Orange-Pineapple Crepes

Orange-Pineapple Crepes
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp. finely shredded orange peel
1/3 c. orange juice
2 tsp. cooking oil
1/2 of a fresh pineapple peeled, cored and sliced
2 tbsp. butter
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 c. orange juice
2 medium oranges, peeled and sectioned
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla or rum extract
1/4 c. chopped pecans or toasted slivered almonds
1/4 c. toasted coconut
fresh strawberries (optional)

In a small mixing bowl combine flour, milk, egg, orange peel, 1/3 cup orange juice and oil. Beat with a rotary beater until well mixed. Heat a lightly greased small skillet over medium heat then spoon 2 tablespoons batter into skillet. Lift and tilt skillet to spread batter then return to heat and brown on one side only. Invert pan over paper towels and remove crepe. Repeat with remaining batter, greasing skillet occasionally. Fold each crepe in half browned side out then fold in half again forming triangle. Place a single layer on a baking sheet then keep warm in 300 degree oven while making sauce.
For sauce, cut pineapple slices into fourths then set aside. In a medium saucepan melt butter then stir in brown sugar and cornstarch. Add 1/2 cup orange juice then cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 1 minute more then add pineapple, orange sections and vanilla or rum extract. Cook over low heat stirring gently until heated through. Arrange folded crepes on dessert plates and spoon sauce over crepes. Sprinkle with nuts and coconut then garnish with fresh strawberries and serve.

This is an example of what I had to do with 20 pounds of fresh oranges. I needed ideas and came across this great recipe. It is very rich. If I could go back and add anything, it would be whipped topping to cut the sweet. My kids ask for these crepes often. Yum!

Giant Ruby Red Grapefruit

Remember that monster of a grapefruit I found on my tree? It ended up being over six inches tall and almost as wide.
I thought it might be sweet, but I really had no idea how sweet it was! No honey needed. Who ever heard of that? I tried a little salt, but that wasn't necessary either. My kids ate most of it. Goes to show that you can have healthy snacks for your kids. It probably helped that it was a novelty. I try to have seasonal fruit in the house to keep the kids interested. It's fun!

Super-Duper Secret Lemonade Recipe

Our lemon tree over-produces. We ended up with over 1,000 lemons this year and each of the lemons were the size of small grapefruits. What do you do with so many lemons, you ask? GIVE THEM AWAY! And I tried. But nobody wants that many lemons. I probably gave away about 600 of them before people stopped being interested. A little lemon goes a long way. So what do you do with the rest, you ask again? RECIPES! There are lots of creative ideas for lemon recipes, but I'm still looking for ones that my family will eat. However, they will drink lemonade. I have tried so many lemonade recipes that I could probably come up with my own version, but as my husband so kindly states, a followed recipe is usually better. My kids were selling lemonade over spring break, and most everyone who tried it said it was the best lemonade they had ever tasted. Because of the revenue it was creating, I'd been keeping the recipe a secret, but then I realized that there were really no secret recipes anymore. Plus it wasn't my recipe in the first place. This one comes from Hot Dog on a Stick. I believe the trick is to use real and fresh ingredients.

Lemonade

1 cup Lemon juice
1 cup sugar
7 cups water

Mix all ingredients together. Serve chilled and/or over ice. Makes 2 quarts.

Mystery Citrus

The irony of it all... I have a huge lemon tree:
(use the fence as a reference)
A medium size orange tree:
And a puny grapefruit tree:
My Lemon tree over-produces:
My orange tree is finally getting a good crop:
And our grapefruit tree has zip... hold on a second. Let's take a peek around the other side of the tiny tree...
Oh my goodness! Would you look at the size of this thing?! Is this really a grapefruit?
To give you some perspective, I have long hands and I can hardly hold the thing in my palm. However, I can hold an orange just fine.
And I can hold a lemon with just my finger tips.
Funny how the smallest tree has the largest fruit. Maybe it's because there was only one. What do you think?

By the way, my little grapefruit tree is not very old so I feed it every six months with MiracleGro Food spikes. They work like a charm. Sorry about the fuzzy photo... Camera is acting up. Or maybe it's the operator...