new ideas.

I had an idea in my sleep last night that I'm actually going to see if I can bring to life. Continuing with a food theme, of course, I thought it would be fun to try and Tweet two recipes a day. One vegetarian and one non-vegetarian entree. Include a list of the most important ingredients and a link to the recipe, and people could have a shopping list and dinner idea in the palm of their hands or on their computer screen. Voila! Meals on the Fly is born.

Already I can tell that this could get tough with more complicated recipes, but I'm thinking of keeping it to simple, weeknight meals. Something you can put together either in advance or in an hour and have dinner ready. Today I posted our favorite manicotti recipe, which I'm making for dinner since I had a tray of frozen ones, and an oven-baked pork chop recipe. Because, well, I love pork chops.

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I love it when life gives me lemons

I get these ideas in my head sometimes and I just have to see them to fruition, even if they end up being terrible. Like, the spiced hazelnuts I tried to make as Christmas gifts (big fail) or the paper poppies (bought a glue gun, made two, got bored). Obviously, it's never stopped me from trying! So, this time, I got a bee in my bonnet over lemons.

The produce out west has already spoiled me in just a few short months, especially the quality of citrus. One of my all-time favorite fruits is the Meyer lemon. Sweeter and jucier than a traditional lemon, with soft flesh and thin skin, Meyer lemons are delicious in everything! I saw a couple of bags at the store the other day and just knew I had to come up with something, so I decided to preserve them.

Really, it's pretty easy. I was worried it would need a lot of canning-type techniques, which I know nothing about, but the acid and salt prevent anything from growing in there and keep the process pretty simple.

First, I bought some pint jars. The recipe called for a quart jar, but I had to buy 12 of them and figured that was overkill. The jars need to be washed well and then sterilized. Bathtime for jars!

Next, I gave the lemons a bath of their own, scrubbing off all of the dirt. I had about 12 lemons that were usable plus two that had been mangled beyond preserving state, so I just juiced them to add into the jars later. Do people just stick their thumbs into bags of fruit? Rude. 

After making sure everything was nice and clean, I trimmed the ends quartered the lemons, leaving one end intact. Next, I packed salt into the cuts and rubbed the outside of the lemons. By the way, this is a terrible recipe for when you have any sort of hang nail or paper cut. OWIE.

After putting a tablespoon of salt in the bottom of each jar (I only needed two pint jars), one by one I squished the salted oranges in, making sure the juice ran out and mashing as many as possible. Then I topped them off with more salt, the extra juice from the disfigured lemons, and sealed them tightly.

So, in theory, these babies sit out for about three weeks in a cool place where they can work their magic. You are supposed to give them a turn every once in a while, and I think I may need to add more juice today so they are completely covered. But, in theory, three weeks from now I should have some delicious, salty lemon rinds to try in recipes. I have a couple of ideas (spiraling into an idea frenzy!) and have my fingers crossed that this works out. Hopefully, I have more to share other than regret that I didn't just make lemon bars.

Recipe: Preserved Lemons from Simply Recipes