Asian Spice Orange Sauce

Today I also made Asian Spice Orange Sauce. I made it like a jelly, so it can be used like that if you want, but it can also be used as a stir-fry sauce, or a glaze for chicken or duck. (I created this recipe by modifying a few different duck sauce recipes I found online.)

Here's my recipe:

• 2.5 cups orange pulp and rind
• 3/4 c rice vinegar
• 1/4 c soy sauce
• 1/4 c sake
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp mustard powder (except I didn't have mustard powder, so I substituted horseradish powder instead)
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (except I didn't have flakes, so I substituted ground cayenne pepper)
• 3 Tbsp pectin (dissolved in 1/4 c water)

Combine all ingredients (except pectin) in a tall pot. 

Heat on high until mixture comes to a rolling boil, then turn heat to low and let it simmer until the fluid is translucent, approx 10 minutes. Add the dissolved pectin, stir to combine, and turn heat to medium. Bring it to a hard rolling boil and boil hard for one minute. Check for gel set. 

Pour hot liquid into hot jars and process for 15 minutes.

I have just under a quart of orange pulp left. What should I make with it??

Tonight's Dinner - Crock Pot Baked Beans

Last night, I was having trouble falling asleep, and as my mind was wandering, I suddenly decided that for dinner tonight I wanted beans and weenies. The only trouble was, I didn't have any cans of baked beans! What to do?

I googled how to make baked beans in the crock pot. OMG. There are sooooo many recipes for "crock pot baked beans" that START WITH A CAN OF BAKED BEANS! WTF??

Anyway, I kept searching and finally found one that started with actual dried beans.

So I got out of bed (I wasn't sleeping, anyway) and put a pound of beans in the (unplugged) crock pot crock along with 6 cups of water to soak overnight. The recipe calls for "navy, pinto, or great northern beans". I didn't have anything quite so clear-cut, just some "mixed beans", but I figured what the heck.

A bean's a bean, right?

I also took a pound of bacon out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw overnight.

This morning, when I got out of bed, I followed the rest of the recipe, pretty much to the letter. 

Before cooking

The only difference was that I had no molasses, so I used maple syrup instead. (ADDENDUM: I tasted it about an hour before serving & decided to add a spoonful of Marmite for umami. It’s possible that if I had used molasses, I wouldn’t have needed to do that. Could have used Worcestershire sauce instead, if I had been out of Marmite. Let your taste decide.)

Anyway, I let them cook all day -- the house smelled wonderful! -- and resisted the urge to stir them until I was ready to serve them. 

After cooking all day

When Bri got home from work, we decided not to make weenies, after all. She had her baked beans on two pieces of toast, while I had mine topped with Parmesan cheese and with crumbled saltines.

They were SO GOOD! This recipe is definitely going to be repeated!

Fri May 31 2019

Breakfast: smoothie 

Lunch: 2 cheese roll up tortillas 

Snack: I finished up the last of the trail mix with raisins & dates. 

I’ll post separately about dinner. 

Thurs May 30 2019

Breakfast: smoothie 

Lunch: 2 cheese roll-up tortillas 

Dinner: crispy bacon ranch salad from McDonald’s with vinaigrette dressing 

Spiced Cherry Jelly

I figured out what to do with the 2 quarts of cherry juice I had -- make spiced cherry jelly!

Just the juice, no spices

Last night, I put 10 whole cloves and 2 cinnamon sticks, plus about 1/4 cup of lemon juice and the last of the port (maybe 1/4 cup?) into the cherry juice and let it soak overnight in the fridge. This afternoon, I strained the juice through a muslin bag and made two batches of jelly. Here's what I did:

• Put 4 cups of juice into a tall pot over medium-high heat

• Add 3 cups of sugar and stir to dissolve
• Bring the mixture to a rolling boil, then turn heat to low
• Add 4 Tbsp pectin (dissolved in at least 1/4 cup water) and stir to combine
• Bring the mixture back to a rolling boil that won't stir down & boil for 1 minute
• Check for gel set

• Pour hot jelly into hot jars and process for 10 minutes

What a gorgeous color!!

Wed May 29 2019

Breakfast: smoothie. I recently had to switch primary protein powders because my usual one has either been discontinued or is having supply chain problems. The new stuff is ok. It’s not as good as my regular stuff and it doesn’t blend well with ice. I’ve been suffering through it, but today decided to do my smoothie with no ice (and no yogurt because I’m out of that right now). It was so much better! Much smoother and more drinkable. 👍

Snack: some cheese and some trail mix (which included raisins and dates) 

Dinner: leftover spinach & artichoke chicken, served over pasta 

Orange-Cherry Butter with Port

This morning, I processed the cherry pits (which still had a good amount of cherry flesh attached to them). I put them into a pot and covered them with water, then churned them up with the potato masher while boiling them.

You can see the pits floating in mix.

I strained them, then put the seeds and pulp that didn't pass through the strainer back into the pot with a bit more water and boiled them again, then picked out the seeds and strained the pulp from the juice, first through a wire mesh strainer and then through a muslin bag.

