(Or if you just want the gift giving guide, you can get right to it here.)

I have a goofy relationship with holidays. On the surface it doesn’t seem weird at all. I love them! I adore Halloween and Thanksgiving and Hanukkah and Christmas (I grew up in a joint household although now there is some Mormon and some Buddhist action happening, but that’s for another day, another blog because this place is not about religion. Thank you very much.) Back to the point! I love them! But not really. They are always disappointing me. They are like that awesome aunt who has the coolest stuff and shares with you and looks at you when you talk and she seems magical and modern, except that one time when she bought you a fancy lace bra from Paris and you weren’t really old enough to wear a bra yet and it just felt… off. And you realized that her gifts were never really about you at all. Yikes and ewww. (No, this never happened to me, just a story.) So yeah, that’s kind of how I feel about holidays. The idea of them is spectacular but the delivery…not so much.

So I totally opted out of Thanksgiving this year, although I did have pie for breakfast because some traditions just need to be retained and reworked a little. Seems like many days would be better if they just started with pie! And I may opt out of Christmas as well. I’m not sure. But the one thing that I love…that I completely adore to the very tips of my toes is stockings! YAY for stockings. I may ask for a stocking for my birthday next year.

One year when I was five and I was just getting the hang of Christmas delivery methods, I asked Santa for a second stocking (secretly hoping it would also be filled to the brim). And it totally worked! When Santa delivers, he really delivers (at least in the stocking department.) The funny thing at my house, or at least now I know it’s funny because I haven’t really met anyone else who does it this way, is that we did the stockings last. After waking up and opening all the presents one at a time (Gah! Torture!) and after we felt overwhelmed and beyond satisfied, then someone would always remember, “The Stockings!“

“We still have the stockings!!!!!!!!!”

At the tip of the toe, there was always a beautiful Christmas tangerine of course. And there always will be. This year I’m hoping for one of these or these. Yes please.

The stocking was also filled with whole nuts. This was mostly a filler that got shoved to the side, but they HAD to be there nonetheless. Now that I have found these gorgeous red walnuts, I am completely pissed that my Christmas nuts weren’t ALWAYS red. Red is a Christmas color! What the hell? I better get them from now on. That’s all I’m saying about that.

So anyway, I find that people often shirk their duties on the stockings (run of the mill tangerines and boring brown walnuts just as a start) and I am on a quest to remedy this situation. So I put together a list of super awesome, Fruit Maven recommended stocking stuffers. I put them all in the Fruit Maven Amazon Store. How easy is that? I also added my notes about why this or that item is awesome and there is a special “What the hell is this?” section, which is small but disconcerting.

I would love to hear about your favorite traditions, or traditions you’ve flipped around and made your own, or your stocking stuffer ideas. Send it all my way, because like I said. I love holidays!

It is March – just about the saddest month for fruit EVER. I am completely bored of citrus and the spring berries aren’t quite ready. By summer I will be swimming in so many delightful bits of fruit that I won’t be able to try them fast enough and Mr. Maven will be threatening to call some sort of goverment agency to come in and find his wife in the pile of cores, pits and rotting fruit flesh in the corner of the dining room. But until then, it is March. Sad, sad fruitless March. But then this weekend I was walking through the grocery store and saw Shasta Tangerines. I literally thought – “Hey another tangerine. WHO CARES.” But I grabbed one (just ONE) any way because I am compulsive like that.  Believe me, if I had left without it I would have had to go back. What if that one kind of tangerine was the best tangerine ever and I didn’t bother to pick it up?! Unlikely, but what if?! And it turns that for once, my neurotic nature was right. This is hands down, the best tangerine I have ever had and I promptly went right back to the store and got an entire bag of them. Delightful.

APPEARANCE 4 out of 5 stars

Beautiful deep orange skin and flesh. Slightly larger than most tangerines I have eaten but not quite as big as the average orange.

AROMA 5 out of 5 stars

Extremely strong (can smell it all the way down the hall as it is being peeled), floral, delightful, pure, sweet tangerines.

TEXTURE 5 out of 5 stars

Super easy to peel – the easiest ever!, Very little pith and very few seeds. Juicy juiciness.

TASTE 5 out of 5 stars

Perfectly acidic, perfectly sweet. Pure and floral tangerine essence.

