One of the blogs I love to read is Unplug Your Kids. I love a lot of the ideas shared there and am often inspired by the weekly themes. I just either read about them too late or the one that really sparks an idea happens at an inopportune time (Yamin Norim anyone?) Imagine my joy when I read last week that this week's theme would be orange. I knew immediately what I wanted to do and set aside time to do it!
We went to the Santa Monica Farmer's Market bright and early today. Loaded up in the stroller and carrier, we wandered the aisles looking for orange food. We found a lot of great things, but no orange flowers.
Persimmon's ruled the streets and we grabbed two Fuyus and one Hachiya that are all ripe and ready to eat.
Carrot's and winter squashes were also in abundance and we picked up some stubby carrots, a bunch of tiny carrots and two small squashes.
Being in California the citrus was overwhelming. I grabbed some Satsuma tangerines and a ten pound bag of California Navels.
We also grabbed some dried apricots, orange beets, and a yam.
But that was only part one of our project.
When we got home we unloaded the goodies and set up our table with most of it. The rest went to the kitchen where we washed them up. The girls supervised while I prepped the squash, yam and beets for roasting.
Then they took off to play and I made the sauce for apricot chicken and boiled the water for rice. I added a lot of saffron to the water and it isn't orange, but close enough. I also found a package of apricot gelatin in the cupboard so I made that and added some dried apricot slices to it. (I have a new favorite kosher gelatin, too!) I also cut some oranges and added them to a pitcher of water.
After Aba came home from the Beit Knesset we sat down to our orange dinner and dessert.
I tried explaining the idea of red and yellow making orange, but I think the girls are still a bit too young for that. I'm pretty sure this spring we'll be doing a green dinner and a red one in the summer.
Now to think of a project for next week's them of "Square."
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