Happy Mandarin Orange Day!

Blogger of the Day: Anya at Golubka
Pubs: The Vibrant Table

Round it up! Legend says you should eat round foods at the midnight strike of the New Year as a sign of renewal and rebirth, and to bring on good luck and prosperity. I like Mandarins because they're naturally in season, they burst with nutritional goodness and they are just so squealingly scrumptious and colorfully cheerful! Plus you get to choose..."Mandarin Orange" actually refers to a citrus family that includes Mandarins, Clementines, Tangerines and Satsumas. They range from sour to sweet so you'll just have to try them all to find your favorite!  ;)

A trip to Golubka (which means "dove" in Russian) is the perfect way to wrap up yumful year! Anya and her photo pro daughter Masha create crazygorgeous and spinningly delicious dishes full of pure fresh flavors in dazzling combinations. The most dreamingly luscious stuff...Anya makes it easy to become a vegan! :)

Orange-Cinnamon Crepes and Citrus Salad

with Earl Grey Orange Creme

Kohlrabi Avocado Salad with Sunny Citrus Dressing

Blood Orange and Fennel Salad

Ginger Marinated Tofu with Citrus Salsa

Lemongrass Mung Beans over Spaghetti Squash

Avocado Truffles with Mango Lime Surprise

Grapefruit Carrot Sorbet and Gingersnap Cookies

Chocolate Layer Cakes with Black Cherry and Orange

Kaffir Lime Mango Ice-Cream with Lime Reduction

Parsnip Cake with Candied Kumquats

Clementine Fudge Cake

Need a New Year resolution? Visit Veganuary! A UK based campaign encouraging people across the globe to go vegan for the month of January. They provide all you need...info, tips, resources and boatloads of recipes. Give it a go and challenge your family and friends to do it too!  :)

What's your favorite round fruit? Do you have a lucky food? How are you rolling in the New Year?  :)

That fills up a year of food holidays...thanks for reading along! I've got some personal projects beckoning me and my mom needs extra care now so I won't be posting daily, but I'll still be around. I wish you all good health and prosperity and boatloads of love and laughter! Happy New Year!  :)

Check out the rest of our 2014 Daily Food Holiday and Featured Blogger Series!

Happy Navel Orange Day!

Blogger of the Day: Dawn at Kitchen Travels

Navel oranges are a supersweet way to ease off all that Halloween candy and back into healthy eating! About 60 calories each and powerpacked with energy and vitamin C...just peel and eat for a quick nutrient fix or whip up some citrus deliciousness!  :)

Navel notes...
• Navel and Valencia are the most common varieties of oranges. Valencias often have seeds and are excellent for juicing. Navels are typically bigger, easy to peel and free of seeds, with a cute "belly button" on one end.  :)
• Navels are available from November through mid Spring. They tend to be sweeter as the season turns colder.
• Look for oranges that are heavy in the hand with a pleasant citrus scent. Avoid those with an overly sweet acrid smell or a mushy stem end.
• Skins with deep divots have a thicker rind...shallow divots signify a thinner rind and extra juiciness inside!
• Peel them open and you'll often find a mini twin orange under the button!

Enchantingly talented Dawn is a professional dessert event designer...a creative culinary art if there ever was one! Her special occasion tables of treats are crazy beautiful but her website recipes are impressively simple. I love this salad...sweet oranges and jicama with raisins and spice spin a cheerful combination that is wholesome and filling and refreshingly yumful!  :)

Raw Kale Salad with Orange & Jicama

Raw/Vegan Mock Salmon Pâté

Easy Homemade Hummus

Hearty Rainbow Chili

Easiest Ever Carrot Soup

(Mostly) Raw/Vegan Chocolate & Salted Caramel Turtles

Petits Pots de Crème au Café

Vanilla Cake with Cinnamon-Almond Latte Frosting

Homemade Lollipops

Share your favorite way to eat oranges...in a fruit salad, sprinkled with cinnamon, drizzled in chocolate or...?  ;)

Find more feasts in our 2014 Daily Food Holiday and Featured Blogger Series!

Happy Scarlet Citrus Day!

