“When life gives you lemons, make orange juice and leave people wondering how you did it…”
The morning is again lovely with a strong breeze and a wonderfully bright sun. When I went to get the papers, I sat on the front steps a while to check out the neighborhood and to let the sun wash over and warm me. The leaves were rustling and the chimes in the backyard were ringing every now and then when the breeze was the strongest. The sound of the chimes is sweet. I finally went back inside drawn by the thought of my first cup of coffee.
We never had fresh orange juice. My mother always bought it frozen in the can. I can still remember how much of an ordeal it was to get the juice to the drinking stage. First you had to open both ends of the can to slide out the glob of frozen juice. The silver hand can opener sometimes cut not just the top but also the sides of the can making it harder to get the tops off. More often than not one of the tops would fall into the pitcher with the frozen juice. When digging it out, you had to be careful as it was easy to cut your finger on the sharp edges. I know from experience. We never had the foresight to take the can out of the freezer and leave it on the counter to let the juice melt. Come to think of it we probably didn’t have the patience either. I remember holding the pitcher under hot water to help along the melting, and we’d use a spoon to smash the glob into smaller pieces so it would melt quicker. When it was finally melted enough by my mother’s standards, we’d run the cold water until it was as cold as it could be from the faucet then make the juice.
We went through a Tang phase for a while because John Glenn and the Gemini astronauts drank it. Besides, it was easy to throw a few teaspoons in water then stir and drink. There was no can opener, waiting or hot water baths before drinking it. The only problem was it really didn’t taste all that good.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
September 26, 2015 at 2:13 pm
We’ve had a rather nice day here and I would even have stretched it to a wonderful day if it wasn’t for my coughing. Sunny with a few clouds here and there in the sky and rather warm too. The morning was quite exiting since we walked in to three groups of wild hogs on our morning walk 🙂
My mother never really trusted those frozen ones so I was quite old when she finally bought a few, after all her sisters and theiur families had used them for several years without dying from drinking them 🙂 To be honest, we rarelky had juice at all unless we made it ourselves with fresh oranges. My family was a milk drinking family and that was that 🙂
I’m not sure they ever sold Tang here, I’ve heard of it but never seen it.
I’ve just read that according to a mormon lady who had a near death experience now predicts the end of the world this Monday when we’ll get a blood moon. I’ve missed these end of the world as we know it predictions 🙂 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
September 26, 2015 at 5:43 pm
Christer,
I’m sorry you still have that cold. Coughing is the worst.
Today was cold. My house got down to 64˚ and I was chilly so I took a nap. Gracie and Fern joined me and kept me warm.
I don’t even know if they sold fresh orange juice when I was a kid. I don’t remember it at all. We only drank, and still do, orange juice at breakfast. Little kids drink it now in juice boxes.
Tang, the drink of the astronauts, was sold in powder form. I think it might still be around in different flavors.
Someone has predicted the end of the world so any times it has become quite silly. I think, though, we could all throw a party every time just to have a party!!
Get better!!!
September 26, 2015 at 11:48 pm
I think that the end of the world always is worth a party 🙂 I have missed those doomsday predictions, haven’t heard any for almost a year now 🙂
September 26, 2015 at 2:42 pm
And the grape stuff was worse. Goodness only knows what that was supposed to taste like. Moon rocks maybe.
September 26, 2015 at 5:45 pm
Rowen,
I read an article where it quoted Buzz Aldrin as saying it sucked.
It predated the astronauts but their using it made Tang popular again.
September 26, 2015 at 3:00 pm
Chicken Mulligatawny Soup
• Prep time: 15 minutes
• Cook time: 45 minutes
• Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped (about 2 cups)
• 2 ribs celery, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 2 carrots, chopped (about 1 cup)
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 teaspoon yellow curry powder
• 1 1/4 pound (570 g) boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of visible fat
• 2 cups (475 ml) chicken stock
• 2 cups (475 ml) water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon sea salt)
• 1/4 cup uncooked basmati rice
• 2 tart apples, cored and peeled (about 2 cups)
• 1/4 (60 ml) cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) plain yogurt for garnish
• 1 Tbsp minced chives for garnish
Method
1 Heat butter and olive oil on medium high heat in a large (4 to 5 quart), thick-bottomed pot. Add the onions, celery, and carrots. Cook for 5 minutes until just starting to soften. Add the bay leaves. Add the curry powder and mix to coat.
