It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Since moving to Europe, I've found the one thing that really means "winter" to me. It's Clementine Oranges! To be sure, these sweet fruits are also available, and in fact cultivated, in my home state of California. However, there is SO MUCH fruit available in California that I think we Californians are a little spoiled. We don't notice the seasons change because most fruit is available year-round.

Here, grocery stores stock according to season and availability. For at least a month now, I've been anxiously awakening every Saturday morning, hoping to find that Clementine season has started. Well, this Saturday, it did. We made up our grocery list and headed off, and yes, there in the produce section were the delicious fruit of the Gods.

In the last two days, I've had about seven of them. I'll probably have to stock up again mid-week.

Clementines differ from their orange cousins in several ways. For one, they were invented early in the 1900s, possibly by accident. They have a looser, more peelable skin, a sweeter taste, and they are generally seedless.