Category Archives: Fruit

Orange You Glad I Used Grapefruit

Posted by Lesley on January 14, 2010 None comments

It’s grapefruit season again.  As long as the freeze didn’t do too much damage we’ll be eating grapefruit for the next three months.  It’s a real treat to have a food source like that in your backyard.   The juice is my favorite.  When they’re really ripe, it only takes two grapefruit to squeeze out an 8-ounce glass.

But how easy it is to forget the joy of that sweet, tangy juice when it’s your two-hundredth cup.  Getting rid of so many grapefruit can actually get tedious.  This is our third season with the tree; it’s time to move beyond the basics of juice and sugared grapefruit halves.  Our first dinner of the season was Honey Orange Grapefruit Chicken served over a Grapefruit-Spinach Salad with Grapefruit Poppy Seed Dressing.

We all loved it – even John, who (gasp) doesn’t like grapefruit that much.  The dressing cut the tangy bite of the fruit, and the chicken had a tasty sweet and sour flavor from the blend of honey and grapefruit.  The original recipe was printed in Woman’s Day Magazine and is also delicious.

Honey Orange (or Grapefruit) Chicken

  • 2 Tbsp. flour
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 4 skinless, boneless chicken-breast halves
  • 2 tsp. oil
  • 1 tsp. freshly grated orange or grapefruit peel
  • 1/2 cup fresh orange or grapefruit juice
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 1 Tbsp. honey
  • 1 tsp. minced garlic
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Mix flour and salt in a plastic food bag.  Add chicken and shake to coat.  Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add chicken and cook, turning once, 5 minutes or until golden and meat is opaque at center.  Remove to serving plate.

Put peel, juice, broth, honey, and garlic in skillet.  Boil 4 minutes or until slightly thickened.  Stir in parsley; spoon over chicken.

Poppy Seed Dressing

  • Juice from 1-2 grapefruit
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
  • 1 Tbsp. honey
  • 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
  • Salt and pepper

2009 Debut

Posted by Lesley on September 28, 2009 None comments

I make so many references to my grapefruit tree on this blog that I felt impelled to share the first sign of ripening.    

Stop and Smell the Pineapple

Posted by Lesley on August 19, 2009 None comments

The only thing you need to grow a pineapple is patience.  It’s been two years since this plant’s first fruit was ravaged in the middle of the night by a lucky opossum, raccoon, big squirrel maybe???  Whatever it was, it made me paranoid. I started checking the pineapple before brushing my teeth in the morning.  I shared my pain with some gardener friends and picked up a good tip: smell the pineapple regularly.  When it smells sweet, it’s ready to eat.  That’s how the animals do it, so of course, I was down on all fours smelling that pineapple daily.  Finally, the nice sweet whiff I was waiting for.

The picture on the left is from June 23rd.  The angles are deceiving – only the crown grew bigger even though the color changed dramatically.  It’s a pint-sized gold variety.  The Fiji apple from the fridge is about the same size!

The original pineapple was bigger, but also fertilized.  Cooper gave it to me for my birthday, and it wasn’t an organic plant.  I’m not very picky when it comes to things like that.  I prefer to eat organic, but never make myself crazy over it.  However, once the plant went into the garden, it was never fertilized again.  It didn’t seem to need anything other than water, even the bugs stayed away.

Small in size, big in flavor!  It could have been the excruciating wait, but this may just be the most delicious pineapple ever!

How low can I mow?

Posted by Lesley on August 3, 2009 3 comments

I was mowing underneath the grapefruit tree and made the terrible mistake of looking up.  In one word – Halloween – is the best description I can give you.  There are webs spun from one end to the other.  Here are a couple other words – creepy and gross! 

This spider was spinning so intently that I was scared to stand still for too long; he might have spun me into the tree!  And it was the last little section of the lawn left to be mowed – time to crouch down and push through.  I was winning a backwards limbo contest until my bangs fell in my face, and I jumped so high even the mower caught air! 

They’re back!

