What's with the Meyer Lemon? Discoveries

We have two Meyer lemon trees, and still never have enough lemons to meet the demand. We use them as salad dressing for our favorite salad with Feta cheese. Just a sprinkle of juice over the top and the salad is dressed. Another constant demand in the household  is for Meyer lemon in any drink-water, vodka, gin and  tonic, lemonade, and our local mild mannered aperitif:  The M and V 

In a large wine glass (16 oz.) put in 6 ice cubes. Add enough vermouth russo  to almost cover the ice cubes, and some  sparkling water --more than a dash, but -- don't drown it! Cut a Meyer lemon in 4 equal quarters, lengthwise. Squeeze 2 quarters into the drink, and toss the juiced quarters into the drink. Stir vigorously. Add more lemon  if you like. 

MANDARIN ORANGE

What makes a Meyer lemon so special? Its breeding! It's a hybrid between a lemon and a mandarin ( or sweet orange). Mandarin oranges are special--- the Chinese herbalists use the dried skin to improve your chi'i .The scent of a Meyer lemon skin  is something of an anti-depressant.

 As you can see from the picture (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons) it's quite like a tangerine, but not exactly. Mandarin oranges were grown commercially in N. Florida before WWII --there was even a town named for them--and were considered the best of the best by aficionados.  Apparently the mandarin orange passed its' beneficial characteristics on to the Meyer lemon--including the ability to improve your chi'i.

Succulent Companions: blood oranges, granita and a sparkling sorbet

Two blood orange trees on the place- one bears frugally and is very sweet. The oranges above are from the second tree,Trocatta . This orange bears profusely  very tart oranges (why am I not surprised?)  Marmalade springs to mind, but I've got an unused sorbet maker, sounds easy to use--why not do that. (..."when will they ever ev-errrr learn....")

Find a recipe, juice the oranges, acquire 2 cups of juice. Then the fun begins .... It turns out the sorbet maker bowl has to be chilled in the freezer for 22 hours before it'll work. (Helps to read the directions, but oh well....)

Never mind, can't serve it at the dinner party as planned--give ' em coffee ice cream instead, no problem.

Granita---that's the thing to do with the blood orange juice:
. Combine 2 c. of juice with a pinch of salt, sugar, or honey, or corn syrup (if you are that decadent, don't tell .)  It's hard to be accurate about the amount of sweetener to use. Are you making this to "cleanse the palate" between courses, or to have as dessert? The first batch was "cleanse the palate". Really tart despite quite a lot of honey from the bees that lived in the wall and had to be re-located to a nearby organic farm---but that's another story.
 The granita was frozen, then beaten with an emulsifier beater twice. A little sparkling water added on the advice of friend Suzie, who is a fantastic cook.
 This batch was too tart for the taste of my focus group ( i.e. anyone who wandered into the kitchen)

Sorbet. Next day the sorbet maker was operational. Here's the recipe Focus group (below) all approved.
2 c. blood orange juice
sugar syrup to taste (organic sugar w water, melted in the microwave)
a pinch of salt
1 c. Asti Spumante sparkling wine
(more or less to taste)
Process according to your sorbet maker's directions.

Considered the last ingredient, the Asti, to be a brilliant stroke--it was sweet (too sweet to drink in my book, had a bottle languishing in the fridge) and was fizzy enough to make the sorbet light. It worked.                                        

Focus Group