Blogger of the Day: Amy at Fragrant Vanilla Cake
Pubs: Rawlicious Desserts

Today we're celebrating scarlet-colored citrus...Blood Oranges, Cara Cara Oranges and all the others that look normally orange on the outside but are pink, rosy or deep red on the inside! The color may come from nutrients in the fruit or sometimes it develops in response to cold weather but either way these varieties are sweetsweetsweet! They're usually available from January through March so this is peak time...scoop them up if you see them on sale and enjoy the colorful surprise inside!  :)

Amy's marvelous citrus mini pies are the perfect stage for the sensational drama of Blood Oranges. Costumed in buttery date caramel, these brilliant red beauties glitter against a sweetsalty backdrop of dates and pecans. Amy is an artistic genius when it comes to assembling a dream cast of flavors and presenting them in a stellar show...see for yourself!  :)

Mini Raw Blood Orange Caramel Pie with Orange Lavender Ice Cream

Raw Habanero Blood Orange Brownies

Heavenly Raw Cherry Rose Bars

Raw Red Velvet Raspberry Chocolate Crepes

Raw Love Berry Ice Cream

Raw Red Velvet Cake

Raw Cherry Rose Chocolate Cups

Blood Orange Caramel Dark Chocolates

Have you tried scarlet-hued oranges? Do you bake or cook or make salads with them? What other surprising fruits are your favorites?  :)

Celebrate some more with our 2014 Daily Food Holiday and Featured Blogger Series!

Happy Cherish A Chick Day! :)

Happy Oranges and Lemons Day too!

Lemon Orange Muffins 

from Adriana at Vegan Magic

Orange Bundt Cake with Lemon Icing 

from Vegan Victuals

Vegan Citrus Olive Oil Pound Cake 

from Maria and Kate at Rooted Vegan

Orange Lemon Pear and Fennel Salad Topped with Spiced Pecans 

from Laurence at Vegandlishes

Raw Carrot and Orange Scuffins with Lemon Cashew Cream 

from Vegan Lisa at Vegan Culinary Crusade

On Sale!
At Sendik's Food Market...California Bagged Navel Oranges through 4/2/13

Don't forget...

Snuggle a bunny!
Hug a hen!
Rescue a rabbit!
And cherish a chick!

Orange You Sweet!

Cara Cara Oranges with Olive Oil and Coarse Salt
 from Gina DePalma via Saporific

Lovely Cara Cara oranges are on sale again at Outpost! Midwinter Sunshine features some yumful Cara Cara recipes...or check out the following orange recipe links and substitute a few of these rose-toned beauties instead.  :)

Orange Swirly Rolls
from Janet at Vegan Feast Catering

Everybody Loves the Sunshine Citrus Salad with Ginger-Bay-Lime Syrup
from Sarah at My New Roots

Orange Pan-glazed Tempeh
from Jude Blereau and Heidi Swanson at 101 Cookbooks

Jeweled Brown Rice with Orange Zest and Mint
from Sarah at My New Roots

Sticky Orange Cake with Marmalade Glaze
from Faith Durand at The Kitchn

Raw Chocolate Orange Truffles
from Lisa at Vegan Culinary Crusade

Raw Orange Tian
from Lisa at Vegan Culinary Crusade

One of winter's tiny joys is cutting into a gratuitously juicy flavorfully sweet orange under a window spilling in sunlight...a feast in every sense.  :)
What are your favorite tiny joys?

Midwinter Sunshine

Organic Cara Cara Oranges are on sale at Outpost Natural Foods! Cara Caras are sunshiny pink-red oranges with a sweet complex flavor...perfect for a superhealthy, supercolorful I'm-keeping-my-New-Year-resolution-in-delicious-style salad.  ;)

Minted Citrus Salad

from Veggie Grettie

 

Cabbage Salad with Ginger-Sesame Vinaigrette, Roasted Almonds, and Cara Cara Oranges

from Rhyann at Cooking College Chick

More juicy options...
Cara Cara Oranges With Salsa of Roasted Beets, Hot Peppers, and Bitetto Olives
from Chef Andrew Feinberg, courtesy of New York Magazine
Citrus Salad with Ginger Lime Dressing
from Amy Myrdal Miller, courtesy of The Nutrition Source,
Harvard School of Public Health

Oh My Darlin' Clementine

The winter holiday season is filled with all sorts of fruity delights and one of my favorites is a Clementine Orange or two in my St. Nick's stocking. (Head's up people...it's St. Nick's Eve tonight!) Okay, yes, it's nice to get chocolate Santas and boxes of Cracker Jack and maybe a Barrel of Monkeys, but I always look forward to a sweet citrusy surprise! Those charming little wooden crates stuffed full of brilliant orange Clementines will come in handy this year when filling glittery Christmas stockings, topping the dinner table fruit bowl and just noshing on throughout the coming weeks. Their scent is heavenly and each bite takes me straight to herbivore heaven.  :)
Fortunately Sendik's has them in abundance, and they're on sale! So here's one of my favorite recipes from Lolo at VeganYumYum...

Candied Clementines

And don't miss her recipe using this deliciousness in  

Candied Clementine Cake!