4 cups water
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup grated lemon rind (about 4 large lemons)
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
7 navel oranges (about 4 pounds), peeled and cut crosswise into 4 slices

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large, heavy-duty saucepan. Add orange slices, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook 5 minutes. Remove orange slices with a slotted spoon; place in a bowl.

Cook juice mixture over medium-high heat 15 minutes (until slightly syrupy). Pour over oranges. Cover and chill at least 4 hours.

Makes about 14 servings (serving size: 2 orange slices and about 1/4 cup syrup).

This is a great make-ahead dessert to serve with Citrus Chicken w/ Lemon Couscous. You can also use the leftover orange rinds for the marinade. If you have left over orange slices, add them to the spinach salad, iced tea, sangria or serve on the side as garnish to squeeze over the chicken.

These were delicious! I skipped the Cinnamon Maple Syrup, the Orange Honey Butter serves as a syrup. I served these with fresh blueberries, banana slices and orange wedges. Yum!

Blue Corn Pancakes with Orange Honey Butter

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup blue cornmeal
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1 1/2 to 2 cups milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup fresh blueberries, plus more for garnish
2 to 3 bananas, peeled and sliced
1 orange, cut into wedges
Orange-Honey Butter, recipe follows

Preheat a nonstick griddle. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

Mix together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Beat the eggs and 1 1/2 cups of the milk in a medium bowl until combined, then stir in the melted butter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Gently fold in the blueberries. If the batter seems too thick, add some of the remaining milk.

Ladle approximately 1/4 cup of the batter onto the griddle for each pancake. Cook until the bottom is light golden brown, flip, and continue cooking for about 30 seconds. Remove to an ovenproof plate and keep warm in the oven until ready to serve. Serve 3 pancakes per person with a dollop of orange-honey butter, cinnamon maple syrup, and bananas. Garnish with blueberries dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Orange-Honey Butter:

3 cups fresh squeezed orange juice
2 sticks butter, slightly softened
2 tablespoons honey
Pinch salt

Place orange juice in a small non-reactive saucepan over high heat and reduce to 3 tablespoons. Place butter in a bowl and add the orange syrup, honey, and salt; mix until combined. Scoop into a large ramekin, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours. Reheat slightly before serving.

From Taste of Home’s magazine “Simple & Delicious,” this veggie dish makes a great side and can easily be altered to serve with different styles of cuisine.

1 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tsp dried basil
3/4 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 lb fresh green beans, trimmed
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
2 tsps butter

In a small bowl, combine the first seven ingredients and set aside. In a large skillet, saute green beans and mushrooms in butter until almost tender. Add seasoned mixture and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes or until veggies are nice and tender. Voila!

Some easy substitutions and alterations:

Olive oil or vegetable oil for canola oil (which is just not in my cupboard for some reason)
Swap cider vinegar for soy sauce or thin teryaki sauce when serving with a Chinese dish, with brown rice on side.

A note about black pepper: I heard from a reliable source (the Food Network) that pepper burns. I would suggest leaving it out and sprinkling the veggies with fresh ground black pepper at the end. I haven’t tried this myself because I just learned this interesting tidbit, but there is always next time.

Both times I made this dish (once with cider vinegar and once with soy sauce) there was liquid left over. During the soy sauce run, I removed the veggies and threw some whole raw almonds into the remaining liquid and heated for a couple minutes, then tossed the almonds with the green beans and mushrooms. Yum!