Citrus is a bright spot in the cold of winter, giving us a sneak peak of the fresh fruits and vegetables waiting for us in spring and summer. And while oranges and grapefruits probably come immediately to mind when you think of citrus, there are many interesting and fun varieties to choose from, including Satsuma mandarins, tangelos, and yuzu. Citrus is also a source of important nutrients, including the ever-critical Vitamin C. With so much going for it, there’s really no good reason not to add more citrus to your diet.

Celebrating Citrus with Central Market

As I started to see more citrus show up in my market’s aisles this past holiday season, I really had citrus on my mind. I absolutely love Satsumas and I buy them by the box in December for healthy snacking during the fat- and sugar-laden holiday season. Needless to say, I was very excited when the wonderful folks from Central Market invited me to attend a special olive oil tasting and kickoff to their annual Citrus Fest. The event was amazing and I learned a lot about olive oil, so much so that it will get its own post next week, but I was truly inspired by the citrus dishes we were served. Citrus was party of every dish in our tasting but it played a different role in each, truly showing off its versatility. I’ve scanned back through my notes and gone on the search for recipes similar to those we enjoyed at the tasting with the hope that you’ll be as inspired as I was to get your citrus on this winter.

Shrimp and Grapefruit Salad with Fennel: This lovely cold salad featured perfectly cooked shrimp, crisp fennel, slightly sweet grapefruit, and a drizzle of light olive oil. The tastes and textures were well balanced to allow each ingredient to shine without overshadowing the others. To put a similar dish on your table, try Sautéed Shrimp with Spicy Grapefruit.

Baked Salmon with Citrus Goat Cheese and Roasted Cauliflower: I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t like salmon as much as I should. I don’t dislike it, but I don’t love it, which is not a good thing because salmon is so very good for us. This year I promised myself I’d find ways to like salmon, and this dish will help me get there pretty quickly. The chef topped a perfectly cooked piece of salmon with goat cheese blended with herbs and citrus. The balance of creamy goat cheese, tangy citrus, and earthy herbs was a fantastic companion to the fresh salmon. To try a dish similar to this one, whip up a recipe of Citrus Broiled Alaska Salmon and then mix some fresh herbs and citrus zest into goat cheese as a garnish.

Key Lime Tart: I love key limes in every possible incarnation: pie, tart, cookies, or sorbet. You name it, I like it. As you might imagine, I was most excited to see our tasting end with a light and creamy tart. Sometimes creamy pies and tarts can be too heavy so the citrus is almost muted, defeating the entire purpose of the dessert in the first place. Not so in this case – it was really fantastic. Having tried several key lime recipes in my day, I can highly recommend Martha Stewart’s Key Lime Tart. While it may be difficult to get key limes other times during the year, they are in abundance right now, so go out, get some, and make a tart!

If these three recipes recommendations aren’t your cup o’ tea (or cup o’ juice), you can find even more citrus inspiration in these recipe collections:

• Central Market
• Epicurious
• Saveur

When I left class I was inspired to come up with my own citrus recipe to share here. I had the goat cheese salmon on my mind and the staff at Central Market said their blood oranges are amazing this year, so I decided to combine the two and create a blood orange and goat cheese crostini. These little bites come together in a matter of minutes. Supreming the orange is the most arduous task but is well worth it. They are perfect for a light lunch or as an appetizer before a meal. The citrus is the star of the show here and this recipe really lets it shine. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Recipe: Goat Cheese Crostini with Greens and Blood Oranges

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
• Serves: 8 as an appetizer, 4 as light lunch
• Prep Time: 20 min
• Cook Time: 15 min

Ingredients

• 1 baguette, sliced on a diagonal into 16 pieces
• Olive oil for drizzling
• Salt and pepper
• 2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed blood orange juice
• 1 Tbsp. champagne vinegar
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 1 tsp. honey
• 2 Tbsp. good olive oil
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 3 cups baby greens
• 4 oz. goat cheese
• 32 segments from 2-3 blood oranges

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the baguette slices on a baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Drizzle evenly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until crispy.
4. Combine the juice, vinegar, shallot, and honey in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Continuing whisking and slowly stream the olive oil into the bowl. Season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust for seasoning with more salt and pepper if necessary.
5. Add the baby greens to the vinaigrette in the bowl and toss gently to coat the greens.
6. To assemble the crostini, spread baguette slice with a thin layer of goat cheese, top with a small bunch of the dressed greens and two blood orange segments.

