Orange Beer Chicken

I'm baaaack!

Hello again everyone! I have missed writing for the blog so much, but it's been so busy around here! Our store in Smithville, NJ is doing great and we're still going strong in New Hope too. We're hiring for New Hope right now as well, so if you know anyone who needs a full time job and likes working with people and food, send them down to see us!

Back to the real action. FOOD!

I made this dish after the Superbowl (go sports!) because we had leftover beer. Yes, I know that's a strange thing to have leftover. One of our guests left a couple bottles of an amber ale behind and since it's not our favorite, I cooked with it.

If you don't want to use beer, I suggest a ginger beer. It's a strong flavor to add, but will work well with the orange. If not that, go with broth.

Orange Beer Chicken

1 bottle Amber Ale or ginger beer
8 pieces chicken thighs
1 tsp fresh Thyme, minced
1 tbsp sugar
Salt and Pepper
3 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp finely shredded ginger (omit if using ginger beer)
Orange slices (for serving)
Rice (for serving)

Preheat the oven to 400°.

Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Lay out evenly spaced in a casserole dish. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and spices with the Olive Oil to make a paste. Rub the mixture over the chicken to coat. Pour the beer into the bottom of the pan.

Roast for 35-40 minutes. If using chicken with the skin on, I usually give it another couple minutes to let it really crisp up. Watch it carefully. Golden brown, not black and smoking!

Garnish with fresh orange slices and serve with rice.

Apple Cranberry Crumble

Hello happy olive oil users! Happy Columbus Day!

We are pleased to announce that this past month's First Friday was a great success. And we are looking forward to next month's event very much. I hope that everyone who attended had a good time and that even more people come next month. Looks like the Next one will happen on the 7th of November. Hope to see you there!

So, onto your coupon.

I also have a recipe for you! I borrowed my sister in law's kitchen and made a little mess. This is very lightly sweetened, so it's great for a lighter dessert, or a really healthy breakfast too. Feel free to substitute another fruit Balsamic for the Cranberry if you don't have it. I recommend the Red Apple, Black Walnut, Honey Date or maybe even the Chocolate...

Apple Cranberry Crumble

6 medium apples

1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

2 cups granola

1 cup hot water

3 tbsp Cranberry Balsamic

Flaky sea salt

2 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil, plus a little for the pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Dice the apples and mix in a large bowl with the cranberries and the granola. Toss with the olive oil.

Use the little bit of extra olive oil to grease a 9 or 10in glass or deep sided pie pan. Spread the crumble mix inside. Stir the Balsamic and hot water together and pour evenly over the crumble.

Bake for about 20-30 minutes. Stir it around about halfway through to keep it moist.

Top with whipped cream if you like, or maple syrup is really good too (for breakfasts)!

Creamy Chicken Salad

One of the simplest recipes I've probably ever made. It's was a great hit anyway!


Creamy Chicken Salad

2 cups cooked chicken, cubed
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup cubed mangos
1 tbsp White Pineapple Balsamic
2 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil
2-3 tbsp pickled jalapenos

Whisk the yogurt, olive oil and balsamic together in a large bowl. Fold in the rest of the ingredients and serve.

The Colorful Salad

For some reason, I had red cabbage in the fridge. I am at a loss as to why I bought it. But there it sat; a little bag of shredded red cabbage.

I must have had some plan for it, but that plan has gone from my brain long ago it seems. So I needed a new plan. I bought some fresh spinach and an avocado and dug around the pantry to find a can of mandarin orange slices. Pow! Salad.

The Colorful Salad

1 cup sliced red cabbage
3 cups torn fresh spinach
1/4 cup mandarin orange slices (canned)
1/2 avocado, diced
1/4 cup canned white beans, rinsed and drained
2 tbsp Mandarin Orange Balsamic
1 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil

The instructions are pretty vague here. It's a salad. Just toss it all together. My white beans were stubbornly sunk to the bottom of the bowl and didn't want their picture taken. I advise a shallow dish to serve this in. The avocados want to slide away too. Don't give any of the ingredients a chance to chicken out. You want them all present when you eat this!

Cheesy Hearts with Vegetables

I wanted to use our cute little heart pastas for something this week. They aren't the heart-healthiest, but that's okay. The vegetables are!

Cheesy Hearts with Vegetables

1 pkg hearts pasta
3 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil
1/2 cup shredded or cubed cheese, your favorite (Pepper Jack here!)
1/2 cup milk or cream
1 1/2 cup regular red pasta sauce
3 cups mixed vegetables
pinch of salt

If you are using fresh vegetables, heat your pan to medium heat and slice them thinly. Toss them in the pan with one tbsp of the olive oil and the pinch of salt. Depending on the vegetables you choose, depends on how long this part takes. You want them to be cooked, but crisp. I used a frozen bag mix of corn, carrots and asparagus. It was very quick.

