Five-Minute Orange Marmalade

Oh how I heart five-minute recipes.
Even if they actually take ten.
Close enough, in my book.

This orange marmalade recipe, made in minutes in the microwave with just one orange and some sugar, is about as simple as they come.  And we can just keep that our little secret, 'kay?

MICROWAVE ORANGE MARMALADE
Cut one orange into segments, peel and all.  Place segments in food processor and whirl away until peel is nice and chopped up.  If any peel escapes the blades' notice, you can fish it out with a spoon and dice it up on the cutting board.

Measure orange pulp/peel.  Pour it into a medium-size glass bowl; add the same amount of sugar as pulp mixture and stir.  Cover with glass top or paper towel.  Microwave at 50 percent power for 6 or 7 minutes, stopping every minute or two to stir.  You should notice mixture gradually thickening up a bit.  (It will never be completely thick until you refrigerate it, so don't keep microwaving past 7 minutes.)  Pour into jar, cool, then refrigerate until ready to use.

If you happen to have any of this around

slather on liberally.

Makes one small jar.

Apple Yogurt Salad

Louise over at Months of Edible Celebrations has one of the most entertaining food blogs around.  Every post, she culls through old cookbooks, researches food holidays, tells her readers about historical events and magically connects them to food.  If you've never stopped in for a visit, you must go, and soon.  You are in for a treat.

When Louise posted her challenge earlier this month -- to try out a recipe from a cookbook you own that corresponds with one of the October food holidays she spotlighted on her blog -- I knew I had to give it a go. 

We've got an apple tree

and I happen to have a few cookbooks  . . . and October, according to Louise, is Apple Month. 

So just in under the October wire, here is my apple contribution.  Not the grated apple pie I made, not the baked apples with custard sauce, not the applesauce or apple and cheese platters -- though they were all yummy.  But the recipe I'd like to share for Louise's cookbook party is this humble apple yogurt salad.  It's easy, tasty, and healthy, passing my test for a recipe that's a keepr.
Taken from this book, one in my collection that I really ought to use more, this delightful little dish serves 6, at about 100 calories apiece.

APPLE YOGURT SALAD

1/4 c. walnuts, chopped
2/3 c. plain yogurt
1 T. lemon juice
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
1 T. honey
2 large apples, peeled and thinly sliced
lettuce

Toast the walnuts at 350 degrees until lightly browned -- 5 minutes or so.  Stir together yogurt, lemon juice, cinnamon, and honey.  Toss sliced apples with yogurt mixture and serve on lettuce leaves.  Sprinkle with walnuts.

Fruit and Cheese

You know how sometimes one thought hopscotches to the next and you find yourself in the library searching for a book about Thomas Jefferson's years in Paris and wondering just how, exactly, you got there?

Well.

I started by thinking about Bastille Day, July 14, a patriotic holiday in France.  Bastille Day led me to thinking about French food, which led me to

cheese fondue (which is Swiss, turns out, in spite of the fact that this one is called French Onion Fondue).  Which led me to a book about cheese, written by a poet who mentions Moby-Dick and cheese curd in the same sentence and makes it seem like a natural pairing.  That led me to my Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook

and its listing of fruits and cheeses, which led me to our backyard peach tree

which got me to wondering if I'd written about cheese and fruit pairings before, which led me to the Too Hot to Cook chapter of my book Queen of the Castle

where, turns out, I certainly had.

And now I'm curious about cheeses and France and the late 1700s and Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and about what resources there are for homeschoolers interested in France

even though I am not a homeschooler and have no plans to teach a unit on France and by now Bastille Day is long over.

So here's a sandwich.  A fine snack or part of a meal when it's too hot to cook.

Bread (skinny baguettes are good)
Cheese (Mascarpone, a sweetened cream cheese that, turns out, is from Italy, not France)
Backyard or grocery store peach, sliced

Put the cheese on a slice of the bread.  Put a slice of peach on the cheese.  Eat.

