkey Tutorial, Roasted Harvest Vegetables & Recipe Round-Up

Brussels sprouts, nicely browned.

Acorn squash, ready for the table!

Thanksgiving is essentially the ultimate celebration of food. This holiday combines the notions of seasonality, tradition, family and (let’s face it) excess into a single meal the represents all for which we are thankful. Here at OurLocaltopia we have spent the past few months gearing up for Thanksgiving through a series of recipe and technique focused posts that run the gamut from traditional to nouveau. As the big day approaches, we of course have even more of these recipes and techniques to share! In this post, Jonathan Dye reveals a variety of his own hints for taking some of the stress and work out of Thanksgiving dinner prep, including his suggestion for quicker cooking, spatchcocked turkey prep. Jonathan Duffy Davis takes us through a step-by-step tutorial on dry-brining and whole roasting your turkey, and shares his recipes for perfectly roasted harvest vegetables. Finally, we recap the various recipes we have explored this fall so they can be used on your own holiday table!

Thursdays in the Kitchen: An Elegant New Year’s Eve – Final Class of 2013 on 11/21

Hello friends! Don’t forget… on Thursday November 21st at 6pm, we will be hosting the final Thursdays in the Kitchen class of 2013, our “Elegant New Year’s Eve” celebration.  This class will be team taught by Jonathan Duffy Davis and Jonathan Dye and will serve a dual purpose: to explore a wonderful menu of elevated cuisine, perfect for end of the year parties AND to celebrate the success of the Thursdays in the Kitchen series, all while enjoying a fabulous evening!

Fall Baking: Jonathan Dye’s Pumpkin Purée Tutorial & Recipe for Classic Pumpkin Pie!

Pumpkins are ubiquitous to fall, and the world loves to celebrate the image, the taste, and the aroma of this seasonal icon.  In our latest edition on fall baking, we explore the most traditional incarnation of the pumpkin icon — pumpkin pie! Our motivation stems from our abiding respect for the main ingredient of this seasonal delight, which is currently abundantly available at markets and grocers.  Pumpkins, be they great or small, sweet or savory, soft or tough, are just about everywhere in autumn.  Yet as certain as fresh pumpkins are to grocery store displays… so are enormous columns of 15 ounce cans of processed pumpkin purée.

Jonathan Duffy Davis’ Pickled Green Beans: Recipe and Method

Most vegetables are takers but bean give back. Along with the rest of the legumes beans have formed an amazing symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Rhizobium). These bacteria that call the roots of legumes home are capable of taking the inert nitrogen gas (n²) that constitutes almost 80% of every breath that we take and turning it into a form of nitrogen that plants can use. Nitrogen is the most limiting nutrient to plant growth in the garden. The more nitrogen your soil contains, the better your garden will grow. Thus, beans nourish not only the gardener but the garden as well.

Stick To The Recipe! A Primer on Canning Pickled Vegetables, Jams & Jellies

Autumn is a perfect time to learn how to can in Southern California. The bounty of summer is quickly fading but there is still time to pick up the end of the stone-fruit and warm-season vegetable harvest and preserve the last of that summer sunshine. Learning how to can now will also enable you to make all of the fantastic pickles that are possible with winter vegetables.