If you are using frozen, you will need to make sure you have cooked off all the additional water that you don't need. Add one more tablespoon of the Blood Orange Oil. If you would like it a little spicy, toss the Chipotle Olive Oil in instead.

Cook your pasta to just al dente. Drain, rinse and toss with 1 tbsp of the olive oil.

Toss the vegetables with the red pasta sauce and add in the milk or cream. Stir in the shredded or cubed cheese and cover. Let simmer about five minutes. Stir to make sure everything is melted. If not, cover and let cook until it does.

Stir it all together in a big bowl and enjoy your dinner!

Mini Black and White Marble Cakes

Happy Martin Luther King Jr Day! He may have had a dream about equality, but I dream about food. Because I've never had to dream about equality. Thank you to Dr. King for being an inspirational person!

And a big thanks to Brett Bara's blog for providing me with a teeny tiny cake recipe! Because sometimes you really just need 2 cupcakes. Or, in this case, 4.

I could have followed the recipe faithfully and just added white chocolate chips at the end, but where is the fun? Truthfully, this recipe tastes almost exactly like cocoa puff cereal. I like that. It's very childhood-reminiscing....

Black and White Marble Cupcakes
makes 4 cupcakes

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Get out 2 large soup bowls, and a little whisk. In each bowl put:

3 tbsp flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt

In one of the bowls:

1 1/2 tsp cocoa powder

Now whisk each bowl separately. Just get everything nicely combined.

Time for the wet ingredients. In each bowl whisk in:

2 tbsp cold water or milk (I like milk)
1 tbsp Olive Oil
(Vanilla Olive Oil for the white cake, Blood Orange Olive Oil for the cocoa cake.)

Now comes the tricky part. Spoon the batter evenly between 4 cupcake liners. One color on the bottom and another on the top. Now take a small spoon and attempt to swirl the batter. Not mix it, just give it a bit of a swirl. Top with chocolate chips if desired.

Bake for 16-18 minutes. Frost if desired once cool.

Mine did not come out all fluffy like the other bloggers, but they were perfect with a cup of hot chocolate for breakfast!

Blood Orange Brownies

These are easy enough to make with a box of mix, some oil and a couple eggs. I'll give you the full from scratch recipe I was going to use though. If only I hadn't run out of cocoa powder!

Blood Orange Brownies

from scratch version

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup Blood Orange Olive Oil

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 9x13 inch pan.

Cream the eggs, sugar and olive oil together in a large bowl. Gently add the dry ingredients one at a time, stirring until fully combined.

Pour into your greased pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.

For the easy version, grab a box of brownie mix. Mix it all up according to the directions, except where it says to use vegetable oil. Use the olive oil instead. And you are done.

Cranberry Fool

Cranberry Fool
(serves 6ish)

1 bag cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
a pinch allspice
1/4 - 1/2 cup water
3 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil
Splash of orange liquor
1 tub frozen cool whip

In a sauce pan, combine everything but the cool whip. Simmer over medium heat until the cranberries start to pop, stirring often. Start with 1/4 cup water, if it seems too dry, add the other 1/4 cup.

Reduce the heat to a very low simmer and cook about 5 minutes. The water should evaporate and leave you with a loose cranberry sauce.

Remove from the heat and cool to at least room temperature. You make this up to 24 hours ahead and put it in the refrigerator.

When you are ready to serve, thaw the cool whip slightly and turn it out into a large bowl. Fold in the cooled cranberry sauce. You want swirls, not pink cream. (although that will taste just as good!)


You could serve the cranberries without the cream as is as cranberry sauce with no problem. I did something similar last Thanksgiving. Though I think leaving the shallots out is better for a dessert!

And if you are really rushed, you can dress up a can of whole berry cranberry sauce with a little olive oil and liquor. If you want to be fancy, feel free to make your own whipped cream.

Mushrooms and Rice

Now, this isn't your traditional breakfast. But it is filling, tasty and nutritious. Who is to say that breakfast has to be eggs!

Mushrooms and Rice

2 pints sliced mushrooms, any kind
3 cups brown rice, cooked
1 bell pepper
1 sweet onion
1 bunch spring onions
2-3 strips crispy bacon, crumbled
Salt and pepper
3 cups spinach
4 tbsp Bacon Olive Oil,
     Or Blood Orange Olive Oil

Add 2 tbsp oil to a large saute pan and heat to medium. Dump in the mushrooms and stir until coated with oil. Saute until they are reduced in size and well cooked, about 7-8 minutes. Add in the spinach and a little extra olive oil if needed and a pinch of salt. Toss together and let the spinach wilt, about 3 minutes.

