Citrus Season

I do love the citrus season. There are so many great varieties and such a long span of productivity.
First come my sister's Satsuma mandarin in late fall, she is always generous, giving me huge baskets of these sweet little gems. Her navel oranges are next in the new year and are one of my favorite evening snacks. Our little Satsuma mandarin produces lots of fruit but due to our warmer climate they don't get very sweet, so I juice them.

A bushel of mandarins make about two gallons of juice. I have a glass every morning, liquid sunshine!

I freeze some, share with friends and use it to make this wonderful orange cake. It's so simple, moist and vegan !! I don't bother with the fancy candied orange peel in the photo below, but I do sometimes as some almond extract to the batter and some slivered almonds to the top.

My friend, Susan gave me this wonderful Cthulhu citrus, which is actually called Buddha's hand but reminds me of the H.P. Lovecraft monster. It's all about the peel, Susan uses the zest in all kinds of sweet and savory dishes.

I have been revisiting some of the fun breads from my Bread Machine Magic cookbook lately.
I was looking for one that used citrus and found this lovely marmalade and oats bread.
The recipe is for a bread machine but if you already bake your own bread I am sure you can adapt it.
I use my own marmalade but any commercial version will do.

Marmalade and Oats Bread.

Ingredients
2/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats ( not instant)
1 1/8 cup milk or soy milk ( or almond etc...)
2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoon butter or Earth Balance
1/2 cup citrus marmalade 
1 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast ( Red Star is the one recommended in the cookbook).

Place all the ingredients in the bread machine in the order above. Use a light crust setting and regular baking cycle ( it's a three hour process in my machine).
Once the baking cycle ends, remove from pan and allow to cool for one hour. It's important that you let it cool. The oats in the dough make it very chewy and moist. It's fabulous toasted with butter and marmalade !!

Laurie's Warming Winter Squash Soup

This fall my brother grew some great winter squash and was kind enough to share two of them with me, a huge Hubbard and a warty French squash.

There are so many ways to use these versatile fall and winter vegetables, I did a whole post on that several years ago. While each winter squash including pumpkin have slightly different flavors and textures they are, for the most part, interchangeable in my recipes.

I wanted to come up with another savory soup using winter squash, I had some ideas so I just started cooking. The result was rich, warming and tasty, it reminds me a bit of a warm savory pumpkin pie.
I made it a second time to take photos and measurements so I could share it with you.

Laurie's Warming Winter Squash Soup

Ingredients
1 diced onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
3-4 cups cooked winter squash*
1 cup tomatoes*
1 1/2 cup coconut milk**
1 tablespoon Garam Masala
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon cardamom seeds
2 teaspoons  fresh grated ginger ( freezing fresh ginger makes it easy to grate and keeps longer)
2 cups water
1 tablespoon Better than Bouillon ( optional)
salt to taste

* I used the Hubbard squash I had roasted, cut into chunks and froze, same with the tomatoes. I think a large can of pumpkin and a can of stewed tomatoes would work as well.

** Use coconut milk not coconut water, I like this Trader Joe's coconut milk.

1) Saute the onion in the olive oil until soft.

2) Add the spices,  stir and cook for several minutes.

3) Add the cooked winter squash, tomatoes, coconut milk, water and bouillon. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

4) Allow to cool before pureeing in the blender. Salt to taste.

You can serve with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream and a garnish of fresh parsley or cilantro. It will certainly warm you up on a cold winter night.

Beet Borsch(t)

This fall I was fortunate enough to travel to New England, I had a friend in Vermont and one in Massachusetts, I spent time with both. Strangely enough they both served me beet borsch made two very different ways. I loved them both and so far I have the recipe I like for one version and plan to work on the second one soon.

This soup feels like winter, deep red in color, hearty and good for a cold evening.
I made the omnivore version, it is easily adapted for the plant base diet*.
It begins with these humble ingredients.

Beet Borsch

2 cups peeled and diced beets ( 3-4 medium size beets)
4 cups shredded cabbage
1 pound beef stew meat cut into 1" pieces
1-2 large onions
3 1/2 cups canned tomatoes
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
6 cloves garlic, chopped.
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon  honey
1 teaspoon salt
ground pepper
8 cups water
sour cream for topping
*If you are making the vegetarian recipe add 1 tablespoon Better than Bouillon.

Most of the work for the soup comes in preparing the beets and cabbage.
The beets need to be peeled and cut into chunks while still raw.

The cabbage is shredded or chopped to the size you like for your soup.

1) Peel, chop and saute the onions to soften in a small amount of olive oil.
2) Add the beef to brown it.

3) Add the all veggies, spices, vinegar and water.
Note: as with most soup the exact about of each vegetable is flexible. While the original recipe called for 3 1/2 cups of canned tomatoes, I used maybe 2 cups of my frozen tomatoes.

4) Simmer for 1 hour.

5) Serve with a dollop of sour cream, a nice salad and a slice of rye bread !!

Here is my friend's cat sitting on the original recipe.

The best from 2016, it's a short list.

Cooking new things and blogging about them were not high on my list this past year.
While I still love to eat and to cook, food blogging has slowly taken a back seat.
Times change and so does the focus of our lives.

This morning I did make creme caramel for dessert tonight with friends. It came out beautifully.

I was inspired to make the New Years Day special: hoppin' john, eating a bowl is said to bring you good luck for the year.

Here are a couple of recipes worth remembering from 2016.

 Oven Roasted Chicken Shawarma !!
 This is such a tasty way to serve chicken.

My favorite chocolate chip cookies, these are worth the extra work.

Wacky cake is fun to say and simple to make and it's hard to believe that it has no eggs or dairy.

Two desserts, no surprise ;-)

I do have a lovely beet borscht recipe I hope to post soon.

A friend gave me a book on American Cakes, their history and recipes.
I hope to try one recipe from this book each month, yum !!

Happy New Year to you all, may it be full of good food !!