Apricot Day

We are doing a mini theme for the rest of the month...National Days. Today happens to be National Apricot day so we are going to give you a little info about the apricot and a couple sweet and savoury recipes to try out.

The apricot is a stone fruit and comes from a small tree with a dense canopy and oval leaves. It bears flowers that are whitish and pink. The actual fruit looks like a small peach with a firm and not very juicy flesh and is often yellow to orange with a red tinge sometimes if it gets too much sun exposure. Apricots are often eaten dried with the world’s largest producer being Turkey. When dried, the nutrients are actually increased with Vitamins A and E, potassium, and iron having 25% of the daily value.

Check out this sweet recipe we found...

Honey Grilled Apricots

You will need...

3 Tbsp.butter

2 Tbsp. sugar

6 to 8 apricots (halved and pitted)

2 Tbsp. honey

1 lemon

How to make...

Melt butter and sugar together in a large pan.

Add apricots and coat with butter mixture.

Place on grill for 6 to 7 minutes, turning often.

Once cooked, place apricots on dessert plates cut side up, drizzle with honey and lemon juice, and serve warm with a scoop of ice cream or with slices of Brie cheese.

Garnish with cinnamon and mint leaves.

Apricot Preserve

You will need...

2 cups dried apricots

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 3/4 cups water

How to make...

Finely chop the apricots in a food processor. Make sure the pieces are all uniform.

Place the apricots in a slow cooker. Stir in the sugar, lemon juice, and water. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Uncover and cook on high, stirring occasionally, 1 to 2 hours longer or until the mixture has thickened.

Ladle into clean glass jars. Let the glass jars cool before sealing. Store in the refrigerator for up to a month.

Savoury recipes...

Apricot BBQ Sauce

You will need...

1/2 cup apricot preserves

1/4 cup onion (pureed)

1/4 cup ketchup

2 cloves garlic

2 Tbsp. mild chili sauce

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

1 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1 pinch salt

How to make...

In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil.

Add pureed onion and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Then add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Finally add remaining ingredients and allow to bubble up slightly.

Reduce heat and simmer through for 5 minutes, stirring often.

Once ingredients have formed a glaze-like consistency, remove the pan from heat and allow to cool before using.

Moroccan Chicken and Apricot Tagine

You will need...

1 whole chicken, cut into eight pieces

2 medium onions, grated

3 to 4 cloves of garlic

3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/4 tsp. ginger

1/2 tsp. saffron threads, crumbled

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/4 tsp. white pepper

1/2 tsp. turmeric

1 or 2 small 3-inch pieces of cinnamon stick

3 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. olive oil

A small handful of cilantro sprigs tied into a bouquet

1/2 cup chicken broth

3/4 cup water

3 Tbsp.sugar or honey

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 cup dried apricots

1 to 2 tsp. sesame seeds

How to make it...

Remove the skin from the chicken.

Combine the spices in a large bowl, add the chicken, and toss to evenly coat the chicken pieces with the spices.

Over medium-low heat, melt the butter in the base of a large tagine. Add the olive oil, onions, garlic, and cinnamon. Add the seasoned chicken, meat-side down, in a single layer on top of the onions. Place the cilantro bouquet on top.

Add the broth to the tagine. Swirl the water in the bowl to cleanse it of the spices, and then add the water to the tagine as well. Cover and leave the liquids to reach a simmer over medium-low heat.

Once simmering, cook the chicken, for one hour. Remove and reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking liquids.

Carefully turn the chicken pieces over so that they are meat-side-up. Cover and continue simmering for another 30 minutes to one hour, until the chicken is done and the liquids are thick and reduced. 

Mix together the honey and cinnamon to form a flavuored syrup.

Top your finished dish with the honey-cinnamon syrup, dried apricots and sesame seeds.

Happy Apricot Day!

Summer Slushie Drinks

Ok so as promised...here is our finished DIY Mod Podge tray. It’s all dry and we added on a black decorative ribbon around the edges.

Now for the drinks...

We tried one called Summer Slush. It ended up being quite sweet so I would cut back on the sugar by at least half, maybe even more. Both of the juices are sweet along with the 7 Up that we used.