While that is cooking, dice the veggies. When the spinach is fully wilted, add in the onions and the bell pepper. Stir to combine, then add the rice and black pepper. Stir to distribute the rice, add the rest of the oil if things seem a little dry.

Cover and cook about 3 minutes. Everything should be well heated through.

I suggest using our newest salt, the Vermont Maple Sea Salt. It is lightly sweet with a nice and strong maple smell and syrupy aftertaste, it just hit the shelves this week! Come in and try it today!

For a fun option, treat this like fried rice and add a couple chopped scrambled eggs! Great for breakfast or a nice side dish to anything. I may just eat this for all three meals today!

Orange Pancakes

My mom loves to eat breakfast. And she loves to cover these pancakes in balsamic vinegar. She uses Blueberry and Pear mostly, but I though I would play up the orange flavor with the Mandarin Orange Balsamic. Since my husband isn't in to pouring straight balsamic on his pancakes, I whisked it with some maple syrup, but feel free to use the balsamic straight up.

Orange Pancakes*

1 cup all purpose flour 

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 cup milk (I love Almond Milk in pancakes)

3 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil

1 large egg

Syrup

4 tbsp maple syrup or honey

8 tbsp Mandarin Orange Balsamic

Whisk the pancake ingredients together gently. I use a really big bowl and put all the dry stuff in, stir it around and gradually whisk in all the wet ingredients. You don't want to over mix it, but break down the large lumps.

Heat a large flat pan or griddle to medium. Lightly oil your cooking surface. Scoop out some pancake mix, 2-4 tbsp each and drizzle it in a pile onto your pan.

After about 1-2 minutes, the tops of each pancake should have little bubbles in it and some should be popping. Flip them and brown the other side. 

It depends on what size you want your pancakes to be, but if you use 2-3 tbsp per pancake, you should end up with about 12-15 pancakes.

Whisk the syrup and the Balsamic Vinegar together, and drizzle away.

*If all you have is box mix at home, fret not! Just use milk instead of water and toss in a couple tablespoons of the Blood Orange Olive Oil. The milk has a little more body than water, so you may need to add a bit extra to get the right consistency. But it turns out fantastic just the same.

Zucchini Noodle Stir-fry

More zucchini!!!

I just got a julienne peeler. This thing is so cool! And sharp. It makes little ribbon-y noodle shapes out of your veggies...and your fingers...

No blood in this dish. Just watch out!

Zucchini Noodle Stir Fry

2-3 zucchini

1 tsp minced garlic

1 bag Asian mix stir fry veggies

2 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil

1 tbsp Toasted Sesame Oil with Ginger and Garlic

Use your julienne peeler to make noodles from your zucchini. Pat dry and set aside.  If your veggie mix is frozen, heat the Blood Orange Olive Oil in a large saute pan to medium high heat. Pour the veggies and the garlic into the pan and cover. Let steam 1-2 minutes until they are softened. If they are thawed, turn the heat up to high and saute them and the garlic for about 30 seconds. Add the zucchini noodles and the Sesame Oil.

Turn the heat to medium high and toss everything to coat. Let cook until the 'noodles' are softened, about 1 more minute.

Tropical Chicken Salad

Our In Store Special this month is the Blood Orange Olive Oil and the White Pineapple Balsamic. I thought that I would make something with them to go with that!

This salad is fantastic. I've been enjoying it for a couple days now. And I will definitely make it again!

Tropical Chicken Salad

1 cup cooked, shredded chicken

1 small can mandarin orange slices

1 small can chopped pineapple

1 can water chestnuts

1 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil

1 tbsp White Pineapple Balsamic

1 pinch powdered ginger

a handful of cashews

chow mein noodles

Drain the fruit and the water chestnuts and toss everything together. If you are not serving it right away, leave the chow mein noodles off. They can get soggy pretty quickly.

If you don't like water chestnuts, I think that chopped celery would be very nice in this as well!

Blood Orange Chocolate Confetti Cake

So, our store is 2. Right now at 2pm. Lets break out the balloons!

Some of the employees here are vegan, so I made a vegan cake. I wanted to be sure that we could all eat! The batter is really thick and sticky, and makes a dense and moist cake with a slightly fudge-y crumb. If you aren't vegan and would like the cake to be more fluffy, go ahead and add an egg.

And the frosting... The frosting recipe is after the pictures!