Recipe for Success

• If you can’t find blood oranges, regular oranges will work as a substitution.
• Be sure to taste your vinaigrette for balance before you coat the greens with it. Some blood oranges may be more tart than others, so you may need to add a touch more honey to account for that tartness.
• Create the orange segments using the supreming technique. If you’ve never supreme citrus, watch Ming Tsai’s video for a great overview of the technique. The process is a little time consuming but the beautiful segments are well worth it.

Last weekend a bunch of Austin food bloggers got together to share great food and to make real world connections. A wonderful time was had by all at Penny De Los Santos’ beautiful home as we tasted the most amazing range of food from curry-spiced cookies to vegan samosas from the owner of local Kula Catering to some of the best tacos I’ve had in a very long time from Mando of Taco Journalism. Some of the attendees have put together fantastic recaps of the event with some amazing photography, so I’m going to leverage (that’s marketing speak for be really lazy and not do it myself) their posts for those who want a download on the day’s activities:

• Addie Broyles, Statesman food writer goddess and organizer of local bloggers (and this event) put together a lovely recap and gets extra points because she included a really big picture of my sunflower and goat cheese dish in her post aptly titled: Who woulda guessed? Food bloggers like potlucks.
• Logan from Boots in the Oven makes reading about the event almost as fun as being there. He also does justice to the beauty of Penny’s house in both pictures and words.
• Michelle Cheng’s photo gallery showcases the variety of the food and the bloggers behind it.

All-in-all the event was very satisfying for both the stomach and the soul.

However, when I first accepted the invitation for the party the first thing I experienced was…anxiety. Not only was I going to have to cook for a collection of food bloggers whom I respect for both their food and writing prowess, but I had to cook for a potluck which in-and-of-itself has a whole collection of issues to contend with. For about two weeks I was truly flummoxed. And then, as if my mental hamster wheeling over the food blogger event wasn’t enough, I was invited to an Easter potluck to be held a short week later.

Typically menu planning and recipe selection come easily to me. My biggest challenge is usually excluding dishes I want to make to create a menu that’s manageable for me and my guests’ pallets. After some thinking about why I was thrashing about these two potlucks so extensively, I realized that the nature of a potluck was really to blame.

The Problem with Potlucks

Don’t get me wrong, potlucks are great for a whole host of reasons:

• The host doesn’t have to bear the whole burden for cooking (and financing) the event.
• A range of food and culinary styles come to the table to create what can be a truly great experience.
• Their communal nature helps set the stage for party goers to connect. Everyone at the party has at least one thing in common: prepping a dish for the party.

Even so, when it comes to prepping food for the party, potlucks present a not-so-nifty collection of challenges:

• The food has to be prepped ahead. This narrows the possibly recipes down considerably. Recipes that include the words “serve immediately” are out.
• The food had to hold for both transport and serving. When you combine transit time, milling time when you first get to the party, and the time it takes everyone to serve themselves at a party, potluck dishes need to be able to hold their own for quite a while. In my mind, this immediately eliminates any food that uses mayo or eggs, and possibly chicken depending on the preparation because the last thing I want to do is make give a whole group of people food poisoning. I can hear it now “Oh yeah, that was the food blogger event when the Everyday Foodie made us all sick”. Ugh.
• The food has to travel well. Unless you’re hosting the potluck (and then you’re in your own kitchen and none of this really applies to you) you have to get the food from point A to point B more-or-less in good shape, so delicate or fragile food may not be the best choice.

