For Fruit Lovers!

Here at Ruma's, we are proud to show how we have expanded our business into other areas - wine, gourmet goodies, coffee cakes and even exotic fiddlehead ferns!  But we know that the core - pun intended! - of our business is the fresh fruit that we buy each morning at the market.  After all, you can't get any better than Mother Nature!

Consider our For Fruit Lovers all-fruit baskets: chock full of Mother Nature's harvest, picked at the peak of the season, just for your friends and family.  A juicy pineapple anchors this gift; we surround her with apples, pears, and oranges.

Perfect for the person in your life who is trying to be healthier or for those who already live a healthy lifestyle!

Order anytime online or call us at 800-252-8282
Andrea

Recipe of the Week: "Strapping" Fruit Snacks

Now that the holidays with their blended egg nog drinks are behind us and smoothie season seems so very far away your blender may very well have the blues. So bored, so lonely, tucked in the corner of the kitchen counter behind the bread box or - worse yet - disassembled and hidden away in some seldom-used lower cabinet.

Well it's time to bust this overlooked appliance out of its winter doldrums and put it to work making a healthy snack which can do the same for you! With a little help from the puree button, you and your blender can whip ordinary apples and pears into some rather strapping fruit leather. (Get it? Strapping? Leather? OK, we won't be quitting our day jobs.) The prep time is quick, but the cook time is rather extensive, so make sure the oven is free for the day/evening. The whole endeavor will be worth it, though, as you get 16 servings of a nutritious and delicious snack and your blender gets to be the star of the kitchen once more!

Strapping Fruit Snacks

You need:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 4 cups apples peeled, cored and chopped
• 4 cups pears peeled, cored and chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees
2. Cover a baking sheet with a layer of plastic wrap
3. In the container of a blender, combine the sugar, lemon juice, apple and pear
4. Cover and puree until smooth
5. Spread mixture evenly on the prepared pan
6. Place pan on the top rack of the oven
7. Bake for 5 to 6 hours, leaving the oven door partway open
8. Fruit is ready when the surface is no longer tacky to the touch
9. Remove tray from oven, roll up on the plastic and store in an airtight container

Find more great fruit recipes on Ruma's web site!

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Always have fresh fruit on hand - join Ruma's Royal Fruit Club or purchase a monthly plan for a friend! Shipping is FREE!

Recipe of the Week: Sweet & Savory Pear Kugel

 

Drooling and driving. It has many causes. Maybe you're driving by a bakery in the pre-dawn hours when all the fresh goodies are coming out of the ovens. Perhaps you pass a billboard with a gigantic juicy hamburger, several feet tall, staring back at you with its glistening onions and pickles. Or, perhaps you hear something delicious on the radio. Certainly this is one of the less common causes of drooling and driving, but it happened to us just the other day! Flipping stations, we heard the word "pears" (seriously, we're attuned to that sort of thing) and stopped. It was our local NPR affilate and on the eve of Hanukkah, a guest was sharing her favorite holiday recipes. Well, this lady had such a way with words, we could practically taste the dense pear and prune sweetened bread and savory sauted onions as she described her go-to recipe for kugel. Don't worry, we didn't try to write it down as we drove. We arrived safely home, looked it up on the Web and now share it with you. Happy Hanukkah and happy eating!

Sweet & Savory Pear Kugel

You need:

• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 pounds ripe Bosc pears
• 2 small onions (about 1/2 pound), peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
• salt to taste
• 1/2 loaf thick white bread, about 7 ounces
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 8 tablespoons butter or pareve margarine, melted
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups pitted prunes
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• juice of one lemon
• 1 cup+ water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease 9-inch springform pan with 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil
3. Peel the pears and cut all but one of them into 1-inch cubes
4. Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat
5. Lightly saute the onions until translucent; remove from heat, salt lightly, cool slightly
6. Soak the bread for a few seconds in lukewarm water and squeeze dry
7. Put bread in large bowl and mix with 1/4 cup of the sugar and butter/margarine; stir in the eggs, onions and half of the diced pears
8. Pour batter in springform pan and bake for 2 hours
9. While kugel is baking, cook the compote - in a heavy saucepan combine 1 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar, prunes, cinnamon, lemon juice and remaining pears, set on medium-high heat and cook uncovered for 30 minutes
10. Finely grate the remaining pear and stir into the cooked compote
11. When kugel is finished baking, remove from the oven and set on rack to cook for about 20 minutes
12. Remove kugel from pan onto serving platter, spoon half of compote over kugel, serve the remaining compote on the side.