Blood Orange Chocolate Confetti Cake

3 cups flour
6 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
pinch or two of salt
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup Blood Orange Olive Oil + some for greasing the pan
1 cup Tofutti Sour Cream
1 cup Almond Milk
1 container hard sugar sprinkles

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Use a drizzle of the Olive Oil to grease an 11x14 pan.

Combine the sugar, Olive Oil, sour cream and milk in a large bowl. Stir to combine. In another bowl, stir the four, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together.

Stir them together in batches, slowly. Mix well, until everything is moistened. Pour the sprinkles into the batter and stir to distribute.

Turn out into the pan. The batter is very thick and sticky, so smooth it out as best as you can. If it is too thick and sits in a lump, try mixing in a couple extra tablespoons of Almond Milk.

Bake for 35-45 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.

Cool. Drizzle with frosting before serving.

Orange Frosting

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
3 tbsp Mandarin Orange Balsamic
1 tsp vanilla extract
Water as needed

Stir the ingredients together until it makes a smooth paste. Add water, by teaspoon as needed until you reach a consistency that you can drizzle.

You don't need a lot, just a little drizzle on each piece before serving will do you. I also think this would be great using the Vanilla Balsamic, and a touch of orange juice instead of water.

Pork with Black Beans and Escarole

I know that pork and beans are a classic pairing. Add greens and you have a perfect soup. But I find that that works best with ground pork or sausage and I had a couple pork steaks still in the freezer from last week. So instead of soup, I sliced up the pork and made this awesomeness!

Pork with Black Beans and Escarole

serves 2-4

2 pork steaks

1 sm head of escarole, rough chopped

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

2 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil

1 tbsp Vanilla Balsamic

salt and pepper

1 tbsp Basiks, Southwest Blend

Heat the olive oil to medium high heat and add the pork steaks. Cook 2 minutes each side, or until you get a good sear on them. Remove from the pan and let cool a little. Slice into strips and return to the pan. Add the Southwest Spices(optional) and the salt and pepper. Finish cooking now, give them 2-4 minutes a side. 

Add the black beans and the escarole and stir to combine. Cover and let simmer together about 3 minutes, or until the escarole is well wilted and the beans are heated through. Stir in the Vanilla Balsamic and serve!

Fettuccini with Butternut Squash and Sage

Squash is one of my favorite vegetables. I love that you can turn it into almost anything, savory or sweet. This is a savory squash dish. So, so, savory. You can use any kind of hard, crumbly cheese you want with this. It is good with parmesean, but I love the extra nutty taste of asiago combined with the squash and sage. Yum!

Fettuccini with Butternut Squash and Sage

1 pkg fetuccine
20 fresh sage leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced
4-5 tbsp vegetable stock
5 tbsp grated asiago cheese
4 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil
2 cups butternut squash, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
2 tbsp crushed walnuts
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the squash in the blood orange oil. Until slightly soft. Set aside.

Cook the pasta. Drain, but reserve 1/2 cup of the liquid.

Heat the oil to medium low. De-stem the sage and add it to the oil. Stirring occasionally, cook about 6 minutes. Edges should be curled.

Remove the leaves to paper towels. Add the stock and the garlic. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Add the cooked pasta, squash, walnuts and cheese. Toss to coat. If it's too dry, add a the reserved pasta water one tbsp at a time.

Season with salt and pepper and garnish with fried sage.

Cranberry Chutney

Fresh Cranberry Chutney

1 12oz bag fresh or frozen cranberries
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Chocolate Balsamic
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
1 1/2 tablespoons Meyer Lemon or Blood Orange Olive Oil
3 shallots, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp lemon zest

Cook shallots with the olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Stir once or twice, until softened. Stir in remaining ingredients. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the berries pop. About ten minutes. Taste, if it's still too tart, add in 1/4 cup more brown sugar.

Allow to cool and sprinkle with the lemon zest.

Orange Chicken

Because I still had some peppers left, and lemongrass paste, I needed some way to use them up. Chicken is always a good way.

Orange Chicken

2 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil

1/4 cup orange juice

2 tbsp lemongrass paste*

1/2 inch fresh ginger

2 carrots, cut into matchsticks

2 green peppers, diced

4 chicken breasts, diced

Salt and pepper

1 tbsp honey

Saute your chicken breasts over medium heat in the Blood Orange Olive Oil. Add the carrots halfway through so they can get some color. Cook about 7-8 minutes. 

Add the peppers, ginger and lemongrass. Toss to coat and cook around 5 minutes. Stir in the honey and orange juice. Cover and let simmer 10 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper and serve over rice.

*See note in Thai Mango Beef