The good news is all of these challenges are completely manageable with just a little know-how and planning. As I finalized my plans for both the food blogger and Easter potlucks, I kept track of the tactics I employed to overcome potluck problems and find the perfect dishes for each occasion.

Potluck Solutions

In the end, surviving a potluck comes down to following a few simple strategies:

• Let the ingredients be the star. A defining characteristic of potlucks are lots of different dishes that may not necessarily go together well. Rather than add fuel to the fire with a complex dish, consider recipes with 5 or fewer ingredients and then buy the best possible ones you can lay hands on and/or afford.
• Choose recipes that do well at room temperature. Cheese dishes are great for a party because cheese is actually best at room temperature. Cured meats, nuts, veggies, and some hearty fruits also do well at room temperature. Vinaigrettes are the best dressings for potlucks because they handle sitting out much better than mayo-based dressings.
• Select recipes that can be prepped ahead. The last thing you want to be doing while you’re trying to get out of the house for a party is cooking a full recipe from start-to-finish. If you can put most or all of a recipe together 12-24 hours in advance you’ll have the time you need to focus on a great dish and prepping for the party.
• Make enough for everyone. Find out from your host how many people will be at the party and plan to serve that many plus 20% more. There’s nothing worse than standing at the end of the line and missing out on a dish because there wasn’t enough to go around.
• Don’t forget presentation. Just because you’re serving at a potluck doesn’t mean you can’t have a pretty presentation. Consider how you’d serve the dish at home and think about how you might replicate that at the potluck without sacrificing your best china or having to arrive 2 hours early. I have a collection of high-quality plastic presentation dishes specifically for serving at potlucks. They are durable and I won’t be heartbroken if I lose one along the way.
• Plan for transportation. Consider how you’ll get your dish to the potluck, particularly if you have to keep it warm or cool. Remember that you can assemble your final dish at the potluck so package elements separately if necessary and put them all together when you get there.
• Be kind to your host by bringing everything you’ll need to plate and serve your dish. At a lunch recently a dining companion told me she’d hosted a potluck party for 30 people and almost none of them had thought about serving the dishes they brought, so she was left scrambling at the last minute. To avoid this plan to bring:
  • A serving dish which is probably different from the one that will get your food to its destination.
  • Serving utensils.
  • Garnishes and final seasonings.

Given all of these strategies, the dishes I chose for my various potluck events included:

• Sweet-’n'-Salty Honey Cheese Spread
  from Southern Living magazine. With only three ingredients (plush garnish) this recipe provides a great opportunity to showcase great goat cheese and honey. I choose local Pure Luck goat cheese which is some of the best you’ll ever taste and Tupelo Honey. An imported orange blossom honey would have been nice as well. With this dish, tasters get to experience high-quality ingredients they may or may not have had before, which is a great gift to give to anyone. This dish holds well at room temperature, lends itself to pretty plating, and travels well (plan to plate at your destination). It also has a make-ahead component and is almost silly-easy to put together. You can roll the goat cheese in sunflower seeds a few hours before the party and finish assembly and garnish at the party.
• Prosciutto-Wrapped Dates with Marcona Almonds and Manchego Cheese. Dates stuffed with nuts and cheese then wrapped in pig meat are a classic appetizer that can be elevated to amazing when you choose great ingredients. Prosciutto de Parma, Marcona almonds, and artisan manchego cheese are best-of-the-best ingredients that come together to create taste experiences. These taste great right out of the oven or at room temperature. You can assemble these up to 24 hours in advance and refrigerate. Cook them for 10 minutes just before you leave for the party and transport in a warm carrier or consult with your host and possibly cook them on-site, but only if you ask first.
• Spring Pasta Salad. Sometimes the oldies but goodies are perfect for a potluck because they are comfortable and expected by the crowd. My mom has been making the pasta salad for potlucks since I was a kid and it’s always well received. You can make it up to 12 hours in advance and take advantage of whatever fresh product you have available at the time. It scales easily to feed a few or a bunch of people and you can make it visually interesting by choosing a fun pasta shape. We simplify the recipe even further by using bottled dressing, but you can just as easily use your favorite vinaigrette. Because this recipe is mayo-free it holds well and it’s easy to transport. For serving, pile it on a beautiful platter, toss on some parsley sprigs and you’re done.

