Blood Orange Smoothie

I know, another smoothie post. But this is necessary, I promise. Also, it's from How Sweet Eats. So Laura and I are continuing on the trend of how we make everything she does. Also I super stalk her baby page. So much cute. And I'm writing incomplete sentences. What else is new? That's how excited I am about this smoothie. I made it like 5 times already. The best part? I can share the leftovers with Rex because it's vegan and delicious. I kept the recipe the same but sometimes I would add an extra blood orange or clementine depending on what I had. The ganache recipe makes a lot so when I doubled the recipe, I only made one batch.

Makes 2 smoothies

1 can coconut milk

4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

1 frozen banana

6 clementines, peeled

1 blood orange, peeled

Ice cubes

Take out 4 tablespoons coconut cream at top of the can and place into bowl of chopped chocolate. Microwave on low for 30 seconds at a time, stirring until melted. Place the rest of the ingredients in blender and go crazy!! Then spoon the ganache into sides of glasses and pour smoothie up to the top.

2 Salads: Lime/Shrimp/Avocado & Blood Orange/Sweet Potato/Kale

I am just about ready to kidnap Michelle & baby and fly to Ecuador and stay in airbnb places and Alandaluz, a beach ecoresort. (Michelle, look.) Brittany, you can change your flight back from Mexico and come join us. I just think that I shouldn't have to be around snow right now. See:

Instead, I will make bright, pretty salads.

Lime/Shrimp/Avocado Salad

Adapted from Skinny Taste

1 lb cooked shrimp, peeled & deveined, rough chopped (I sautéed mine in olive oil)

1 avocado, cubed

1/2 red onion, diced

1/2 red pepper, chopped

1 jalapeno, chopped

2 limes, juiced

salt & pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

Toss the onion, lime juice, olive oil and salt & pepper in a small bowl. Let that sit for about five minutes to mellow out the onion. Combine with pepper, jalapeno, avocado and shrimp. Add pomegranate seeds if they're laying around from something you made yesterday. Serve.

Note: You can add cilantro if you want. I like cilantro, and I bought some for this salad but it smelled really bad when I opened it so I tossed it. It's so good without the cilantro that I won't use it when I make this again.

Blood Orange/Sweet Potato/Kale

Slightly adapted from How Sweet It Is

1 sweet potato, rough chopped

1 tbsp maple syrup

3 tbsp olive oil

salt & pepper

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

6 cups salad greens (I used chopped dino kale)

2 blood oranges, chopped or sliced sideways

1/4 cup pomegranate arils

4 oz feta cheese, crumbled

2 blood oranges, juiced

1/4 cup white vinegar

2 cloves garlic, minced

salt & pepper

1/3 cup olive oil

Roast the sweet potato in the oven at 400 in the maple syrup, oil, salt, pepper and paprika. Roast for about 20 minutes or until a little soft. Let cool.

Mix the greens with the sweet potatoes, orange pieces, pomegranate arils and feta cheese. Combine the orange juice, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper. Pour in the olive oil while whisking. Pour as much as you want to use into the greens and save the rest in the fridge for other salads. Serve.

Citrus Habanero Salad

My birthday was last Tuesday! Certain friends of mine told me I had to do something, so I made dinner. I picked out some Ecuadorian recipes from Laylita's amazing food blog, including a spicy citrus salad.

CITRUS HABANERO SALSA
From Laylita's Recipes

5-6 citrus fruits (oranges, grapefruits, blood oranges, kumquats. mandarins, tangerines)
1/2 onion (white or red), sliced or diced
2-3 habanero peppers, seeded and veins removed (use gloves), finely diced
juice from 1 lime
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tsp cumin
salt to taste
salad greens (optional)

Orange & Cranberry Pound Cake

This is another example of how I can have really good intentions of making something for a particular reason or to give to someone, but then time after time what actually happens is I start eating it right away. I was going to save this for Thanksgiving, but instead we'll probably eat all of it by Thursday.

