Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Crunchy Chicken Cocktail

Sipping on gin n' juiceWe have a bunch of oranges left over from guests we had at Christmas and they are looking kind of peaked. I'm not quite sure they are still good to eat straight up, but juicing them seemed like a good option.

In the spirit of the upcoming food waste challenge, I wanted to make something out of one instead of continuing to ignore them in my fruit bowl. So, for dinner I decided to juice an orange and add something to it for flavor, but not knock me out.

And, henceforth, I present to you:

The Crunchy Chicken Cocktail

Juice from one large orange
1.5 oz gin (Hendrick's is always a good choice, but Dry Fly is local-ish to us)
1 Tablespoon simple syrup
3 teaspoons Galliano

Add ingredients to ice, stir and enjoy!

Anyone else getting a jump start on the food waste challenge by using up food you'd normally compost or throw out?

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooh! That's a great idea! I've got a half-dozen grapefruit that have begun, er, deflating. Juicing them didn't occur to me. (Yeah: duh!) Oh, well, I don't have any gin in the house, but it'd be perfect to bring with my lunch today (rice and broccoli). Note to self: buy gin... :-)

Robj98168 said...

Yum- fresh squeezed OJ. I can only dream!

Anonymous said...

I'm so jealous. Fresh fruit like oranges aren't all that "local" this time of year in northern vermont! But it sure looks yummy!!

Farmer's Daughter said...

I've been saving scraps and bones for stock, where I would usually throw them out/compost.

I've also been making sure to save and actually eat leftovers.

nfmgirl said...

I've started storing veggie scraps in a ziploc bag in the freezer. I thought maybe I could use them to make a vegetable stock for soup.

Having spent years as a very wasteful person (food-wise), I am very excited about this!

Joyce said...

I got started already by doing an inventory of my cabinets and fridge, and making a few "original" meals to use up odds and ends. So far, everything has been pretty edible.

jewishfarmer said...

Excellent - and it uses up that extra gin at the same time. Wouldn't want that going bad ;-).

Sharon

Cave-Woman said...

We ended up with a surplus of sphaghetti sauce----so we've been making tons of sphaghetti with venison(local) and sweet italian sausage (hiding in our freezer). YUM!

I want to sneak spinach into the next batch.

I also took a slighly wilted group of bellpepers and sauted them with olive oil and garlic---to salvage them---them served that over a bed of polenta, sausage and leftover rice. Delicious!

Anonymous said...

I started my no waste with a bang... I proceeded to throw the ingredients for bread in my bread maker as soon as I cracked open my eyes Saturday morning. Apparently, that was a mistake because I forgot to put in the yeast. The resulting mess was completely inedible. I tried it and couldn't stomach it.

*sigh* all I could think about was the money I wasted on the flour.

Bucky said...

Mmmmmmm ... a nice breakfast beverage!

Anonymous said...

Ah ha - a new way to motivate America - turn all potential waste into cocktails.

jimbolini - what about tequila? I know from experience that random grapefruit juice can make a nice margarita ...

Liebe Lebenskunst said...

I used up some pine apple slices that I had still in the fridge by adding them to my smoothie. Was yum and I am sure otherwhise I'd have dumped soon.

Crunchy Chicken said...

Rob and Kid - Well, my brother-in-law bought the oranges and didn't eat them while he was here. Normally, I don't buy oranges.

Sharon - Actually, I should be working on the vodka. We have loads of that (my SIL works for Skyy), whereas the gin is in low supply. I'll refocus my energies on the vodka tonight with another orange.

Cheap Like Me - Not a bad plan, except I wouldn't know what to do with leftover meatloaf. Meatloaf Martini?

Anonymous said...

The week before you announced the waste challenge, I had actually begun feeling the need to clean out all the old debris in my closets and pantry. So I've been using up my craft supplies (so many!) making jewlry, pottery and glass windchimes to sell (both in my store and eventually online at foxravendesigns.com) and using up all the old canned/dry food we have -- beans, soups, pastas, jello, everything! So I haven't had to grocery shop in TWO weeks so far. Crazy! We are out of cheese now, something that is not tolerated for long in my dairy obsessed household, and my son has been asking for bananas for three days now, so I suppose I will make a trek to the market on Thursday when I have some free time. In the meantime, tho, I am really using all these foods and supplies up!
My chickens, who get only cracked corn in the summer, and cracked corn and oyster shells in the winter, appreciate the small bit of veggie trimmings they get every day, and lay all winter, so I don't consider that a waste.

