Orange You Glad I Didn’t Say Banana?

The weird shit I’ve bought during this pandemic! Sadly, there are days when the only way to interact with the world or to feel anything is through commerce and so I find myself buying things I don’t need to feel alive. It doesn’t work! But one of the better impulse buys was a case of Seville oranges from a company in Florida with the wonderfully literal web address floridaorangeshop dot com. I ordered them and kind of forgot about it until they arrived on a snowy day here in the Midwest. To be honest, I was mostly annoyed that I now had an obligation to do something with them and spent the first day avoiding eye contact with the cardboard box that said something like “A Gift of Sunshine for You!” on the side. I started plotting ways to make them disappear in a way that wouldn’t lead to questioning by Bryan. What happened to all of those oranges? Eventually I accepted my destiny and mustered the energy to make some marmalade which in turn gave me momentum and lead to a brief increase in kitchen activity which I do not necessarily regret.

So, if at some point in the future you find yourself with a box of Seville oranges, here is what you should do:

Make marmalade! I first used this recipe years ago to great success and managed to capture some great photos which I am recycling here (work smarter, not harder!). I seriously love this marmalade which feels very much worth the effort. It is sweet and bitter and wonderful.

Make curd! I don’t normally like citrus curd but this one is great is how blog posts have started since time immemorial. But seriously too often curd has that weird egg taste. So I can’t really explain why I tried this recipe for Seville orange curd other than a desire to use the oranges. I think the bitterness of the Sevilles takes citrus curd to a place that I am down with and I genuinely love it.

Make vin d’orange! I gotta thank my friend Samin for posting on social media that she was making a batch of this cheerful aperitif. It inspired me to try. Inspiration is hard to come by these days and more often than not I decide against anything that requires even the slightest effort. But a batch of this is currently chilling in my fridge and the last time I tasted it was already extremely delicious so I can’t wait to see what it is like when it is finished. It also led to me impulse buy a hand corker so I can now cork things. The cycle continues…

Bonus content: If you want to take things a step further, you should use the marmalade you make for this cake, which is super delicious (and pictured at the top of this post). I used the curd as filling (along with whipped cream) in a take on a Victoria Sponge, though it would also be super amazing on biscuits.

When life gives you oranges—make things out of them?