ORANGE & CRANBERRY POUND CAKE

Adapted from Joy the Baker's Chocolate Orange Cream Cheese Pound Cake

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp orange zest (I used the zest from 1 large orange)

8 oz cream cheese (1 package), softened

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks), room temp

4 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup fresh cranberries

Vegan Orange Cake

This was my contribution to the bridal shower. I made it with a coconut frosting because my sister, Tiffany, said that the cake was ugly just with the glaze. This recipe was found on The Kitchn while I was looking up recipes to use the blood orange jam I was about to give out as favors. The cake got rave reviews and it was gone before everyone got to even try it! It was really moist and sweet with just a hint of bitterness from the blood oranges. Also, it's vegan!!!

Sticky Layered Blood Orange Cake
makes two 9-inch round layers
Cake
3 cups white whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups raw cane sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 oranges, zested (I used 1 blood orange and 2 oranges)
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup water or orange flavored tea
1/2 cup blood orange jam or marmalade
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Coconut Frosting (same one I used on the coconut cupcakes)
3 tablespoons coconut oil
2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup orange marmalade

Blood Orange and Lemon Verbena Jam

Well this jam turned out to be more like a syrup. What I should have done was make a small batch of it first, but I was so excited that I didn't. I'm still really excited about it! I made this jam with my friends, Michelle and Lacey, for the bridal shower. We spent the entire evening canning and stirring citrus jam. It was a good time to catch up and a great way to start off the week. The recipe is from Saving the Season. I suggest if you want to make this, you should follow his directions and do a little research if you haven't canned before. Also, this jam is a little bitter since blood oranges are naturally bitter but it would be great over some homemade ice cream or with a baguette and some sliced brie.

BLOOD ORANGE MARMALADE

5 pounds blood oranges
1 pound organic lemons
7 cups raw cane sugar
1 cup honey
1/4 cup dried lemon verbena leaves (mine were from working at Garden Dreams!)

As a note, it is best to use all organic fruits and ingredients if you're going to be canning. I've read that the chemicals can react in strange ways and turn the jam different colors, like green. : ( You don't really want preservatives and pesticides in your delicous homemade jam anyways. Since we live in Pittsburgh (not citrus growing friendly at all!), I just got my fruit from Whole Foods.
The citrus is also coated with wax to preserve it, so make sure to pour boiling water over the citrus and then scrub them really well to get all the wax off.

1)  Use a sharp vegetable peeler to zest the de-waxed oranges and lemons in wide strips. You want very little white pith on the zest since it is bitter. Then put the zest in a preserving pan with 4 cups of water, bring to a boil and simmer covered for 30 minutes.

2) Meanwhile, remove the bitter white pith beneath the zest. Slice a round off both ends, deep enough to reveal the pulp beneath the pith. Then stand the fruit on one of its flat ends and slice along the fruit to cut away the white parts. Keep about 1/2 the pith!

Crustless Apple-Sausage Quiche

A few weeks ago,  my brother and his girlfriend came to visit for the weekend, so we went apple-picking.  More accurately, I went to work, and everyone else went apple-picking:

Which of course meant that I came home to a delicious apple cobbler...mmmmmm....  Anyway, Steve didn't want to bring the apples home in the car, so the majority of the pickings were left in my kitchen, which I'm certainly NOT complaining about.  Since fall weather deserves delicious fall cooking, and since I'm unfortunately allergic to raw apples (yes, weird), I've been cooking up apples any way I can think of!  Basically I've been googling "apple-[insert random ingredient here] recipe" and seeing what comes up.  The favorite so far: Apple-Sausage Quiche.  I couldn't find one recipe that I really loved so this is kind of a mixture of a few different ideas I gathered from other recipes.

Note: I'm not a huge fan of pie crusts, so I usually skip the effort of making a crust (and the calories!) and just enjoy a crustless quiche.  I'm sure this would be just as tasty with a crust as well.

