A pot of Gold

The other day I went to help a friend make a big batch of orange marmalade. I  had never made it before and wanted to learn. Now I can read a recipe just like anyone else can and Ive canned lots of things before. But marmalade Ive avoided cuz I do not like the bitterness of it. Yes I know that's the classic way but I don't like it. My friend says his isn't like that so I wanted to see what he does. Ill be making some this week and posting my recipe but for now I wanted to post what I did with the extra gold I got from this.

He cut the ends off the oranges and most of the pith, then cut them up. And when cleaning up I noticed all those orange ends and asked him could I take them home. Of course he said yes.....not gonna use them himself I guess. But I saw a pot of gold there.

 Ever notice that when you want to bake something it often calls for orange juice and the zest of one orange? How many times do you NOT have an orange around? And so I thought if I zested these and dried them, Id have a nice pot of gold sitting around for when I baked. I already did this with a few oranges and lemons I got a few months ago. And I often do it with lemons Ive juiced to make dressings for salads too. Once dried they stay nice in a jar in my cabinet so I can flavor up anything I want without having to run to the store all the time.

But I still had all these fragrant ends and thought why not put them in vinegar?  They still had some zest on them and there's oils in it yet. So why not extract those in white vinegar. I use white vinegar for cleaning my bathrooms and counters and such. I used to add orange essential oil to it so it would smell good too. So I thought why not fill a jar with these leftovers and cover with vinegar. Ill let it sit awhile and then drain it and Ill have a nice smelling cleaning liquid plus orange oil is a great de-greaser. 

 And so I ended up with this, you see here. That is an old plastic gallon jar from mayonnaise that I saved. Its perfect for the vinegar. Heck if the vinegar tastes good, I might just make some more with apple cider vinegar for salads. I have a bunch of oranges here I have to use this week to make my own marmalade. But also you could toss these in your freezer and when you want the house to smell good, throw a few slices into a pan of water with some spices and bring it to a boil, then simmer it and the whole house will smell good. Its a cheap room deodorizer. So I think I got a lot of bang for the buck and it wasn't even my bucks lol. These were free.

Have you ever seen celery this big?

I went grocery shopping the other day. I went to a store I don't go to often but maybe I should. I came around the corner into the produce aisle and saw all this greenery in a pile. I didn't know what it was. So I decided to check it out. I was stunned to see it was celery!!! Most celery we see has been trimmed and I never knew how much. But I think I like it better this way.

This thing is about about two ft. long and only 99 cents. It didn't even fit in a grocery bag lol. Most folks would think, what the heck can I do with that? But I saw a bonus. 

 So to trim it up for my purposes, I cut off the base and all the leaves. Now don't throw them away! I put them aside. I rinsed off the celery and pulled out my aluminum foil.  I don't use foil much but I do keep it around for a few things and this is one of them. Long ago my dad told me about this. All the yrs Ive been cooking at home and restaurants and I never knew this. Wrap your celery in foil before putting in the refrigerator. It will keep forever!
Im serious, as long as it stays wrapped you will most likely use it up long before you would have to toss it out. When I think of all the celery over the yrs. I lost before I knew this......sigh. I hear you can grow celery again from the base. Ive done it some but I always forget about it and it eventually dies. There are blogs out there tho showing people who got celery to regrow from the store piece. So if your inclined to save it all you might want to try that.

But my favorite part of all this is the leaves. Ive always saved the celery leaves, dried them and put them in a jar for later. You can toss it in tuna salad or meatloaf or soups or anything you would use celery in. Sometimes you don't want chunks of celery but would like to have the flavor. And sometimes you just don't have enough celery in the house for something. So keeping these leaves dried and on hand is a bonus.

And look at that bonus!!! That thing is half leaves!!! And so Ill pick them off the stem parts and put them on a lg. dish to dry. When crispy Ill store in a jar. And I wont even waste those stems either, those will get frozen to use in my stocks. So I hope Ive given you all some ideas now if you didn't realize this before. :)

*** Ok after picking all the leaves off the stems I decided there was way too many to let dry on a plate so I pulled out my dehydrator. It filled the whole thing. :)

The bug finally hit me.....

The bug finally hit me.....the spring cleaning bug. I was wandering online and came across a site for making organic stuff to clean your house with and this woman said use olive oil and lemon juice to polish your furniture. I didn't like her amts tho and like always tweaked it to what I like.

I often buy essential oils to keep around the house for healing and cleaning. Tea tree and grapefruit seed extract are great for bathrooms. Lavender in water is awesome for linens and helps you sleep. But I mix orange oil with my baking soda to clean my kitchen counters and my ceramic topped stove. Its not abrasive like other cleaners and the orange oil helps kill germs. Baking soda helps neutralize odors too.

So today I decided to try a tiny bit of olive oil and some orange oil to polish my oak table with. I loved it! It cleans it really good and leaves a nice shine. But all I have here is extra virgin olive oil and I sure didn't want to use that to clean with. Its too expensive but I did want to use a natural oil. I remembered some sesame oil I bought from an herb place on sale. I ordered it thinking it was a good deal and also thought it was toasted sesame oil. I was wrong..... I like toasted for cooking and oriental dishes. This wasn't so I didn't know what to do with it. I put it on the shelf in my garage.

Today I remembered I had that. Its a nice neutral oil, its organic and its just sitting there. That woman's recipe said to use lemon juice. Well right now I have a ton of Meyer lemons begging to be used for something, on my tree outside. So I picked a few and made my own polish. I used the juice of 1 lemon, strained, added some orange essential oil too....maybe half tsp. and added sesame oil. I whisked it all together but didn't like that it was so waterery. I wanted a creamy polish, sort of like a creamy salad dressing. So I did what I used to do in the restaurant when I made mayonnaise. I just kept adding oil till it got to the consistency I liked. This used about 1/3 of a 16oz. bottle.

I think from now on Ill be making my own polish. Its safer, healthier and uses stuff I have on hand. You don't have to add the essential oil if you don't want too. I buy my essential oils in bulk on Ebay tho. They last a very long time kept in a dark place. I remembered I had some fragrance oils too. And so I decided to make some potpourri to put around the house.

This house has been stinky winter stale. I haven't been inspired to do a darn thing around here. I remember one day last week my bf opened the windows and aired the house out and I felt better. I also remembered that I always had seasonal potpourris around that I make myself. Ive just stopped doing all that cuz of this move. And so today I decided ,screw the moving I'm gonna still live in my house. I buy in bulk those crystals that you add water too, for houseplants. You know those that hold alot to keep watering your plants when you forget? I add liquid potpourri or fragrance oils or essential oils to water and pour it over a tsp. or so of those crystals. I keep adding till the crystals are big and have absorbed about all they can. Then I put spoonfuls in covered pretty containers to put around the house.

When I want the house to smell fresh I just take the covers off awhile and let the fragrance wander thru the house. Right now my senses are overwhelmed tho lol. Ive been busy polishing and the crystals were busy absorbing and that fragrance (rose with a touch of orange) has taken over the house! And so I stopped cleaning to put that stuff in containers before the scent kills me here lolol. But at least now the house smells nice and I'm inspired to do my spring cleaning.