The time has come to talk about my "Fruit of the Month" arrivals that I mentioned in my
farmer's market post! I told you about all the fun things I did for Greg's birthday, but he got me some great gifts as well. The main gift being a monthly shipment of fruit from
Harry & David for a year... the original "Fruit of the Month" club. At first I was like
"aw man, fruit for my birthday... the most important day of the year (haha)
and I got something healthy?"... and
then I thought, "
yes! fruit for my birthday... and for so long... oh, the things I can make... oh, the things I can blog" because coincidentally I started this blog right around my birthday... and sometimes I think like Dr. Seuss!
My first fruit, Cherry-Oh! cherries, arrived on July 19th... right around the time I had a ton of things going on. Although I had hoped to make some amazing cherry things, I did not make anything super exciting.
First we made a cherry "sangria"...
...with a
cherry wine we got from
Nashoba Valley Winery in Massachusetts, black cherry flavored
sparkling water,
and chopped up Cherry-Oh! cherries... served in Mason jars of course!
Delicious summer beverage... that would have been even better with some
brandy and other fruits... next time...
Then I made a cherry salmon dish for dinner:
I used a
recipe I found quickly online, but I did not have tarragon, so I substituted with anise seed because Google told me it was a good idea. Anise seed tastes like black licorice... it kind of went well with the cherries (
I'm being nice)
, but I will not make this again.
On August 10th I got my second fruit; mangoes!
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| did you know mangoes can be spelled with or without an "e"? | | |
I was worried I wouldn't like mangoes because I tried a mango rum runner in college and didn't like the taste (such a good reason to be worried,
right?)
Greg
just had to cut open a mango right away to taste it (I think he bought this present for himself too). I wasn't in love with the texture or taste, so the remaining 3 mangoes stayed in the box for a while. Then, about a week later, I decided to do some mango research and saw a lot of recipes for mango salsa and mango cupcakes. And so, my mango day started. I cut, chopped, measured, mixed, melted, sauteed, pureed, baked, piped, blended, and taste tested that day. And voila! I found a way to like mangoes!
I made mango salsa with fresh veggies from the farmer's market:
The mango salsa was SO GOOD... the saltiness of the chips with the sweetness of the mango and orange juice was delicious... until... I remembered that I forgot (
hehe) to add the cilantro. The cilantro altered the taste of the salsa completely and made it taste soapy, which is why I did not include it in my ingredients... we were so sad :(
Don't worry, the delicious mango cupcakes made up for it. This is one of my favorite cupcakes that I have ever made. The sweetness of the butter cream frosting paired so well with the subtle sweetness of the vanilla cupcakes. I tweaked a recipe I found on
Dessarts and made it my own.
Even Greg loved the cupcakes... and he thinks hes a food and wine critic ;). I used part of an apple corer to make the holes in the cupcakes, and I piped the filling into the cupcakes and then the frosting right on top... I had fun with 2 different piping tips too. In the future I'll be writing a post on a super easy way to fill a piping bag that makes swirled frosting a lot easier!
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| Just don't leave your first batch of cupcakes in the oven for too long! |
Now its time for me to start my nectarine research... yesterday I got my September shipment:
Any suggestions on what I should make?!
