Each year I hand sew a felt ornament for each grandchild. This year I chose to do what I thought looked like a slice of an orange (since their grandma and grandpa live in California). When I showed them to my hubby he said he thought they looked like pizza with slices! Argh! So I packed a box for each house and filled it with lots of orange products- jell-o, kool-aid, orange slice candy, etc. Plus I included a bunch of “orange recipes”.

Orange and Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup of orange juice
1 banana
1 cup of fruit frozen or fresh

Directions:

Peel the banana put in an airtight freezer bag and freeze until hard.
Pour the orange juice into a blender and add the frozen banana.
Add any frozen fruit of your choice and blend until smooth.
Serve immediately or chilled.

Orange Slice Bars

An old family recipe from my grandma in Kansas

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb orange slice candy, chopped
1 lb brown sugar
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tbsp water
1 cup chopped nuts
1 tsp cinnamon
powdered sugar
1/2 cup orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.
Toss the orange candy in the mixture to coat it well.
Add the brown sugar, eggs, water, cinnamon, and nuts.
Mix well and spread in a lightly greased 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.
Remove from oven.

Stir enough powdered sugar into the orange juice to make a drizzle consistency.
Drizzle over the still hot bars.


Orange Flavored Party Punch

1 qt orange juice
1 qt pineapple juice
1 qt ginger ale
1 qt orange sherbet

Mix the orange and pineapple juices together. Add the ginger ale. Stir in the orange sherbet and serve immediately.

Orange Muffins

Ingredients:

10 oz of mandarin oranges, drained
1 medium egg, slightly beaten
1 ½ cup of flour
½ cup of sugar
½ cup of butter
¼ cup of milk
1 ¾ teaspoon of baking powder
½ teaspoon of salt
¼ teaspoon of allspice
¼ teaspoon of nutmeg

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350°
Sift the flour with all of the other dry ingredients.
Add the butter.
Mix together the beaten egg and the milk, then add to dry ingredients and mix until just moistened.

Orange Carrots

Ingredients:

1 orange(sliced)
6 carrots
1 teaspoon of honey
½ teaspoon of salt
dash of pepper.
2 teaspoons of corn starch

Directions:

Dice the carrots and place in a pan just covering them with water.
Add the orange, honey, salt and pepper to the pan and bring to a boil.
Cover the pan and simmer over a low heat for about 20 minutes, until tender.
Remove the lid and turn to a medium heat and boil down for about 5 minutes. Watch to make sure the fluid does not boil away.

In a cup, mix the starch with a tablespoon of cold water, and stir slowly into carrots until the gravy thickens.