Seeing Orange

I love locally grown food. And around here, that means citrus. We don't have our own orange tree, as many people do, but we have roadside market stands in abundance. Everything is all mixed up here, so winter is our time for farmers markets and fresh local produce. This abundance of local juice oranges led me on a binge of orange cooking. The jury is still out on the orange marmalade. (None of us eat marmalade, so we're not sure if this is good marmalade or not.) The orange muffins were great, and the orange sherbet was out of this world! How do I ever forget that things are so much better homemade!?

Bounty of the Earth

I found this beautiful, fresh rainbow trout at the grocery the other day, and I just couldn't pass it by. I don't often see good, fresh fish around here so this was a real treat. Since I had no experience with whole fish, I did a quick internet recipe search. I found this simple, tastey recipe for grilled, whole trout using all ingredients I already had on hand. Stuff the inside with fresh thyme, rosemary (bought for a VERY tastey Turkey Osso Buco), garlic and lemons (from our obliging citrus tree out back). Wrap the outside with strips of bacon to hold everything together and keep in the moisture. Grill for 10-15 minutes each side. So easy! And so good that even my pickey, non-fish-eaters ate it up.

Pumpkin Scones

The first in my parade of autumn baking, these hit the spot on sunday morning. They are just the right texture- not too cakey- and the Ginger-Molasses glaze drizzled on top was the perfect touch. It was our free day, so I made it with the butter. In the future, I plan on trying it with margarine or maybe canola oil. I'll have plenty of chances to experiment because they were a hugely popular with the breakfast crowd!

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 sp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp allspice

6 Tbs unsalted butter

1/3 cup pumpkin puree

1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 435 degrees. Sift dry ingredients into small bowl. Combine pumpkin, milk, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl. Cut the butter into the flour mixture using pastry blender until it is coarse crumbs. Pour all at once into pumpkin mixture, stirring until everything is just combined. The dough will be crumbly- this is as it should be. Turn onto a piece of wax paper, knead it until it sticks together. Don't over-knead. Pat the dough into a 1" thick circle. Cut into 8 pie pieces. Place on baking sheets, and bake for 15 minutes or until they begin to turn golden brown. Cool slightly on baking racks, and drizzle with glaze while still warm. Serve warm.

Ginger-Molasses Glaze

1 Tbs milk

1 Tbs molasses

1/4 tps ginger

1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

Adjust the ratio of milk to sugar to suit your tastes. I prefer it to be rather thin so I can drizzle it.