We’ve had a busy month. Nick traveled to New York for work while I polished off a pan of brownies. We visited my brother before he returns to London. We hosted a dinner party. We spent a weekend in Virginia.
And we completed our second secret ingredient challenge of the year. Challenge Oranges!
Obviously orange trees do not grow in Pennsylvania in February — nothing does — but the citrus fruit is still synonymous with winter. Most come from Florida and southern California, and they’re at their sweetest during this time of year. They’re fragrant and packed with Vitamin C and can provide a real pick-me-up during gray days.
Nick kept things simple for his first challenge — preparing all four courses in just two hours for our Monday night meal — with help from his sous chef, of course.
In addition to orange zest, orange juice, and orange marmalade, our dinner included cranberries, carrots, cod, and a box of yellow cake mix. Details and recipes to come (after yet another weekend out of town). Stay tuned!
Do you eat oranges in winter?
Fantastic stuff. Oranges are great for cooking. So many possibilities. Including baking them, and let me tell you, baked oranges are a sublime treat.
I eat and use oranges in winter, definitely do.
And I harvested several things from our garden during the thaw, fresh leeks, japanese bunching onions, and the criminally unknown veggie, salsify. That was nice.
Keep up the battles….they make for wonderful blog stories and recipes.
Yay! These challenges make me irrationally happy. Can’t wait to see the recipes. I had an orange vinaigrette at a restaurant last week and I’m excited to try to recreate it, it was one of the best salad dressings I’ve ever had.
Ohh, I just made orange-balsamic chicken after getting it in the daily Martha Stewart Everyday Food e-mail!