Coconut-Pineapple Smoothie

When it's too hot to cook, you just might need to drink some of your calories.  Here's a tropical coconut smoothie recipe I discovered in an old issue of Sunset magazine. 

This is just the kind of discovery that keeps me constantly trying new recipes.  It introduced me to cream of coconut -- an ingredient I'd never used before, but one that has become an immediate new favorite.  You can find it in the liquor section of the grocery store (though it's not alcoholic), near the grenadine and margarita salt.  Apparently it's used in pina coladas.  I was happily surprised to see it cost less than four dollars.

All I can say is, this cream of coconut is terrific in smoothies, especially if the other ingredients are mild enough that the coconut flavor shines through.  (When I put some in my mocha frappuccino, for example, the coffee flavor overpowered it.)  It's also terrific mixed with maple syrup (one part cream of coconut, two parts syrup), heated, and served over waffles.

Mmmph, it's good by the spoonful, too, straight from the can.  But if you tell anyone I said that, I 'll have to lie and say, no I didn't.

If you're curious about more uses for this creamy, sweet, coconut goodness, check out this web site.

And I would love to know:  Have you ever used cream of coconut, for drinks or other recipes?  Please share.

DELICIOUS COCONUT-PINEAPPLE SMOOTHIE

For one serving, combine in blender:
1/2 c. plain, unflavored yogurt
1/4 c. frozen pineapple chunks
1/4 c. cracked ice (about 3 or 4 ice cubes)
1/2 banana, sliced
1 1/2 T. cream of coconut (mmmmm)

Whirl in blender until it's smooth.

Lemon-Poppyseed Jelly

Is there anything more appealing than a jar of home-preserved jam or jelly, bursting with fruit flavor fresh from the garden?

This lemon-poppyseed jelly is one of the best arguments I know for spending a couple hours in the kitchen, concocting your own fruit-infused condiments.

The most time-consuming part of the process is squeezing all the juice -- especially if your lemons, like many of mine this year, grew to be not much bigger than a quarter.

You think I'm kidding?
But in the end . . . look, oh look, at what you end up with.

Jars of tart, jelled bliss, ready to spread on a slice of homemade bread for the most perfect morning snack ever.

The recipe comes from an outstanding book called The Bountiful Kitchen by Barry Bluestein and Kevin Morrissey.  Readers of Queen of the Castle may recognize this as the book that provided me with the best fresh tomato sauce recipe in the entire universe.

You think I'm kidding?

HONEYED LEMON POPPY SEED JELLY

Before making this recipe, make sure you have your canning supplies in order -- clean jars, big vat with boiling water, etc.  If canning is not your thing, just make sure you have six or eight clean jars or plastic containers to fill with your finished jelly.  You can pop it in the freezer or give it away to friends with instructions to keep it refrigerated and eat up in the next couple of months.

2 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice, strained (according to Bluestein and Morrissey, this will take about 13 lemons; my experience with itty bitty lemons, however, says just keep squeezing until you have enough -- maybe a gazillion lemons or so)

1 c. water

1 c. pure honey

1 box (1 3/4-oz.) powdered fruit pectin

3 1/2 c. sugar

1 T. poppy seeds

In large pot, combine lemon juice, water, honey, and pectin.  Bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, stirring.  I use a wire whisk to help get out all the little pectin lumps.  Once it's boiling well, add the sugar all at once and keep stirring with the whisk.  Bring back to boil and cook for precisely one minute.

Remove from heat and let sit five minutes.  Skim off foam; stir in poppy seeds.  Can, using your preferred method. 

(Mine, for jams and jellies, is simple:  I just use hot, clean Mason jars fresh from the dishwasher; fill with jelly and top with new, flat lids bought from the grocery store that have been waiting in scalding, nearly boiling water on a nearby burner; top the lid with canning jar rings, which generally come with a new box of jars; invert on a towel on the kitchen counter for five minutes; then turn right side up.  Voila!  Canned jelly.)