Posted by Lesley on July 26, 2009 None comments

Green june beetles – the bane of my garden existence at the moment.  The swarm seems smaller this year making them a tad more tolerable, but they still manage to unnerve me on a fairly regular basis.  They have a nasty habit of dive-bombing, and their loudmouth buzzing make the attacks worse.  It’s a constant bzzzzz……bzzzzz….bzzzzz with the occasional bzzzzz…bing as one bounces off a window, tree, my head, whatever.  Vision doesn’t seem to be a strength of the green june beetle.  Lucky for me and the grapefruit, this year’s swarm has more of a taste for the avocados next door.  Last year was terrible.  I would start to weed and five minutes later end up running in the house freaked out and swatting like a madwoman.  They mostly circle the grapefruit tree, and when flying, resemble thumb-sized hummingbirds.  No long beaks, but definitely the same frantic fluttering wing pattern.  It’s a good thing they only hang around for a couple of weeks; they wear out their welcome as fast as their little wings flap.    

 

 

Tennessee Dreamin’

Posted by Lesley on July 23, 2009 4 comments

Cooper just got back from Tennessee. His uncles live on a mountain where ATVs are the preferred method of transportation and backyard chickens are welcome. This is their flock of Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshire Reds, and Barred Rock chickens. I wish he took a picture of the coop; it’s a mini-version of their house! Out in the not-so-mini garden, giant squash climb up the posts and creep down the hill. Tomatoes, carrots and broccoli are percolating under the much kinder Tennessee sun, and fresh blackberries are only an ATV hop up the mountain. Uncle Warren taught Cooper how to make blackberry cobbler; he treated us to dessert last night. We didn’t have fresh mountain berries, but it was still delicious!

Quick, Easy & Yummy!
Quick, Easy & Yummy – Thanks Uncle Warren!

Poop away from the Pineapple!

Posted by Lesley on June 23, 2009 2 comments

I’ve always heard how easy it is to regrow a pineapple – just cut off the top and plant it.  This has never worked for me.  I’ve buried them deep, shallow and in-between, kept them in water and dried them out, all for the same result – a smelly rotting pineapple top sticking out of the ground.  Presumably to spare my misery, my step-son bought me a plant two years ago.  I was thrilled; it had an itty-bitty pineapple starting to form, and I waited patiently as it sloooooooooooowly ripened.  Then one horrible morning, I walked outside to find it gnawed in two.  The top was lopped off and lying on its side, the fruit eaten to a nib.  I was devastated already, but to add insult to injury, whatever grubby little creature it was that ate the top, returned the next night to finish off the bottom. Apparently it was too plump and delicious for just one sitting.  It’s taken two years for a second pineapple to emerge, and I just found poop on the pavers next to it!  I thought I’d spare you that picture, but I did look at it – weird, I know, but there’s a reason.  Ubermommy (AKA my sister) took her kids on a scat tour; scat is another word for poop and she’s ubermommy because only an ubermommy would know about a scat tour.  Anyway, I looked at the scat because I’m going to try to figure out what’s lurking around my pineapple; I can’t wait another two years to taste it.  To be continued…    

Garden Spells & Grapefruit

Posted by Lesley on May 8, 2009 5 comments

Since this blog is so new, it seems fitting to continue on with the tour of my garden.  This is my grapefruit tree, the grandfather of the garden.  The house was built in 1950, and I’m not sure which came first – the house or the tree.  Every season it delivers the juiciest, most delicious pink grapefruit I’ve ever tasted.  That’s partly the reason it’s decorated – to give my thanks.  The other reason is the book, Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen.  I’ve been part of a book club for almost two years now, and I can speak for every member when I say, Garden Spells is our favorite book by far.  After reading it, this tree grew more than grapefruits; it grew a personality.  It’s my apple tree…my fiancé even threw a grapefruit at me for inspiration.  That sounds strange and maybe even borderline abusive, but read the book.  I promise you’ll laugh out loud the next time a piece of fruit is hurled at your back.