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Little Hands, Big Results

It's "Orange Day!," as Rocco calls it. We've gotten (literally) 100 oranges from a neighbor whose tree has experienced a heady surplus.

Since they're a sour orange variety, the oranges have a really tart taste. But with just a little superfine sugar to taste, the OJ is delicious for drinking. Superfine sugar is so finely ground from cane stalks that it speedily dissolves in cold beverages. If you haven't tried superfine sugar before but want to give it a whirl in a beverage that might need a hint of sweetness, work in a small batch. Pour -- in this case, sour orange juice -- into a glass and then swirl in a teaspoon of the superfine sugar at a time. (Making a much more tart drink, like lemonade, will require a larger quantity!).

Without sweetness added, sour orange juice is a key ingredient for a Cuban chicken sour orange marinade. In any case, Rocco loves pressing the orange halves onto the juicer (with my supervision), and he's practically a one-boy citrus factory. We've tried a manual juicer, but the electric ones just make such fast work of extracting juice from fruit. Plus, the whirring and whizzing sounds they emit are just downright mirthful. And, of course, as Rocco works, he loves seeing the juice drizzle down into the receiving container, and then revels in the fact that we then enjoy the juice at breakfast, and as part of a supper recipe, too.

Nothing like a kid seeing the immediate "fruits" of his labor.