Banana-Honey-Lemon Syrup

Talk about simple.  This yummy honey-lemon-banana combination goes together in minutes (I was going to say seconds, but that would be hyperbole).  And it is sooo good -- the sweetness of honey joining the tang of lemon juice.  I had it over whole grain waffles from Trader Joe's, but it would be equally delicious over pancakes, and maybe even ice cream. 

Next time you're looking for something to jolly up your morning meal, whip up a batch of this.

And when you're done, try not to lick the plate.  It's really not very classy (she says, wiping syrup off her nose).

BANANA-HONEY-LEMON SYRUP
3/4 c. honey
4 T. lemon juice, divided
2 ripe bananas

In small pan, heat honey and 3 T. of lemon juice until just bubbling.  Remove from heat.  In separate bowl, slice bananas and squeeze remaining lemon juice over; swish fruit around in bowl so bananas are covered with juice (this will keep them from turning dark).  Add into honey mixture and serve over waffles or pancakes.

NOTE:  If you're not feeding a crowd, feel free to divide recipe in half or in quarters.  The banana slices look a tad gnarly the next day.

ANOTHER NOTE:  I have linked this post to Works for Me Wednesday over at We Are That Family blog.  Check it out for some great ideas.

Baked Cinnamon Bananas with Strawberry Sauce

Mmmm, tonight we have the perfect dessert for this time of year.
Why is it perfect, you ask?
OK, you didn't really ask.  But humor me.
1. Spring is coming, so strawberries are starting to show up at the grocery store.
2. Yet it's still chilly enough outside that making an oven-baked dessert is not a bad warm-up strategy.
3.  You can use any frozen strawberries you happen to have if the fresh ones haven't yet appeared in your part of the world.
4.  Bathing suit season is not far off.  And certain people have perhaps over-indulged in the baking department this winter.
Sorry, bathroom scale.
BAKED BANANAS WITH STRAWBERRY SAUCE
2 firm bananas
1 t. lemon juice
cinnamon, to sprinkle
2 c. strawberries, sliced
2-4 t. sugar, to taste
1/2 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375.  Peel bananas and slice lengthwise.  Put on parchment-covered baking sheet (or non-stick baking sheet).  Brush lemon juice on cut sides of bananas.  Sprinkle with cinnamon, and bake for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, make the sauce:  put sliced strawberries in bowl with sugar and vanilla.  (If you're using frozen whole berries, you can just smush 'em up a bit with a pastry blender at this point.)  Put about half a cup of strawberry mixture in blender and whirl them around, then add back to the rest of the sliced berries.  When bananas come out of the oven, top with sauce.

Anything healthy-ish going on in your kitchen?

Summer Food Wrap-up

With Kahuna's gardening prowess and my enthusiasm for playing with my food, we've had a good summer here at the castle. Here's my wrap-up of the season -- or, What I Learned (about Food) on My Summer Vacation. 1. Most tragic food blunder: garlic paste. Thinking this was a good way to preserve

our garlic harvest, I used fully half of the year's crop, roasting and turning it into a paste to use on bread, in stews, etc. Result: a very mellow-tasting spread that doesn't even make a decent piece of garlic bread.

Grrrr.

Epic fail.

2. Most ill-advised historical food experiment: these muffins from a 17th-century recipe. I don't remember the name, but I do remember they tasted like chalk and contained enough baking powder to make a horse float. A castle record: amount of time from taking first bite until entire batch is pitched into the garbage -- 1.2 seconds.

3. Biggest surprise: homemade "butter," whereby cream, blenderized and promised to magically transform into fresh home-made butter, instead resolutely remained cream, albeit slightly dazed cream. Said cream's sole action was, upon seeing daylight as blender top was lifted, to defiantly and maniacally splash into blender wielder's eye.

"Butter" - 1. Castle Queen - 0.

4. Biggest (pleasant) garden surprise: eggplant.

Our first time growing this, we grilled, roasted, and baked it. Vegetable medleys, ratatouille, eggplant Parmesan -- all were delicious. All were eaten within minutes.

Our mothers would never believe it: we actually like vegetables.

