Orangeade

Summer tiiiiime and the livin' is easy!!

I was working at the co-op this afternoon and a woman was buying a huge bag of lemons. She commented that she and her daughter are hooked on homemade lemonade. I thought "mmm.. lemonade" then I thought "MMMM... ORANGEADE!!"

My grandma used to make Orangeade, and when my Mom was a kid one of her jobs was making the orangeade. My mom used to make it for us when we were kids, maybe once or twice a summer because honestly, squeezing all that fruit is a bit of a hassle! She had an old fashioned metal citrus press and you'd have to put all your weight on it (we were kids, remember?) to press the juice out. Sure, mixing storebought orange juice with lemon juice would be faster, but it wouldn't be the same!

I don't really know my grandma's recipe. If I asked my Mom, she might have an idea of the proportions, but my Mom is in Italy right now, and incommunicado, so I winged it. The end result is delicious, though much lighter and more refreshing than my Grandma (and Mom's) Orangeade. The reason being that my Grandma's secret ingredient, we joke, was sugar. It's only sort of a joke, she put sugar in everything. The reason I'd only ever eat my Grandma's potatoes and carrots as a kid? She cooked them in sugar, not even kidding. So I think that if you doubled the amount of sugar I used, you'd get about what my grandma made... except Grandma didn't make simple syrup, your Orangeade was just gritty until the sugar dissolved. Try it with one cup of sugar -- or double it if you like things really sweet!!

This recipe is 2 weight watchers points plus per 8 oz cup. (For comparison, for those of you not playing this game, 8oz of plain old orange juice is 3 points)




Orangeade
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
2 cups fresh squeezed orange juice (about 6 oranges)
1 cup of sugar, mixed with 1 cup of water and heated in a small pot until dissolved ("simple syrup")
10 cups water

1. Mix everything together.

2. Pour over ice. Drink.

3. Wow this is an easy recipe!

Dark Chocolate Dipped Orange Cookies

I am a bad, bad blogger.

Here's the quick rundown from that last post to now -- the boy and I spent November jumping through all the hoops one has to jump through to buy a house, we closed on the house Dec 5, I had finals in until the 12th of December, I went to visit my parents on the 10th of December to help my mother out after some surgery (she's fine), then just got back this past Saturday and now we're stripping lots of wallpaper and trying to get the new house in order so we can move in January. On the positive side of things: I HAVE A HUGE KITCHEN! We're going to put in a big 6 burner gas stove so I can cook like crazy. I expect until I'm all settled, my posts will be few and far between, especially because I'm trying to cook all the food in the pantry so we have less to move. (My new pantry is also huge.) This results in a lot of random meals. BUT! We've been invited to a New Year's Party, and I've perfected my Dark Chocolate Dipped Orange Cookies and had to share.

These cookies are fantastic. They're sweet and tart and orangey, and the dark chocolate is a perfect compliment. You could, of course, just eat them without the chocolate... but why? The boy has declared these possibly his new favorite cookie, and that's high praise as he's a die hard peanut butter fan. And so, without further ado....


Dark Chocolate Dipped Orange Cookies
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp orange juice concentrate
The zest of one orange
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup soy yogurt -- plain or vanilla
2 cups + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

8 oz dark chocolate
1 tsp canola oil

1. In a large bowl, mix together the sugars, margarine, oil, OJ concentrate, orange zest, vanilla and soy yogurt with an electric mixer.

2. Add the flour, powder and salt and stir/mix until combined.

3. Refrigerate the dough at least 2 hours or until you get back to it.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking sheets by lightly spraying with cooking spray (or use Silpats).

5. Scoop out heaping tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten the ball with the bottom of a glass dusted with flour. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the edges of the cookie are golden brown. Let them cool on the cookie sheets for about 10 minutes until they harden up a bit, then cool completely on a cooking rack.

6. Break or chop up the dark chocolate if it is in bar form or large pieces. Add the 1 tsp of canola oil and melt it in the microwave or over a double boiler. (If microwaving -- microwave for one minute, stir a bunch, if it isn't all melted then microwave for another 30 seconds, stir a bunch more. If it still isn't all melted, melt in 20 second intervals until it's smooth. Be sure to stir a lot in between each microwaving because the remaining solid pieces will melt a lot in the already hot melted chocolate and you don't want to overmicrowave)

7. Dip or spread half of the cookie in chocolate, top and bottom. Set on wax paper to harden. The fridge will expedite this process.

An earlier prototype -- The texture wasn't quite right, but aren't they festive?