Learn more about prosciutto

Recipe: Prosciutto-Wrapped Dates with Marcona Almonds and Manchego Cheese

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
• Makes: 30
• Prep Time: 30 min
• Cook Time: 10 min
• Weight Watchers™ Points: 1 each, 5.5 for 4

Ingredients

• 30 pitted dates, (about 8 oz.)
• 4 oz. good quality manchego cheese, cut in to ¼ in. cubes
• 30 marcona almonds (about 4 oz.)
• 12 thin slices prosciutto (about 3 oz.), each cut into 3 long strips, for a total of 36 strips

Instructions

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Using a sharp knife, cut through one long side of each date so it opens like a book for stuffing. Be careful not to cut the date fully in half.
3. Place one cube of cheese and one marcona almond side-by-side in the open date.
4. Wrap the stuffed date in a strip of prosciutto and place seam side down on a baking pan.
5. Repeat with remaining dates, almonds, cheese, and prosciutto.
6. Roast the dates for 8-10 minutes or until the prosciutto is crispy and the cheese begins to melt.
7. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe for Success

• Not every date in your package will be the right size for stuffing and you’ll probably lose a few to breakage, so start with two packages to find your 30 best dates and expect to have a few leftovers. They’re great on salads or for snacking.
• Every strip of prosciutto will not necessary cooperate with the rolling process which is why the recipe calls for a few extra slices of prosciutto. Consider the leftovers treats for the cook.
• You can stuff and wrap the dates up to 24 hours in advance. Bake them just before serving or porting to a potluck.

Recipe: Spring Pasta Salad

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
• Serves: 8-12
• Prep Time: 40 min
• Cook Time: According to pasta package directions

Ingredients

• 2 medium carrots, cut into ¼ inch slices
• 1 bunch asparagus, ends trimmed, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 8 oz. package pasta in the shape of your choice
• Cooking spray
• 1 medium yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1 English cucumber, chopped
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup. shelled edamame, cooked according to package directions and drained
• ½ bottle (or so) of your favorite bottled vinaigrette or Italian dressing
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Bring a big pot of salted water to a rolling boil.
2. Blanch the carrot slices and asparagus pieces for about 2 minutes. Scoop them from the boiling water and shock in ice water to stop the cooking. Don’t discard the boiling water as you’ll use it for the pasta.
3. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain the pasta and coat lightly with cooking spray to prevent sticking. Let cool to room temperature.
4. Combine the pasta and all prepared vegetables in a large bowl and toss lightly to combine.
5. Add ½ cup of the dressing to the pasta and vegetables and stir to coat. Add additional dressing in small amounts until all of the pasta and vegetables are lightly coated with dressing.
6. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste (if needed).

Recipe for Success

• Use whatever shape pasta that strikes your fancy. Have fun with it. You can also use whole wheat pasta to make the dish more fiber-rich.
• You can make this salad up to 12 hours ahead. Store in the refrigerator before setting out for service.
• The combination of veggies in the recipe is my favorite but you can use any combination you like. Try for a mix of colors, flavors, and sizes. Some other good options include broccoli, green peas, other colors of bell pepper, and red onion. You could also narrow the selection down to a single color (cucumber, edamame, and asparagus for example) for a more focused taste and look. Also, try tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, and cubes of mozzarella cheese for a take on a traditional salad.
• Watery vegetables can make this salad watery, which is why I use grape tomatoes and English cucumbers. If you want to use a regular tomato or cucumber, seed them first to keep the water content down.
• Don’t dress this salad until the pasta has cooled or it will look greasy. The type of pasta you use and your personal preferences will guide how much dressing to use. Be careful not to over-dress the salad. If you make the ahead, plan to add a bit more dressing just before service because the pasta will absorb the dressing over the course of a few hours.
• I use bottled vinaigrette for this recipe because it’s easy but you can absolutely make your own. Like many of my other recipes, this recipe is more of an approach than a recipe. Make it your own with the pasta, veggies, and dressing of your choice.