For the Summer Slush you will need 46 oz. can (4 ½ cups) of pineapple juice, 12 oz. can (1 ¼ cups) of frozen orange juice , 3 cups of sugar (this made it super sweet so try cutting it down to 1 ½ cups), 46 oz. (4 ½ cups) of water.

Combine all of the ingredients together in a saucepan and boil until the sugar dissolves. Pour into a 13x9 inch pan and a loaf pan. We used some recycled containers along with a reusable container. Freeze overnight. We let it sit for a couple of days. 

When you are ready to drink, chisel some of the frozen slush out into glasses and pour 7 Up over it. You can also pour Ginger Ale, Club Soda, or even some of Vodka, Tequila, or Wine!

Some other drinks that we thought sounded interesting are...

Mango Pineapple Frozen Sangria – Combine in a blender, 1 bottle of sparkling wine (half frozen), 1 ½ cups of frozen apple juice, 1 cup of frozen mango, 1 cup of frozen pineapple, and a 1/3 cup of triple sec. Blend it until fully mixed and serve with a garnish of fresh pineapple.

Watermelon Frosty – Combine in a blender, 2 cups of frozen watermelon cubes, ½ frozen banana, juice of half a lime, ½  tbsp. of honey, 2-3 mint leaves. Blend until incorporated but still thick. Garnish with mint and lime.

Pina Colada Smoothie – Combine in a blender 1 cup of pineapple, 1 cup of frozen mango chunks, ½ banana, and 1 cup of coconut milk.  Blend until smooth.

Maybe we’ll give some a try in the warm weather ahead. Enjoy!

DIY Serving Tray

Last week’s cool beverage suggestion at the end of our blog got us thinking about the next few weeks of May. Usually they are sunny and bright. There’s a holiday weekend coming up and May is the start of the season for BBQ’s, bridal showers, and backyard get togethers. We’ve decided to do a post of drinks to serve at these gatherings but first a fun and decorative way to serve them. Today we are going to show you how to decorate a tray to serve your refreshing and cool drinks on.

This is a fun and affordable way to spruce up your table and trays for your parties or get togethers. If you have an old tray that needs some TLC then use that but if you don’t, then you can pick up a plastic one (like we did) or a wooden one or even a metal one. We found our plastic one at the dollar store.

There are many different ways to decorate something like a tray but we have decided to go with Mod Podge. Our design is rather simple. We found a white plastic tray and decided to use some sparkly tissue paper and some polka dotted napkins to decorate. You can really use any colours or design; this is what we liked and thought would look nice for a Spring time serving tray.

Once you’ve picked your tray and tissue etc. you can start. Just make sure you have some Mod Podge and a paint brush or sponge brush.

So we’ve decided to put sparkly tissue up the sides of the tray and a blue polka dotted napkin on the inside of the tray.

First we measured out and cut tissue for all four sides. You’ll need two pieces per side. We left some extra length at the ends which will fold over.

Next we cut the napkins to fit. We cut the bumpy boarder off first though.

Now it’s time to Mod Podge. We started with the short sides that have the handles. We put some Mod Podge down and then laid the tissue down on and covered with more Mod Podge. You can gently brush it on so that you don’t get wrinkles, but if you do get some wrinkles, don’t worry, it adds character! It doesn’t need to be perfect. A little helpful hint...we found an old Becel container (any old smaller container or box will work) to rest the tray on. We found out that putting it down on the newspaper caused sticking and a bit of ripping.

Once you get three sides done, then allow it to dry before doing the last side. Some of the extra length tissue tore as we Mod Podged so we just ripped it off. You won’t see this as the napkins will cover the tops and you can’t see the bottom.

Repeat what you just did with another layer of tissue.

Now you have to Mod Podge the napkin. This was harder than imagined because the napkin is two layers thick and it began to tear as we applied the Mod Podge. Our plan to use a knife to cut the extra bits didn’t work so well so we ended up cutting the edges with scissors and will add a decorative ribbon piece to cover up any imperfections. We also hsve to cut out the handles holes once it's all dried too. 

The tray is all covered and will take some time to dry completely so be sure to take a look at next week’s blog where we’ll have the finished tray along with some drink recipes and drinks to serve it on it!