Citrus Salad With Rosemary And Olives

Medically reviewed by Christiana George Updated Date: January 6, 2026

My favorite food group is fruit, and citruses are probably my favorite fruit group. While the fruit world never fails to delight, I think we need their effervescence most this time of the year. Their brightness counterbalances the season’s otherwise drab palette (which a visit to the farmer’s market demonstrates with rows and rows of… potatoes), and I could eat them endlessly.

If there’s one time where I truly feel food is too beautiful to eat, it’s now.

I am newly but officially in love with Cara Cara oranges. You would never guess that such an ordinary exterior gives way to the most vividly orange interior. And they taste so perfect, as sweet as can be. Blood oranges are pretty rad themselves. Their brilliant flesh intensifies any salad, flashes of ruby red and very showy. And meyer lemons, well, given this blog’s name, I think it’s pretty clear where I stand on lemons.

Unfortunately, they’re not very easy to come by here in New York. But that fact only makes them dearer. In fact, I think the overall inaccessibility of fruit has only emphasized just how important they are to me.

This salad is exactly what you should be eating now. We’re all coming out of the previous year feeling slightly shameful of our holiday excess, with renewed vows to eat thoughtfully and healthily. It’s like citruses came along just in time to save the day.

To keep this from being a fruit salad, by which I mean inherently sweet, there’s a fried rosemary and olive topping that adds just the right note of bitterness. I also decided to put everything over a bed of arugula and generously sprinkle sea salt on top, which heightens this salad’s savory nature. And with the addition Meyer lemon, I believe we cover all of the basic tastes: bitterness, sweetness, sourness, and saltiness. (Don’t mention umami, okay? Unless you want to throw in some mushrooms and call it a day.)

I’ll leave you with this quote from The Shipping News. I think it pretty much sums up my spirit:

“Suddenly he could see his father, see the trail of ground cherry husks leading from the garden around the edge of the lawn where he walked while he ate them. The man had a passion for fruit. Quoyle remembered purple-brown seckle pears the size and shape of figs, his father taking the meat off with pecking bites, the smell of fruit in their house, litter of cores and peels in the ashtrays, the grape cluster skeletons, peach stones like hens’ brains on the windowsill, the glove of banana peel on the car dashboard. In the sawdust on the basement workbench galaxies of seeds and pits, cherry stones, long white date pits like spaceships. strawberries in the refrigerator, and in June the car parked on a country road and the father on his knees picking wild strawberries in the weeds. The hollowed grapefruit skullcaps, cracked globes of tangerine peel.”

CITRUS SALAD WITH ROSEMARY AND OLIVES

From Bon Appétit
Serves 3 to 4

Ingredients

Vegetable oil
2 3-inch sprigs of rosemary
kosher salt
5 pitted, oil-cured black olives
2 cara cara oranges
2 blood oranges
1 meyer lemon
extra virgin olive oil
freshly-ground black pepper
a handful of arugula per person

Directions

Pour vegetable oil into a small heavy saucepan to a depth of 1/2-inch and turn on stove to medium. Using a deep-fry thermometer, heat the oil until it reaches 350 degrees F. Add the rosemary sprigs to oil and fry until crisp and bright green, 10 to 15 seconds.

Transfer to a paper towel–lined plate and season lightly with kosher salt. Add 10 pitted oil-cured black olives to oil; fry until bubbling stops, about 4 minutes. Place on plate with rosemary. Strip rosemary leaves from sprigs; mince. Chop olives.

Using a small, sharp knife, cut peel and white pith from the oranges and lemon. Cut crosswise into 1/2-inch rounds.

Put a bed of arugula on a serving plate. Arrange the citruses over. Season lightly with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle chopped rosemary and olives over oranges.

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Donut Birthday Party Decorations

Recipes

Christiana George

Updated Date:
December 19, 2022

Well, since the decorations for my daughter’s birthday party came out even better than anticipated, I thought I’d share a few more photos. Since we now live down south, I thought a “Krispy Kreme” theme would be appropriate for the party and my daughter agreed. I found so many great ideas on Pinterest for decorations. The colors are what drew me in, maybe because they remind me of Christmas. Everything was fairly simple to put together, my daughter helped out with a lot of small details.

So the first thing I worked on was the invitation. This is a blown up version. The actual invite was about 4″ x 5″. I found the invitation online and through the magic of Photoshop Lightroom, I was able to erase all the information inside the circle and replace it with my own, using Picmonkey. The font is not exact, but the feel is still the same. I glued it to some green card stock I had in my scrapbook stash.

Next came the centerpiece. Originally I was planning on hanging everything, but then I decided I needed something easy to set up and easy to remove after the party. Party Pail supplied me with the white tissue fans, white honeycomb tissue ball, red honeycomb tissue balls, and red drink napkins. They have a lot of great party supplies for kids and adults at great prices. I was very happy with what they sent me. And my daughter was too.

For the base of the centerpiece I used a plastic drink bucket from Target. It was only $3. I lined it with some poke-a-dot tissue paper, also from Target. I filled the bottom of the bucket with green floral foam blocks I found at the Dollar Tree. I made two layers of blocks cutting and piecing them together to make them fit. I did not glue them to the bottom because I wanted to re-use the bucket, so I used wooden skewers to keep the blocks from shifting. Then I had my daughter paint some wooden dowels I bought at Walmart. I poked the dowels into the foam blocks and slid the tissue fans and honeycomb balls onto the dowels. For the fans, I did use a little clear tape to keep them secure. I covered up the blocks with some more tissue paper.

The Happy Birthday sign was made the same way as the invitation, a little Photoshop and a little Picmonkey. I printed it on regular white paper and glued it to the same green card stock as the invites. I made two and stuck them to the wooden dowel and to each other with my scrapbooking ZOTS adhesive dots. I slid two wooden dowels into the middle of the two signs to hand my bunting banner. For the banner, I used scrapbook paper and cardstock that I had on hand and matched the red and green colors. I glued them together with the ZOTS also and glued a corner to the red honeycomb ball.

I ended up making two small topiaries with the other red honeycomb balls. I found the green metal potting tins at the Dollar Tree, filled them with more green floral foam. This time I glued the foam to the tin with some tacky glue. I poked the skewer in and added the ball and the sign the same way as the centerpiece. Then my daughter glued some red and white shredded paper over the foam blocks. The shredded paper I found in the party aisle at the Dollar Tree.

I had also found a red tin that matched the green ones. I used it to store my paper straws that I had on hand. I bought them on Amazon. I placed the straws in some recycled frappuccino glass bottles from Target and surrounded them with more shredded paper. The chalkboard clothes pin signs are from T. J. Maxx.

I bought swim rings for party favors since they look like donuts and this was also a pool party. I bought the swim rings at the Dollar Tree along with some candy. I made some cute tags with all the kids names to thank them for coming to the party. My daughter helped put all the goody bags together.

And that’s it for decorations. I made a variety of baked mini donuts for the party, Birthday Cake Oreo Donuts, Cotton Candy Donuts, Hot Chocolate Donuts, Funfetti Donut Holes, and Sugar Cookie Donuts. I used the Sugar Cookie Donuts on top of this Funfetti cake and added some sprinkles and Birthday Cake M&Ms. The kids were all over the donuts. I guess I will have to make a bigger cake next time. Even though we didn’t serve any Krispy Kreme donuts, I still liked the theme. And I got all the kids Krispy Kreme hats for party hats. The party was a success and everyone liked the decorations.

This post may be shared at these fabulous parties.

Disclaimer: Party Pail did provide me with some products to review, but I was under no obligation to provide a favorable review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.