CSI, Scurvy and Square Pizza
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Candied Blood Orange
This past week, winter has come and gone and come again with snow, cold, and my taking a massive digger on the sidewalk in front of a mall while chatting on the phone with Just Joni. Chivalry is not dead, as a very nice chain smoker came to my aid. Sadly as a sign of our times I did NOT drop my phone while rattling my innards. I did, however, manage to lose my glasses and ended up doing that Velma from Scooby Doo thing where you have to feel around on the black snow-covered sidewalk for them while your mother is yelling, "ARE YOU OKAY?!?!" on the phone you still cannot let go of. So winter is here.
And oddly when winter hits in Minnesota so does citrus. Just about this time every year I get a hankerin' for some oranges and go through a couple bags securing my chance of not getting a serious case of scurvy. This year while doing some professional grocery shopping at Lund's Market I was stopped in my tracks as one of the talented Food Experts was slicing up Blood Oranges. Not one to pass up a demo for hope of a sample, I was intrigued by the crime scene that was her chopping block. Who knew such pretty orange balls could make for an episode of CSI:Miami right in my local market? So of course I bought some.
Not knowing what to do with them I sought the advice of last week's food styling boss. Bosses change weekly when you're freelance like me. This past week's boss is always full of advice on what to do with the unique items one finds at the grocery store. So while she was painting lipstick on a shrimp (yes you read that right...lipstick on a shrimp) she suggested many options for the bag of blood filled orbs I had at home. In the end we concluded that I should candy them. Being more grapefruit in flavor I was inclined to do something sweet. So last weekend I got the sugar water boiling and autopsied some blood oranges in my kitchen. The end result was some beautifully jeweled circles of red and orange.
Boyfriend got inspired and we set up the camera and processed the crime scene Horatio style (minus the sunglasses and awkward head angles...but all the same attitude). Above you see the fruits of our labor. I obsessively ate what I could of the shiny candied oranges and have moved onto eggs. I don't know why.
In the world of food styling I spent part of this week working on pizza. And you should know that it is nothing like Domino's makes it look like in the commercial. There were no power tools screwing the pizza to the set. This pizza was that square pizza we all used to eat in the school cafeteria. You know it. The kind that perfectly fit in the tray. Kids are still eating it. I believe FLOTUS is working on this though. Did you know that slice of pizza is still considered a veggie?
I have to go make an egg sandwich now.
See you next time.