Friday, September 4, 2009

Thinking Out of The Box . . .

Instead of making cheese over the last week, I decided to finish up doing something with all of the citrus coming off our trees in the back yard. Finish one project before starting the next ... blah, blah, blah.

I knew we would never eat all the tangerines, so I decided to bottle them. The quarts are kind of big, but they will bre a wonderful treat after chilling in the fridge next summer. Just cost me a few lids I didn't have on hand.

Everytime I looked at the lemons and saw the beautiful rinds, I felt so wasteful just throwing them. So one day for lunch I ate and made lemon zest with a bunch of them. I figured I saved about $10 in the half hour it took to eat lunch.

Can't stop there, can we? Next trip to the store I got oranges, with gorgeous rinds, of course. A bottle of orange zest runs about $5, now saved. While running around Costco on Wednesday, trying samples with the granddaughters (great entertainment and those little gals are great food critics ;-) , some limes, with gorgeous rinds, reached out, grabbed me, and just begged to be taken home with us. I've never seen lime zest, but come on, how often do we squeeze a little lime juice over our Mexican food? Close your eyes and just imagine the wonderful flavor if a little zest was thrown in the pot at just the right time?

When I learned how to make Copy Cat Orange Chicken (Panda Express style), that has no orange juice in it, only zest. Any one interested in that recipe, regular or pantry style?

I realized this could be used to make all kind of wonderful dishes, with food storage items. All three mixed would probably make the best polynesian merinade ever!

4 comments:

  1. would love to have the pantry style recipe. Thanks
    Debbie

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  2. Using lemon rinds in recipes is total usage of a lemon. I recently tried this lemon/ricotta cookie recipe and was blown over! It has the juice of a whole lemon, plus the rind in the cookie, plus another lemon and rind in the icing. Absolutely delectable! I have to admit, we whipped up two batches in a week!

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  3. I would love the recipe of the pantry style as well as the larger version, I could make up a bunch then freeze, I have a family of 5 (my husband and I along with our 3 growing boys). would be yummy, we love that stuff :)

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  4. I would love the pantry recipe for the orange chicken please:)

    I'm just entering as anonymous because I'm dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to computers. Don't know what I'm suppose to put. How sad is that?

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