Somehow, the loss of an hour made all the difference

Ever since coming back from Utah, R and I have had a much easier time getting to bed at a reasonable hour. Thanks to this, it has also been much easier to get up for work. It has been nice, though I'm wondering how long it will last.

Anywho, the trip. It was great! Up on the mountain, it snowed the night we arrived, so the next morning we got to snowboard in pristine powder. It was the sort of snow people beg the weather gods for, and we just lucked into it. I've only been in powder once before, and our friend who came along had never been in powder, so we had to re-learn how to steer our boards. Nevertheless, it was amazing. We floated down the slopes all morning, going from powder patch to powder patch. It continued snowing up on the mountain throughout the weekend, so we had fluffy snow all weekend. My only bruise came from slipping in the lift line, when my foot shot out from under me and my knee hit my binding. It was, however, a mighty large bruise.

Our drive back home was a bit more exciting (nay, treacherous) than our drive to Utah. As per tradition, we wound up driving home in a snow storm. Fortunately, we reached the edge of the storm when we were leaving Utah and didn't have to deal with any closed overpasses.

A race against time

Now that the moving day is set, I'm rushing to put all the fruit from the backyard to use. I made a monster batch of kumquat marmalade (this time using the food processor, which made it really fast), but there was still a tree worth of oranges that I don't particularly feel like turning into jam. My solution? Chutney, as I have been enjoying chutneys on my grilled cheese sandwiches of late.

As I was searching, none of the recipes quite fit my taste. Some involved onions (ick), others raisins (double ick), and several involved ingredients that were challenging if not impossible to obtain in California, or, indeed, in this country. Nevertheless, I found a recipe that, after adaptations, worked pretty well.

Orange Chutney
Adapted from astray recipes

• 4 large oranges
• Juice of 1 orange
• 2 large cooking apples
• 2 oz candied ginger (I couldn't track down the stem ginger from the original recipe)
• 2 T chopped apricots (I didn't have any currants at the time, nor did I feel like using the standard substitute: raisins)
• 1 fresh chili, chopped
• 1 oz salt
• 3/4 c soft brown sugar
• 2/3 c honey (the original golden syrup being not available in this country outside of the South)
• White or cider vinegar

1. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the oranges and chop the peel. Cut the pith from the orange and chop the flesh, removing the seeds. Chop the ginger, apples, apricots, and chili. Juice the orange.

2. Put oranges, apples, orange juice, ginger, apricots, chili, salt and pepper into a saucepan. Cover and simmer until the oranges are tender. Add a bit more orange juice if it seems to be drying out.

3. Add the sugar, honey, and vinegar to cover the fruit. Mix well and boil gently, stirring occasionally until it thickens (it will take about an hour). Pour into sterilized jars (or put in the fridge).

I think I'm going to pick the rest of the oranges before this weekend's snowboarding, as I'm also in a race against my landlord. If the fruit lingers too long on the tree, he starts thinking I don't want it and has been known to take it for himself. Those persimmons weren't quite ripe, curse you!

Finally useful

For the past year, I've been hoarding boxes. Working at a school with no textbooks, we went through reams and reams of paper, so it was hard to resist taking advantage of the box supply. I knew we'd be moving sometime. Then, with the wedding, all the gifts came in the mail, in boxes (and sometimes in boxes in boxes), and I saved those as well. The corners of our house were filled with box towers, and for someone with no moving plans, it was getting a little creepy.

However, all that box hoarding will be paying off, in that I now won't have to be scrounging for boxes. We put in an application for new place and got the word back today that they want us. The place is awesome! The only downside is that there isn't a garden or patio. There is a community garden across the street, but I haven't heard back from the coordinator (and it seems like those places always have a waiting list), so I'm going to have to figure out how to do a lot of gardening indoors. We've got a little loft area with a skylight, so I'm thinking I'll get a tall wire rack, so that I can have several tiers of plants. I'll definitely have to document this project.

Finally using up the spices

If you're like me, you probably couldn't resist buying a few of those large containers of spices from Costco. I've had massive containers of garlic and onion powder for years, though I can't bear to throw them out, mostly full as they are. I've also got some heirloom chili powder. Not heirloom in the sense that it uses heirloom pepper varietals, but heirloom in the fact that my step mom gave it to me from her collection when I got my first apartment, and it wasn't new then. The stuff is probably ten years old. I just can't use it up fast enough.

I couldn't, anyway, until I found a recipe for making taco seasoning. Now, instead of buying expensive little packets of taco spice mix to season meat for nachos and taco salads, I'm able to use up some of my own bloated collection (and also save some money). It makes me feel very practical.

The doughnut touch

Donut Touch, being the name of our local purveyor of doughnuts, is a phrase that has inspired lingering debate. Is it a suggestion? A bad pun? Or perhaps something unpleasant you doctor might do to you, as my husband suspects. ("Turn and cough... Okay, now for the donut touch.") Maybe it is just an indication of poor English skills.

In any case, I decided the last day of winter break needed something special, which this time meant a touch of doughnut making. The recipe I wound up using tasted just like professionally made doughnuts, though it made about twice as many as the three of us here could put away.

Next time, I think I'll just be making doughnut holes, as they were the clear favorite. This will also allow me to use my deep fryer, which makes cooking in oil much less scary. (Yes, I own a deep fryer. Just don't tell my doctor.)