We make a version of ambrosia for the Hagan family Christmas gatherings every year. That's a LOT of oranges to be cut up!


Ambrosia salad made with grapefruit,
oranges, cherries and oranges.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/jan/14/petersons-groves-part-citrus-culture-florida/

Peterson's Groves is part of the citrus culture in Florida

BY J. OLNEY SMITH Correspondent
Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Standing outside his quaint store in Vero Beach, Ed Peterson is a part of an old Florida tradition, one that continues to this day.

His father, Axel Peterson Sr., homesteaded the land in the early 1920s. He brought cows, chickens and vegetables, and planted citrus trees. In 1923, the senior Peterson started selling eggs, vegetables, milk and home-churned butter and, when the trees began to bear fruit, the hardworking son of Swedish descent started selling his fruit to people who stopped by.

“I was born in that house over there,” said Peterson, pointing to the family home.

“Lucky for my father he had four boys, and as soon as we were 7 or 8, we were picking. November through May, we started in when we got home from school until dark. Dad took us out of school two weeks in December so we could pick and pack.

“He’d keep a ledger of the money we earned, and we paid for our Sears catalog school clothes each fall and put the rest of the money in war bonds.”

To pick, the brothers clambered up a 25-foot ladder, the same one now propped up against one of the grove’s old red barns. “Dad wouldn’t let us miss an orange. We brothers would have contests of who could pick the most,” Peterson said.

“We’d pelt each other with undersize tangerines. We’d pull out our pocketknives in the grove, dig a hole in an orange, and squeeze the juice into our mouths.”

Peterson recalls family dinners when he and his brothers would eat five or six Swedish-style baked chickens.

“Mom always made loaves of wheat bread, and we had mulberry pie from our bushes, milk and churned butter from our cows, and ambrosia or orange cake for dessert,” he said.

“We didn’t have refrigeration in those days, so Mother would settle a sheet over the table when we finished lunch to keep the flies away, then she’d whisk it off and we’d eat the leftovers for supper. Nothing got wasted then, nothing does now.”

Visitors walking through the open groves today see pulped husks nourishing the trees, and can feed piglets in the petting zoo. Grandparents and grandkids visit the exotic birds and animals and purchase old-time curios. Mostly they come to carry home jugs of pressed-on-premises juice and to bag their own oranges.

With the slowing of citrus culture in Florida, there are not many places like this old-time landmark. The weather has been cool this year, the best conditions to make extra-sweet juice. It is pressed every day at Peterson’s Groves, just as it has been for 70 years.

AMBROSIA

2 white grapefruit
2 red grapefruit
3 navel oranges
10 maraschino cherries, halved
1/2 cup toasted pecans, roughly broken
2/3 cup shredded coconut
1-2 tablespoons orange liquor (optional)

Peel and section the citrus fruit over a large bowl. Save juices. Gently mix fruit sections, cherries, pecans and coconut.

Strain remaining juice and flavor with liquor. (A tablespoon or two of maraschino juice can be added for color, if desired.) Pour juice over fruit and let ambrosia chill at least 2 hours before serving.

Serves 6 for breakfast or dessert.

MOM PETERSON’S SWEDISH BUTTERMILK CHICKEN

1 5-pound chicken, sectioned or 6 chicken legs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick unsalted butter
Freshly ground pepper
3/4 cup water or chicken stock

Rinse chicken sections, place in a bowl and pour over the buttermilk. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place 2/3 cup flour on a plate and stir in the salt. Heavily dredge each chicken section in flour.

Melt half the butter in a heavy frying pan over medium heat. Add 3 chicken portions skin-side down, and fry until golden brown. Place chicken sections and all fat from the pan into an oven casserole dish.

Melt remaining butter and fry the other 3 chicken portions. Remove from heat and add chicken to casserole, but reserve the butter. Pour water or stock into casserole. Sprinkle remaining 1/3 cup flour evenly over the chicken and liquid. Spoon up all reserved melted butter from the second fry and dot the tops of the chicken sections.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove the chicken and whisk together the pan juices, which should form a light gravy. Pepper chicken and gravy to taste. Serves 6.

This dish is excellent with mashed potatoes.

ORANGE PECAN CAKE

1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
2 teaspoons orange zest
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup orange juice
2/3 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly butter a 9-by-11-inch baking pan.

Cream sugar and shortening until fluffy. Stir in orange zest and egg and set aside.

Combine flour, soda and salt, and add alternately to creamed mixture with milk and orange juice. Stir in nuts and pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from oven and smooth Orange Glaze (recipe follows) over top. Cool completely before serving.

ORANGE GLAZE

1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
2-3 tablespoons orange juice

Mix sugar, butter and zest with just enough orange juice to make a slightly runny glaze. Smooth over warm cake.