Citrus Season
A journal entry on letting ideas unfold, paired with a Winter Citrus Salad.
Most of my ideas come to me at the most random times—like a friend who’s not expected but always welcome. Through a lot of doubt, I’ve learned to let them arrive as they please, act on them only if it feels right, and let them go just as quickly if they don’t.
This week, I had no newsletter planned. I’ve been too caught up in Outlander to focus on much else. But somewhere in the middle of season four, I needed to pull myself back to reality and remind myself that I do not, in fact, live in the 1700s.
So, I did what I always do when I need a reset: I opened Pinterest. A few minutes into scrolling, I came across an image from a book with a tutorial on making tomato balloons. It caught my attention, and I decided to plan a tomato-themed dinner party for this week’s newsletter. It was going well until I realized that tomatoes aren’t in season, and planning a dinner party around them felt untimely. The idea lost its main character, but I wasn’t ready to let go of it entirely.
I did some research, and after reading through a long list of winter produce (which surprisingly includes kiwi?!), I noticed most citrus fruits are in season—particularly oranges. Suddenly, the idea had a new direction. I scrapped the Pinterest board I had started and created a new one titled Citrus Season.
While curating the menu, I came across two recipes—one for an orange pomegranate salad with honey and a citrus-arugula salad. I loved both, but I personally prefer my salads to be more layered, so I thought of combining them into one and creating my own recipe. As I played around with this idea, the dinner party concept started to fade. Instead, I became fixated on this salad.
After shifting directions twice, I started to question whether the idea still held up. But ideas have their own agenda—growing, evolving, and sometimes even morphing into something entirely different in the process. Like I’ve said before, sometimes you just have to embrace the rabbit hole. So I choose to follow through with it anyway. I went to the store, bought the ingredients, and made the salad.
In the end, this simple salad felt more purposeful than the dinner party ever would have—and as a bonus, I got a dreamy mood board out of it. So, here’s the first recipe I’ve ever created from scratch—I hope you try it <3
Winter Citrus Salad
Ingredients
For the salad:
Oranges*
Pomegranate Seeds
Arugula
Sliced Almonds*
Walnuts*
Avocado*
For the dressing:
Honey (I used Gallberry Honey, but you can also use Orange Blossom Honey)
Dijon Mustard
White Wine Vinegar
Salt
Olive Oil
P.S.: It’s a salad—measure with the heart.
Instructions
Wash the arugula and pat it dry. Peel and slice the oranges, remove any seeds, and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the arugula, orange slices, pomegranate seeds, sliced almonds, walnuts, and avocado.
In a small jar, mix the honey, Dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, salt, and olive oil. Shake or whisk until well combined.
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently to coat everything evenly.
Serve and enjoy! 💛
Notes
Florida Juice Oranges were the only oranges available at my nearest Publix (naturally), but if you’d prefer a more defined orange flavor, I’d go for Valencia Oranges.
I used Gallberry honey, but Orange Blossom honey is more fun ;)
Feta or goat cheese would’ve been a better choice instead of the avocado, or maybe even a mix of both.
Almonds and walnuts are what I always have in my pantry, but you can swap them for whatever you have in yours—I might try it with crispy chickpeas next time!
In case you missed it…