5. Most frequently made recipe: pear nectar. Or maybe peach nectar. What can I say? I love nectar. Probably because I love sugar, and after a summer of eating vegetables, I am a tad sugar-deprived.

6. Most triumphant garden victory: enough basil for homemade pesto. The fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Totally worth the wait.

Never mind that we received said basil as a gift, already a very large plant. The point is, at this date it is still a very large plant, thriving in Kahuna's garden and popping out an abundance of leaves daily.

You go, basil. You go.

So how about you? Any summertime hits, misses, surprises? Feel free to leave a link if you've posted about your summertime food adventures. We'd love to read all about it.

Blackberry Syrup

Our summer here in northern California has been cool, which makes for a paltry tomato crop but a very, very happy bunch of blackberries.

I've picked so many berries for the freezer this year that I've run out of containers. Which means I was enormously pleased to come across this recipe for berry syrup from Jenn at Pint-sized Pioneering.

If you have just three cups of berries, some sugar, and a bit of water, you can make a jar of delicious syrup. So far I've made three batches (that's two batches, above).

Now if only I can find more room in the freezer . . .

Anyone else finding interesting things to do with excess fruit this time of year?

Peach Nectar

In the epic 2010 battle over the backyard peach tree, with the teams the Castle Dwellers vs. the Stinkin' Squirrels and Blue Jays, I declare we Castle Dwellers the victors.

Exhibit A: We got canned peaches. A couple of batches. Exhibit B: We made off with enough peaches for a pie.

Exhibit C: Peach pit jelly. A minor victory as it doesn't include any actual peaches. But a victory nonetheless.

Let the record show we are not even presenting evidence for Exhibit D, peachy tart, for the simple reason we do not wish to condone the silly practice of peach blotting in any form.

Which brings us to:

Exhibit E: as in excellent. Peach nectar. So good you'll drink it almost as fast as you make it.

Take that, you lousy squirrels and blue jays. We win.

Ha.

You may cease your obnoxious squawking now.

SIMPLE PEACH NECTAR

My favorite way to use up an abundance of peaches, this is the recipe I go back to year after year. No need to can; you simply mix up a batch in your blender, pour into glass jars, and place lovingly in the freezer.

4 c. peeled, sliced peaches

4 c. water

1/2 c. sugar

1 T. lemon juice

Place peaches and water in large saucepan. Bring to boil and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for a bit. Place sugar and lemon juice in large bowl and set aside. Working in batches, whirl peach mixture in blender, then pour into bowl with sugar and lemon juice. Repeat until everything's blended. Stir well, then pour into glass jars and freeze.

This Week's Quiz

So what do you think? Which of the following recently-made dishes was the hands-down favorite, the one I'll be making again soon? Was it the sour cherry-chocolate chip scones, sprinkled with sugar?

Was it the potato, sliced almost all the way through and studded with onions and butter, topped with mushrooms and Parmesan cheese, then wrapped in foil and baked?

Was it the honey-balsamic mixed berry fruit salad?

Or was it the chocolate tea bread, flecked with chocolate chips?

Cue the Jeopardy music here. Doo doo doo, doo-doo, doo doo doooooo. Doo doo doo doo DOO! Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

Got your answer? You sure?

Okay, here's the scoop.

The scones were pretty good, but at the risk of sounding like a scone snob I've got to say they were not nearly as tender my regular chocolate chip scones. I won't be making these again -- though I'll definitely consider adding chopped dried sour cherries next time I make my favorites.

The potatoes? These were supposed to be slowly grilled on the barbecue as we roasted a chicken. But we were too engrossed in our weeding and wall-building to get to the store to buy the chicken to roast the chicken to roast the potatoes. So I ended up baking them instead. They were not bad, but I have plenty of potato recipes I like better. Like this one, for example; you can't go wrong with Mom's roasted garlic potato wedges.