2 Add the chicken thighs and stir to coat with the curry mixture. Add the stock and water to the pot. Add the salt. Bring to a simmer and reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes.
3 Remove the chicken pieces from the pot. (They should be just cooked through. If not, return them to the pot for another 5 minutes or so, until they are cooked through.) Place on a cutting board and allow to cool to the touch.
4 Add the rice and the chopped apples to the soup. Return to a simmer on high heat, then lower the heat to maintain a low simmer. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, or until the rice is cooked through.
5 While the apples and rice are cooking in the soup, shred the chicken, discarding any tough bits. Once the rice and apples in the soup are cooked, add the chicken back to the pot. Heat for 5 minutes more. Then stir in the cream.
Serve with yogurt and chives.
September 26, 2015 at 5:49 pm
Morpfy,
I love this soup but don’t remember the last time I had it. Now I have the perfect reason to make it: your recipe.
Friends are coming in October, and I’m going to make this. It sounds so delicious!
September 26, 2015 at 3:05 pm
Apple Cranberry Stuffed Pork Roast
• Yield: Serves 6-8.
INGREDIENTS
Filling
• 1 cup apple cider
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large shallot, peeled, thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 cups dried apples (packed)
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
• 1 Tbsp yellow mustard seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Pork Roast
• 2 1/2 pound boneless center-cut pork loin roast (short and wide – about 7-8 inches long and 4-5 inches wide)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
METHOD
1 Before starting on the pork, put the pork roast in the freezer for 30 minutes to make it easier to cut. While the pork is chilling, you can make the filling.
2 Bring all the filling ingredients to simmer in medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook until apples are very soft, about 20 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, reserving the liquid. Use a rubber spatula to press against the apple mixture in the sieve to extract as much liquid out as possible. Return liquid to saucepan and simmer over medium-high heat until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, set aside and reserve this liquid for use as a glaze. Pulse apple mixture in food processor, about fifteen 1-second pulses. Set aside.
2 Preheat oven to 350°F or prepare your grill for indirect heat. You will be “double-butterflying” the pork roast. Lay the roast down, fat side up. Insert the knife into the roast 1/2-inch horizontally from the bottom of the roast, along the long side of the roast. Make a long cut along the bottom of the roast, stopping 1/2 inch before the edge of the roast. You might find it easier to handle by starting at a corner of the roast.
Open up the roast andCONTINUE to cut through the thicker half of the roast, again keeping 1/2 inch from the bottom. Repeat until the roast is an even 1/2-inch thickness all over when laid out.
If necessary, pound the roast to an even thickness with a meat pounder.
3 Season the inside of the roast well with salt and pepper. Spread out the filling on the roast, leaving a 1/2-inch border from the edges. Starting with the short side of the roast, roll it up very tightly. SECURE with kitchen twine at 1-inch intervals. Season the outside of the roast generously with salt and pepper.
4 Place roast on a rack in a roasting pan, place in oven, on the middle rack.
You can also grill the roast, using indirect heat either gas or charcoal. If you are using charcoal, use about 5 pounds of coals,BANK them to one side. Preheat the grill, covered. Wipe the grates with olive oil. Place roast, fat side up, on the side of the grill that has no coals underneath. Place the lid on the grill, with the vent directly over the roast. If you are grilling with gas, place all the burners on high for 15 minutes to heat the grates, brush grates with olive oil, turn off the middle burner, place roast fat-side up on middle burner. If you are grilling, turn roast half way through the cooking.
Cook for 45 to 60 minutes, until the internal temperature of the roast is 130 to 135DEGREES . Brush with half of the glaze and cook for 5 minutes longer. Remove the roast from the oven or grill. Place it on a cutting board. Tent it with foil to rest and keep warm for 15 minutes before slicing.