Ingredients:
2-3 medium sized apples (any variety, I tend to prefer the sweeter ones)
6 oz ground pork sausage
1/2-1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
orange zest (optional)
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375.

Brown sausage in a skillet; drain the fat.  Alternatively, you could use precooked sausage links cut into small pieces.

Slice apples and arrange on the bottom of a pie pan.  Try to cover the whole bottom of the pan...make sure you get that apple-y goodness in every bite!

Spread cooked sausage over the layer of apples.  Top with shredded cheese.

Mix eggs and milk in a small bowl.  Add salt/pepper and orange zest, if desired.  (Confession: Orange zest is my new addiction. I like to put it in EVERYTHING.  But it's probably not essential, since the apples contribute a lot of sweetness.)

Pour egg mixture over other ingredients in the pan.

Bake uncovered at 375 for 15-20 minutes. 

Finally....enjoy!



Rosemary Orange Scones

When my family goes to the Strip on Saturdays our first stop is usually Cafe Raymond, a little place between the chocolate store and I think a floral shop. Their breakfast has gradually managed to replace Pamela's on our regular Saturday morning at the Strip schedule - while they are both wonderful, I can't go to Pamela's without getting banana chocolate chip hotcakes. At Cafe Raymond I want to try everything on the menu (which is on a cute chalkboard above the counter, more points in its favor). Also, there is hardly ever much of a line, even on a Saturday - I think people stick to the next few blocks of Penn Ave (Penn Mac, Reyna's, Wholey's, Lotus, etc.) and don't realize the cafe is over there just a few steps away from the main drag.

My mom's go-to pastry at Cafe Raymond's is the rosemary walnut scone, which is nothing like the scones I made this morning except they both have rosemary in the ingredient list. I'd recommend going to the cafe to see what I mean. These scones, made from a recipe in Emeril Lagasse's Farm to Fork cookbook, are very light and flaky and flavorful.

Scones before going in the oven

"Stop it and take me to the dog park."

Out of the oven

This one split in half perfectly. I ate it out on the deck with butter and honey. VERY tasty... and not the only one I ate this morning.

Usually I change a recipe a lot when I use cookbooks, but I stuck pretty close to this one. My only changes were using powdered buttermilk because that's what was in the fridge and adding about a tablespoon more orange zest. And I didn't bother with a rolling pin; I just pressed the dough into a larger rectangle with my own floured fingers. Next time I think I would add a little more pepper. My sense of smell is kind of weak so normally I don't notice these things, but baking these scones made the kitchen smell amazing. 

"ROSEMARY BUTTERMILK SCONES" 

from Farm to Fork: Cooking Local, Cooking Fresh by Emeril Lagasse (2010)

Yields 12 scones

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons well-shaken buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 425o F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set it aside.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and black pepper. Add the orange zest and rosemary, and combine with a fork. Add the butter and work it into the the flour with your fingers, a pastry blender, or a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (A few large flat pieces of flour-coated butter in the mixture are okay - they'll contribute to the flakiness.)

3. Add the 1 cup buttermilk and stir with a fork until the ingredients are just moistened. Gather the dough together and press it gently into a rough ball. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat together (with floured hands, if necessary). The dough may still be a crumbly mass. Knead the dough gently six to seven times; then use your hands to shape it into a rectangle measuring about 7 by 4 inches. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough into 10 1/2 x 7-inch rectangle, 3/4 inch this. Use a knife to divide the dough into three sections by cutting it at roughly 3 1/4-inch intervals along the length. Cut each rectangle in half. You will have 6 squares. Cut each square into 2 triangles. 

4. Set the triangles on the prepared baking sheet, and brush them with the remaining 2 tablespoons buttermilk. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until golden brown and puffed. Serve warm.

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Post-script:

The verdict from my mom is not enough rosemary and therefore cannot compare to Cafe Raymond's rosemary walnut scones! I still really like them and plan to serve them at the bed and breakfast I will open in Newfoundland when I turn 60.