I found these at the market….

Anybody know their name?  Do you have an idea what to do with them?  Other thoughts?

Take a look at the comments and you will see that Apu left a comment with the right name. I xx’ed it out but I’m sending her a small prize. There are more prizes for more correct guesses.

This post, focusing on Blood Oranges, is the first in a series of Ingredient Posts. I welcome your thoughts on ingredients that you are curious about, love or hate, use frequently or have never tried.

The fields outside of Siracusa are filled with citrus groves. The distinctive dark green, round trees that grow in orderly rows were visible when my plane circled Mt. Etna. Some of trees are so full of uniformly yellow fruit that it is possible to identify them as lemon trees from the air. Although Arabs are creditedwith bringing lemons and bitter oranges to Sicily sweet oranges were brought to Sicily in the15th century by Portuguese crusaders.

I have been taking full advantage of the possibilities that fresh lemons and oranges in the market offer.

Today, I am celebrating the blood oranges that fill the market.

I eat a blood orange before my morning cappuccino, I drink blood orange juice at lunch.

Insalata Fantasia di Arance is what I order if I want a salad of blood orange segments simply dressed with olive oil, salt and pepper at dinner. It may be topped with onion, anchovy or olives but however it comes, it is delicious.

Freshly squeezed, pink, blood orange juice, with or without a splash of vodka, is toast worthy. Salute!

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Saturday was a beautiful, cold, gray, windy, winter day.

I’m not complaining, the air above the frozen pond was white. (Can it be so cold that fog freezes?) The trees on the hill were  black and created a startling contrast to the white field. The alpacas were cozy inside their upscale fleece. Rosie, working on her version of a canine snow angel, was frequently distracted by the scent of creatures tunneling beneath the icy crust of snow. On the other hand, I wanted pie. Not a frozen pie from the market, not a pumpkin pie made from a tin of pumpkin, not an apple pie, I wanted a pie  that would leave pink streaks on the plate. I was missing summer pies.

What to do — I opened the freezer and found a bag of cranberries and remembered that I had once made a cranberry pie but I couldn’t remember how. I had to be adventurous, think creatively and get started. I had an unbaked pie crust in the freezer and I began by rinsing the cranberries and thinking of pies past. I knew that the birds would be pleased with the pie if I wasn’t. Luckily –

It look good enough to slice.

One bite

After the next

Sorry birdies — maybe next time.

Here’s how I made it.

… read more

In November, I decided to try my hand at creating a recipe that featured Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry for a contest. I have never thought of myself as a competitive cook but decide to give it a whirl.

I signed up, got a coupon in the mail that I redeemed for one package of Puff Pastry. I opted for sheets rather than for the shells primarily because I had absolutely no idea what I was going to make.

The pastry waited patiently in the freezer for about ten days until lightening struck and I was inspired by the food in my fridge and a recent visit to Sicily. I had fresh cranberries and fresh ricotta cheese – hmmm, how about Cranberry Cannoli Puffs, a simple dessert made with a minimum number of ingredients.

I submitted the recipe and I thought that the contest rules required that I not tell a soul what I had made until the contest was over.  I got an email last week that said that I was free to share my entry so –  Here’s how I did it:

… read more

Persimmons have been eaten for a long time, the Greeks called the persimmon the ‘fruit of the gods’ but I had never used them in my kitchen.

The orange Fuji persimmons at the market were the inspiration I needed to make a non-chocolate cake. In the past, the unpalatable astringency of unripe persimmons had kept me away from them.

But, the combination of a pot-luck dinner party, the memory of Nancy’s amazing persimmon cake and having both a food blog and newspaper columns that need posts, I decided to practice what I preach – “Be brave, take a chance, experiment and tell me about your success!”

I created a persimmon cake filled with apricot mousse and topped with whipped cream and it was a success! – Here’s how I did it: … read more

Cranberry Sauce, whether straight from the can or an innovative version, is a welcome side dish but these versatile berries can also be the basis for dessert.

Consider cranberry mousse, a three-ingredient wonder and if cranberry mousse doesn’t tickle your palette, how about cranberry gelato? Here’s how ( x 2). … read more