5 Slice into 1/2-inch wide pieces, removing the cooking twine as you cut the roast. Serve with remaining glaze.
September 26, 2015 at 5:55 pm
Morpfy,
This is perfect timing. Apples and cranberries scream fall for me. I love to stuff pork roasts but the string makes it a bit more complicated for me. I seem to lose the bottom while I’m working on the top.
I do like to grill all year and this is easy so I won’t have to keep an eye on the gas grill.
Thanks for another great recipe.
September 26, 2015 at 3:32 pm
My father would always start everyday with a glass of OJ. At home he prepared the frozen canned concentrated stuff and he was a wiz at converting the frozen glop into a drinkable beverage.
He believed that the only way to get vitamin C was by drinking frozen OJ. I never liked the taste of the frozen stuff and my father argued with me regularly that I would get scurvy if I didn’t drink the stuff. For some reason he couldn’t understand that grapefruits or tomatoes or their juice had the same amount of vitamin C. I could drink the fresh squeezed OJ and we had an electric juicer that my parents got as a wedding gift but my father never tried to squeeze fresh oranges. Maybe he thought that the word concentrated referred to more vitamin C. My mother only did it once that I can remember. I still have that juicer but have never used it to juice anything.
We just returned from lunch at a middle eastern restaurant that was featured on the TV show Diners, Drive Inns and Dives. The food was excellent. Still hot here by your measure but it’s almost a relief from the heat in August and September.
September 26, 2015 at 6:00 pm
Bob,
We had our method for melting, but it took a while, no whizzes like your father.
We only ever had the frozen concentrate and never had a juicer. I suspect it was far too fancy an appliance for my mother especially as we didn’t drink all that much orange juice.
I am a huge fan of middle eastern food. When I was in Ghana, there were several small restaurants run by Lebanese, most in Accra. I used to visit the city and go to Talal’s, a big PC favorite. They served the best hummus and what Talal called a Peace Corps Pizza: melted cheese with tomatoes in Syrian bread.
September 26, 2015 at 6:59 pm
Hi Kat,
We were in the frozen OJ group as well. I don’t remember having to melt the stuff in hot water. Somehow my mother managed to get it out of the can and mixed up in time. Tang was sometimes served because of astronauts but it was more expensive than frozen OJ. Later on when I was responsible for my own OJ, I either squoze it (technical term) from oranges or bought the made from concentrate stuff in a bottle. I preferred the stuff in a bottle because I could buy it without pulp. Pulp is gross. It’s like having tea leaves floating around in your tea while you drink it. Great if you like using your teeth as a filter. Eww.
Today was sunny and cool. The dogs have been very frisky with the cool fall temperatures. Makes walking them an adventure. There are some recent wildlife arrivals in the neighborhood including at least one skunk and a coyote. Apparently their smell is all over the place because both Rocky and Piki Dog are extremely interested in several particular spots. I caught Piki Dog trying to squeeze himself through a hole that something dug underneath the porch.
Enjoy the evening.
September 26, 2015 at 7:43 pm
Hi Caryn,
We used to put the outside of the pitcher under the hot water and move it around. The blob melted quicker that way.
I buy pulp-less OJ now as well. I hate when the pulp gets stuck in my teeth. It somehow feels almost gritty. I love fresh squeezed OJ. I used to have it in Ghana as you couldn’t just buy OJ by itself.
Today seemed almost cold. I had to shut all my windows as the house was down to 63˚ when I woke up and then inched its way to 65˚.
Gracie gets very interested and wants in the backyard when she senses a critter. My fence keeps them out now, but that doesn’t stop me from worrying. Gracie and wiki Dog are a lot in common.
September 27, 2015 at 8:00 am
I remember using the orange cans to wrap my hair with in an attempt to create straight hair. If for some reason we were ever out of orange juice my whole day felt wrong.
September 27, 2015 at 10:54 am
miso,
I remember seeing women with cans wrapped with hair. I had no idea why. Thanks for clearing up a mystery.
September 27, 2015 at 10:35 am
ah, I enjoy being old because everything tastes the same…nothing is bad or good but merely hot, warm, or cold
September 27, 2015 at 10:40 am
Freddie,
I enjoy being retired and don’t at all feel old yet. I would miss the tastes of things.