12 September 2012

Orange Pomander Green Tea... and a Fresh-Smelling House!

Here is a delicious and super-easy recipe for you as we head into fall. My Darling Husband ate a large, organic Valencia orange as a snack before soccer one day. He left the peel and was going to dutifully compost it, but before he could, I rescued it!

I added the washed, organic orange peel to a small stainless steel pot, added three organic cinnamon sticks and a few whole cloves, and covered them with water. I turned them on medium-high heat and let them boil. Our house smelled like amazing orange pomander balls, which can certainly bring in the smells of fall. We had just gotten rid of a particularly stinky bag of trash, so this was a really big help on the olfactory front.

Anyway, I was just going to toss the liquid and compost the remaining scraps, but then an idea struck me... Tea! I added some tea bags of choice, in my case decaf green tea, and allowed the whole mixture to boil down for a while to make a tea concentrate. Here's the resulting recipe for you to try!

Orange Pomander Green Tea

Ingredients

Whole, large orange peel, washed (preferably organic)
10 Whole Cloves
3 Cinnamon Sticks
5 Green Tea bags (green or black work well)
1T Raw honey or 2 drops liquid Stevia (optional!)
Plastic or tempered glass pitcher of ice

Add all ingredients except tea and sweetener to a small sauce pan. Add water to cover 1/4" above ingredient line. Allow to boil down for about 10 minutes or so and enjoy the aromas! Add tea and allow to boil 5 more minutes Add sweetener if desired and allow to boil down for another 2-3 minutes, with a total boil time of 20-22 minutes. Allow to cool somewhat. Prepare your pitcher of ice. I added about a half-pitcher of ice to a two-quart pitcher. Pour tea concentrate over the ice and add more water to dilute to taste. Tip: You can also strain your tea concentrate prior to pouring over ice to remove small bits of peel and the cloves, but it's not required. Just don't swallow the cloves! Tastes great sweetened or unsweetened.