Terry’s secret is to use thin pita bread in place of pizza crust. Pita bread can be had in fat-free and whole wheat varieties, and it is far easier to pull a piece of pita out of a package than to make pizza dough from scratch (although that can be fun when you have the time). Pita bread also freezes well and thaws quickly, so you can keep it on hand for an easy week-night dinner or even a quick snack. Need to clean out your refrigerator or pantry? Make a new kind of pizza with what you have on hand.

Learn more about pita bread

The Technique

Making a grilled pita pizza is pretty simple:

1. Spray one side of a pita with cooking spray and place spray-side down on a plate or baking sheet. This helps prevent the pizza from sticking to the grill.
2. Layer your favorite sauce and toppings onto the pita. Be sure to leave a ½ inch or so border of the pita un-topped so your goodies don’t drip or otherwise find their way onto your grill. Also, don’t pile the pizza too high. Your pita will crisp up long before your cheese melts and your toppings heat through if you are too top-heavy.
3. Put the pita onto a warm (not flaming hot) grill.
4. Grill until the pita is crispy and the toppings warm and melted, about 5-6 minutes. Pay attention, your pizza will go from crisp to burned in no time flat.

This technique also works in the oven. Instead of grilling your pizza, pile the toppings on and bake in a 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. If you have a grill pan or indoor grill on your stove, you can mark one side of the pita to get those great grill marks, then pile toppings onto the non-marked side and finish the pizza in the oven.

Weight Watchers™ Points-Friendly Pizza

My favorite version of this pizza calculates as 9 points in the official Weight Watcher’s calculator, but it’s a meal in itself. Half of the pizza is 4 points so if 9 points is more than you’d like to spend for a meal, split the pizza with another like-minded pizza eater and have a 2 point salad as a side. I top my pizza with:

• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. dried italian herbs or any fresh herbs like rosemary and basil that are available
• 1 oz. soft goat cheese
• 1 c. raw spinach
• 1 oz. prosciutto
• 1/3 c. canned crushed pinapple

Other Topping Ideas

The sky is pretty much the limit for what you might put on your pizza. Some we’ve tried at our house are:

• Traditional pepperoni and Italian sausage with a tomato sauce.
• Ricotta, mozzarella, and pecorino romano topped with fresh pesto.
• Pineapple and pancetta with a tomato sauce.

Notes

• For this technique to work, the pita bread must be very thin. It produces a very crisp crust and cooks very quickly. Thin pitas are typically larger than thicker ones, so they make for a nicer serving size. Thick pitas will be more bready than you probably want for your crust and will most likely burn on the grill before they heat all of the way through. In the
  Central Texas area the best choice is pita from the local Phoenicia Bakery.

• The toppings on the pita will only be heated, not cooked through, so be sure to pre-cook any toppings that would otherwise need to be cooked  - say Italian sausage for example.

• Be sure to scrape your grill grate well with a grill brush before you cook your pizza. If your grill supports a two-level fire, either via piles of charcoal or multiple gas burners, your best bet is to cook your pitas on the cool side of the grill and use the hot side to generate the heat.

Pizza for a Crowd

I am convinced this is the best possible way to make pizza for a crowd. You can prep a whole collection of different pizzas to cook quickly and serve as appetizers for a party. A “Make Your Own Pizza” dinner would be fun too. Put out a whole slew of toppings and sauces. Each guest can create their own pizza masterpiece and you can grill them up in no time flat. I plan to have such a party before the summer is over and will post about it, with pictures of my guest’s creations. I may even give away prizes for the best pizza.