Portakal Suyu

Portakal suyu is the Turkish translation for fresh squeezed orange juice. During the Pat and Pam Barry family trip to Turkey in 1993, we saw portkal suyu vendors on practically every street corner. If I remember correctly, we returned from that trip with an authentic Turkish orange juicer, the kind with a huge lever, and portakal suyu became a common treat in our household.

Freddy's great aunt Edna lives in Bradenton, FL and has an orange tree right in her backyard. Last year she gave us a huge bag of oranges, perfect for juicing. Freddy went out and bought the cheapest orange juicer he could find, the plastic kind that you have to twist the orange halves on with all your might, not nearly as well engineered as the Turkish variety. After his arm felt like it was going to fall off, we had a wonderful pitcher of fresh squeezed orange juice.

This year for Christmas, my parents bought us an electric citrus juicer, which works wonderfully. Good thing, because this year, Edna gave us about 3 times the amount of oranges. We gathered up whatever containers we could find, like this 1-gallon canola oil jug below, and Freddy went to work juicing. We ended up with about 3 gallons of orange juice, and are currently storing two in the freezer. I've personally never been a big juice drinker, but with the 'food pressure' these oranges are causing, I've been enjoying a glass of portakal suyu every morning.

Strawberry Muffins

I made these muffins this morning with fresh Plant City strawberries. Plant City, FL, which is about 15 miles east of Tampa, is known and the winter strawberry capital of the world, and according to Wiki, is named for its flora (vegetables, fruits, and tropical plants). This recipe was adapted from one I found online, that specifically called for Florida strawberries.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh strawberries
• 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
  
• 1/4 cup turbinado sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• a few extra sliced strawberries for garnish
  

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small bowl, combine the strawberries and 1/2 cup sugar. Set aside for about 1 hour. Drain, reserving liquid and berries separately.
2. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin tin, or line with paper liners.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and 1/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg; stir into the creamed mixture alternately with the juice from the berries. Gently stir in the berries. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups.
4. Garnish muffin tops with sliced strawberries
   
5. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

A nice bowl of (soupy) oatmeal

I know there are a lot of oatmeal fans out there: John, a year-round oatmeal man who fortifies his with a big spoonful of peanut butter; Kevin, who makes it as a snack any time of day or night; Mike, a steel-cut oats purist; and Pam, who sits next to me at the winter table eating something hot and made of oats, but quite different than my oatmeal.

I like mine real soupy, with lots of nuts and fruit. (So soupy that certain family members make fun of it.)

I start with whatever piece of fruit Pam has cut in half, usually a pear or apple because it's winter, sometimes a banana or peach. Chop that up, then break up a good half handful of walnuts or pecans or mixed nuts, and for extra flavor add in some chopped dried fruit, like the excellent apricots and plums that Brian gave me for Christmas.

And of course the oats, just under a half-cup of quick oats from the cardboard tube.

I add enough water mixed half and half with soy milk or dairy milk to almost fill the bowl, and give it four minutes in our underpowered microwave. If it comes out thick, I add some more water before sitting down to read the papers and take in a fine well-balanced meal. That's good eating!

Going to get some grapefruit

Pam is a fiend for grapefruit, as long as it isn't too sour, so to celebrate our 28th wedding anniversary this morning we split one of those big Florida numbers and it tasted real fine. Actually, we have grapefruit just about every morning during the high season in winter, which is now, and they've been especially good this year, so juicy that when Pam scrapes out the last juicy morsels (yes, she is a scraper, while I'm more of a squeezer), the juice leaves spatters on the kitchen windows.

But sometimes we think the experience would be even better if we ate the grapefruit closer to the trees from which they come.

So on Thursday we're heading down to Sarasota to visit Janet and Freddy and we're sure hoping (hint hint) that they'll have some grapefruit in the house. We'll do some kayaking and bird-watching while we're there, and maybe cook up something as a team that we can post on the blog.

Maybe we'll even bring a sack of grapefruit home for next week.