Here's the juice I have now. It won't be as flavorful as the batch made from the pitted cherries, but it'll be useful for something!

I put the pulp into the small crock pot, then added 1 cup of orange pulp, 1 cup of port wine, and 1 cup of sugar. It is now happily cooking on low on its way to becoming orange-cherry-port butter!

ADDENDUM: after cooking for several hours in the crock pot, I put it into hot jars and processed it for 10 minutes. Here's a jar after it's done processing:

After this, I've still got a bit more than a quart of orange pulp left.

This orange pulp has made a lot of stuff!

I found a recipe for pear and orange marmalade -- I have a jar of pears soaking in port with rosemary, so I think I'll use them. More on that later.

Tues May 28 2019

Breakfast: smoothie

Lunch: spinach & artichoke cheesy chicken from the freezer meal plans, served over just a little bit of rice.

Dinner: 2 cheese roll-up tortillas

Pomander Spiced Orange Jam

When I was looking for things to make with the oranges I foraged, I found this recipe for Pomander Spiced Orange Jam, and Bri agreed that it sounded yummy. We both remembered making pomander balls as children with our moms. :-)

I only modified this recipe a little, LOL. I used 3 cups of sugar instead of 2 because my orange pulp is a bit bitter. I also didn't have any lemons on hand, so instead of "1 lemon zested and juiced", I just used 1 Tbsp of bottled lemon juice. I also didn't have any fresh ginger on hand, so I substituted 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger for the 1 teaspoon fresh (as recommended on the container of ground ginger). Then, I had whole cloves, so I ground some up in my cup blender -- then rinsed out the blender cup with a bit of water, which I added to the jam mixture.

The only other modification was to add 3 Tbsp of powdered pectin (dissolved in 1/4 cup of water) instead of tying the orange seeds into a spice bag and using the pectin from them.

I boiled the mixture for 10 minutes, then added the pectin, brought it to a rolling boil and boiled it hard for one minute. I checked the gel set and it was ready to pour into jars!

So pretty -- and the house smelled heavenly!

Orange-Juniper-Port Marmalade

This morning, I made Orange-Juniper-Port (OJP) marmalade. I found lots of recipes to make an OJP sauce for duck or pork, so I knew the flavors would go well together, but I couldn't find anything specific to making a marmalade.

Then I found this recipe for Lemon & Juniper marmalade, which I used to create my own recipe. I also used safe canning practices, unlike what he does in the recipe.... 

So here's my recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups puréed oranges

3 Tbsp whole juniper berries (got these from my backyard bushes)

1.5 cups water (see my note below)

1/2 cup port wine

1 kg sugar (NOTE: I weighed this on my kitchen scale and found it to come up to the 1 Qt mark on my Cambro container.) (also note: I think this is too much sugar. Next time, I'll try it with half as much, then add more if it's not sweet enough.)

3 Tbsp powdered pectin (plus 1/4 cup of water to dissolve the pectin before adding it to the pot)

Take 1 Tbsp juniper berries and pulverize them (I used my small blender cup, but any kind of herb or coffee grinder would work -- be sure to wash it thoroughly afterwards, unless you want your next blended thing to taste like juniper berries!), then set them aside for later use.

Take the remaining 2 Tbsp juniper berries and smash them. I used my Sauer Stick (used to pound cabbage for sauerkraut), which worked perfectly. You could use a mortar and pestle if you have one. Heck, a rolling pin might even work. Put the smashed berries into a small muslin bag and tie it off.

In a large pot, combine the oranges, the water, the port wine, and the muslin bag. Bring to a boil on high heat, then simmer for 10 minutes on low heat with the lid on. Stir to prevent burning. I used my potato masher to stir the mixture and also to squeeze the muslin bag to get all the junipery goodness into the jelly!

orange pulp, port, and the muslin bag with smashed juniper berries

After the 10 minutes, remove the lid. Add the powdered juniper and the sugar and cook for another 10 minutes on low, stirring to prevent burning.

Sugar + pulverized juniper berries

After 10 minutes, remove the muslin bag, and add 3 T pectin (dissolved in 1/4 cup water) to the pot. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil and boil hard for one minute. Check for gel set.

Pour into hot jars and process for 15 minutes.

It's honey-colored!

Note: The other day I cleaned out my fridge, and as part of that process, I transferred the contents of an almost-empty large jar of raspberry jelly into a smaller container. I couldn't get all the remnants of jelly out of the jar because my spatula was too big, so I put some water into the jar and shook it up, then saved the water for later use -- which turned out to be this recipe! I used it as part of the water.

ADDENDUM: After finishing the marmalade, I took the smashed juniper berries (which were covered in marmalade) and put them outside by an ant hill on our property. Those ants sure are scurrying around madly!

Mon May 27, 2019

Breakfast: smoothie

Lunch: 2 cheese roll-up tortilla sandwiches

Dinner: I scrambled the leftover pot roast into some eggs with cheese. 2 slices of toast with butter. A few saltine crackers after.