The fruit salad? Delicious. A winner. If you guessed this one, you get a million billion points. Sorry, the points are redeemable for exactly nothing. But you get the pride of knowing you were absolutely, one hundred percent right. And how often do you get to hear that in your life? This dish was simple to make and the taste was outstanding -- two of my favorite qualities in a recipe. Best of all, I got to use some homegrown blackberries from last summer I still had stashed in the freezer. I will be making this one again. Soon. And repeatedly.

The chocolate tea bread was definitely in the running, but it crumbled when cut. Big time crumbled. It's hard to serve crumbs, even chocolate ones, to hungry guests. Sorry, chocolate tea bread. You were edged out by this nummy fruit salad.

HONEY-BALSAMIC MIXED BERRY SALAD

2 c. mixed fresh berries (blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, etc.)

2 c. seedless green grapes

2 T. honey

2 T. balsamic vinegar

mint sprigs for garnish (optional)

Wash the fruit, drain, and place in bowl. Mix honey and vinegar; pour over fruit and mix gently. Refrigerate until time to eat.

NOTE: This recipe comes from the book The Universal Kitchen by Elisabeth Rozin.

NOTE #2: Rozin suggests serving this in small ripe cantaloupe halves (seeded, of course), one half cantaloupe per person. If I'd had cantaloupes on hand I would have done it; I'll bet it would be beautiful.

Versatile, Delicious Plantains

Is this not one of the most beautiful desserts you've ever seen? It's a Banana Plantain Crisp, made by Michelle over at Big Black Dog blog.

A couple weeks ago, after a discussion spurred on by this post, Michelle and I decided it would be fun to do a plantain recipe swap. We'd both post about plantains on the same day, and also post pictures and link to each other's plantain dish.

That was back when I knew absolutely nothing about plantains.
Now? Now I know these things about plantains:

Plantains are more expensive than regular bananas, and you can't find them at every grocery store.

Just like bananas, there are different levels of ripeness. The one on the left, with the black stuff, is more ripe. The one on the right, that's kind of green, is less ripe. The one in the middle? It's . . . well, it's in-between ripe.

I learned that plantains can morph from veggie to fruit. When they're green, they're firmer and similar to potatoes; use as a veggie. When they're blacker, they're softer and sweeter; use for desserts.

Also, keep plantains at room temp. Do not refrigerate.

So what to do with my plantains?
Plucked from the depth of my ever-expanding file of recipes to try

was this wizened newspaper clipping. "Versatile, delicious plantains," it claimed. I believe this article was written sometime during the Carter administration.

The article gave me ideas.

For its first suggestion, I selected the greenest plantain,

then peeled, sliced, and boiled until tender (at least five minutes).

Drain, mash, and season like potatoes.

Not bad.

Suggestion number two: using the medium-ripe plantain, I again peeled and sliced. (Peeling, by the way, takes effort. You don't just peel these babies with your hands like you would a banana. You will need a knife, a sharp one, to pare the skin off.) Saute slices in butter until brown and a bit crispy. Sprinkle with salt.

These make a decent side dish or after-school snack for kids. They're potato-y, kind of like mini hash brown patties you'd get at a fast food restaurant.

The third suggestion was for "fully ripe" fruit. Aaaah, dessert time. I'd saved my blackest plantain for this one.

A surprise, however, was in store. When I cut off the skin, the fruit inside was mottled. My little newspaper clipping had not warned me about mottled fruit. I wasn't sure I wanted to eat mottled fruit. So using my trusty vegetable peeler, I cut off the mottled parts.

Leaving me with this. Posed next to regular bananas for the full effect.

It was a plantain stick. A plantain nugget. A little itty-bitty, mini-plantain.

Not only that, my mini-plantain was very firm. Not much different from the other two. My hopes for a glorious dessert were dashed.

Ditching the article, I decided to slice and saute what was left in butter, salt it and sprinkle with sugar. Hmmm, not bad. Probably the best of the three.

My conclusion? Go visit Michelle over at Big Black Dog blog. When it comes to plantains, that girl knows what she's doing.

So what do you think? Have you ever eaten plantains? Ever cooked with them? Do tell.