OVERALL 4.75 out of 5 stars

Have I already mentioned that this is my very favorite tangerine so far? Because it most definitely is, and that is saying something because I have tasted somewhere around 15 different kinds including common favorites like Page and Dancy. The shasta tangerine is a deep gorgeous color, insanely easy to peel and it’s bigger than most so you don’t have to peel two just to get a reasonable snack! Also I ate one at work and people were popping in to figure out what I was eating and where they could get one.  Extra points for making people jealous of me!!!

RECIPES

10 Ways to Cook with Tangerines

Despite this love, I had no idea there were so many tangerines in the world. No. Idea. I have reviewed quite a few mandarins and related hybrids (Page, Satsuma, Kishu, Mandarinquat, Rangpur Lime, Ugli Fruit) and I have tasted a few more that haven’t made it on to the site yet: Clementines, Cuties, Pixies, Honey, Algerian, Shasta (a favorite) and Sunburst. But there are so, so many more. It’s ridiculous. So I thought I would round up some ideas for you (for me really – let’s not kid ourselves). Pretty much all of these can be made with various oranges as well (see Cara Cara, Sanguinello, Moro). Let me know if you have more. As you might imagine, my fridge is full.

10 Ways to Cook with a Tangerine

1. Butter baking dish, sprinkle with tangerine zest and fill with contents from baked pasta recipe (red and/or white sauce). You will be shocked at how delicious this tastes.
2. Whip some fresh cream. Fold in a bit of fine zest and a tablespoon of rum. Use to top all kinds of desserts or just dip fingers and lick.
3. Boil a few sliced in half (can add limes, lemons, mandarinquats, whatever citrus you have) with a stick of cinnamon and a bit of fresh ginger. Strain into mug and add honey.  Drink and stay healthy.  (thanks keri)
4. Mix 1T zest with 1C sugar. Pulse in food processor to blend. Use wherever you use sugar.
5. Juice one tangerine and mix with equal amount of champagne. Indulge.
6. Place a small sprig of rosemary and the zest of a tangerine in a food processor and pulverize. Mix with half cup of fine sea salt and spread out on a tray to dry (5 hours+). Pat on to fish, shrimp, beef, pork or chicken. Drizzle with oil and grill.
7. Add segments to your favorite coleslaw.
8. Peel tangerine and blend with milk, ice and ice cream (best with a seedless type). Pour into old fashioned mug and grab a straw.
9. Mix a bit of zest, a squeeze of juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss with fresh cut green beans or asparagus and roast at 425 degrees until tender.
10. Mix up a batch of chamomile tea. Squeeze in some tangerine juice and pour into popsicle molds or an ice cube tray with tooth picks. Freeze and enjoy. Turn up the heat, throw on some shorts and pretend it’s summer.

You might also be interested in: 10 Ways to Cook With a Lime

And so in the spirit of love and Valentine’s Day, I say ditch the flowers and party it up with FRUIT. There are lots of ways to go, so you have no excuses.

Sweet Hearts:
Seckel Pears, Cherimoyas

Not-So-Traditional Flowers:
Mangosteen, Ugli Fruit

Symbols of Love:
Passion Fruit, Pomegranate

Seductive Aphrodisiacs:
Figs, Apples

Direct and to the Point:
Banana, Papaya

You might think that here at Chez Fruit Maven (oh yes – I will lamely use the word “chez” if I want to) it’s all about healthy living and eating. Surely I am eating fruit for all my snacks and juicing my breakfast and making fruit parfaits for the occasional, well deserved dessert. Of course I am — every year until about noon on January 1st. Later, at approximately 12:01pm I go back to my lazy, day spa loving self and order a fancy martini from poolside while mocking the girls with the fake tans and melon boobs. (Ok, so this might not be my exact life but believe me it is really, really close.)

What is my point here? I am starting a cocktail column! Every so often, when a particular fruit strikes my fancy, I’ll be posting a recipe of my latest amusement. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. And please, let me know if you try them or if you make up some of your own.  Here we go (yeah, I’m hoping to get better at naming them):

Two-quat-tini

• 1 limequat
• 1 mandarinquat
• 2 teaspoons powdered sugar
• a pinch of cayenne (use a light touch here or you will seriously mess this up)
• 2 ounces light rum
• 2 ounces club soda
• crushed ice

1. Slice the limequat and mandarinquat in half or quarters and place in the bottom of a cocktail shaker
2. Add the powdered sugar and the pinch of cayenne
3. Muddle! Muddle! Muddle!
4. Add crushed ice, light rum and club soda
5. Strain into an appropriate glass (I have no idea what is appropriate)
6. Garnish with a twist of peel (or stop trying to impress everyone and just drink it)