Oldnovice said...

Anyone else getting a jump start on the food waste challenge by using up food you'd normally compost or throw out?

Well, Crap! I've been busy on the food waste challenge thinking it had already started. My husband's been pretty impressed, thinking I'm trying to save even more money than I usually try to save. :tup

Anonymous said...

To answer the "jumpstart" question, yes. To get past the "ugly factor" of my almost-overripe apples and pears, I peeled and cut them in the morning - while my pre-coffee eyes are still blurry X-) and ate/eat them as my afternoon snack...

The few rubbery carrots got no disguise... They were pretty tasty, regardless of their shriveled condition...

Anonymous said...

This is not related to your cocktail (which does sound tasty), but I was wondering if you have ever addressed the topic of bartering goods and services. I think your blog is really terrific - it's one of only 4 that I check every day!

Chile said...

One thing I keep meaning to post about is using up the spices at the bottom of condiment jars. Remember when I saved peppercorns from the pickle jar liquid last year? Well, I had peppercorns in several jars lately and discovered something interesting.

Wet peppercorns are soft. You can easily smash them on a cutting board with the side of a big knife and then chop them up. It's a cheap easy way to add fresh ground, er smashed, pepper to whatever you're cooking! Works with other whole spices in the jar, too.

Jenn said...

I love to get as much citrus as possible then I zest it and juice it - saving the zest in the freezer, and freezing up the juice as ice cubes.

That way I can make whatever juices, cocktails or sorbets I want. :)

Anonymous said...

Love the drink!
I know we shouldn't, but we buy fresh fruit or have family members send it to us as much as possible. Living here in Maine I get funky this time of year and crave fruit and fresh veggies. So to make sure we don't waste anything we dug out the juicer and now we leave it set up on the counter.

Alison Kerr said...

Soup and curry are usually my way to use up anything that is going downhill fast. It works for both fruits and vegetables. Sometimes I wonder if there is any nutrition left by the time we get to this stage with them, but I suppose at least they contain fiber.

Jess said...

I had a bowl full of lemons, oranges and grapefruit that were also not looking all that great...so last night I got a bit crazy and made some jelly out of 'em all. I wasn't sure how all those flavors would meld but it didn't turn out too bad ;)

Normally I would never have even bothered to find a use for them, they were pretty pathetic looking in their bowl.

Allie said...

I don't know if you were looking to use the peels too, but here are some things I do w/ citrus peels:

1) Candied peels (do in a simple syrup, and retain the syrup to make homemade soda)
2) Zest and dry (I oven dry because it's humid in Houston) for future use in recipes (alternately you can freeze the zest)
3) Oven dry whole or in large chunks for potpourie (sp). (if they were looking especially not-so-fresh, this might be the best choice; I like to use orange, clove or cinnamon and a bit of vanilla simmered in water)

I think some people make liquor out of them too, but I don't really drink so I don't have any special ideas for that.

Leila Abu-Saba said...

I walked home with my kid from his school today (short day today) and stopped to pick oranges from a tree that hangs over the sidewalk. Quite a few kids in the neighborhood like to forage oranges from this tree, whose owner gardens intensively but doesn't seem to eat citrus. (or figs -she gave us lotsa figs two years ago)

I want to make marmalade. Now I don't really know if I'm going to do this. I thought I was going to bake bread today but didn't. Still. Marmalade from free oranges, doesn't that sound nice? My dream would be to make several jars and give one to the owner of hte tree. We'll see.

Jennie said...

Well, I had a meatloaf disaster last week that my loving husband helped me turn into a very meaty pasta sauce concoction.
I rescued 2 blackish bannanas with some bannana bread.
I found 3 winter squashes in the cabinet that were too far gone for anything though.

Anonymous said...

Now THIS is funny. I never would have thought to add alcohol to food past it's prime.

I'm sensing a lot of opportunity here...

THANKS CRUNCHY!!

Lisa Nelsen-Woods said...

I have a zip lock bag of orange peels in my freezer. I grate them for orange zest when I make bread. Once we finish the rest of the Christmas cookies we have in the freezer, I'll make candied orange peels with my orange peel stash.

Alan said...

My wife discovered a delectable Italian liqueur called Limoncello. It is simple to make from lemon (or orange) zest, vodka and sugar. Many recipes are available online. So, wash those citrus before you peel them, zest them and use them to make a delightfully refreshing citrus liqueur.