Looking for more great fruit recipes? Click here!

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Always have fresh fruit on hand - join Ruma's Royal Fruit Club or purchase a monthly plan for a friend! Shipping is FREE!

Recipe of the Week: Ultimate* Cranberry Sauce



The holiday season. It's a time for folks to gather together in peace and harmony. Well, the same is true of fruit. No, really! A couple of weeks ago on this very page (screen) we shared the story of the delightful union of the cranberry and the pear. Today we revisit these fine fruits to find they've forged a fantastic new friendship. The pear, the cranberry, the apple and the orange are all coming together for Thanksgiving and the result is an irresistable combination you'll love to invite to your table every year! (Also, there are pecans. Boy do we love pecans, and their role in this dish is one of the best we've seen outside of a pie-setting.)

*not to take anything away from the Cran-Peary Sauce recipe, but this one is pretty amazing.

Ultimate Cranberry Sauce

You need:

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 (12 ounce) package fresh cranberries
• 1 orange, peeled and pureed
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
• 1 pear, peeled, cored and diced
• 1 cup chopped dried mixed fruit
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dried cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan, boil water and sugar until the sugar dissolves
2. Reduce the heat to simmer and stir in the cranberries, pureed orange, apple, pear, dried fruit, pecans, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg
3. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring ocassionally, until the cranberries burst
4. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature

Looking for more great fruit recipes? Click here!

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Always have fresh fruit on hand - join Ruma's Royal Fruit Club or purchase a monthly plan for a friend! Shipping is FREE!

Recipe of the Week: Cran-pear-y Sauce

When the pear first spied the fetching, ripe cranberries it was love at first sight. Sure, they might sound like an odd  pear-ing, but when these two fall flavors combine you'll agree they were meant to be. In fact, they're such a great couple, we recommend inviting them to your Thanksgiving dinner. In addition to being delightfully warm and possessing great taste theywon't overstay their welcome -  in fact, we're pretty sure they'll be gone before dessert.

Cran-pear-y Sauce

You need:

• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 large ripe pears, peeled and quartered
• 1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, combine water, sugar and cinnamon
2. Add pears and bring to a boil over medium heat
3. Stir in cranberries
4. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally
5. Serve warm
6. Makes two servings

Looking for more great fruit recipes? Click here!
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Always have fresh fruit on hand - join Ruma's Royal Fruit Club or purchase a monthly plan for a friend! Shipping is FREE!

Recipe of the Week: Gingered Pears

Halloween is coming and to get into the spooky spirit, this week, we bring you a recipe that will appeal to your sweet tooth and get you that all important serving of fruit!

We are also pleased to have the opportunity to use this creepy pear picture. Something about it just gives us the willies. Weird, right? It's like "ooooh, bewaaare the peaaaaar!"  But we digress.

After Halloween night, you'll have plenty of super-bad-for-you, highly processed candy to satiate your sweet tooth (not that there's anything wrong with that - can't wait for peanut butter cups!). But until then, we invite you to keep it real with this easy to make palate-pleasing pear treat.

Gingered Pears

You need:

• 4 medium ripe pears, peeled and quartered
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, place pears in water
2. Cover skillet and cook pears over medium heat for 25-30 minutes or until tender
3. Turn the pears over
4. Combine sugar and ginger then sprinkle mix over pears
5. Cover skilled and cook 5-10 minutes longer
6. Serve warm

Looking for more great fruit recipes? Click here!

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Always have fresh fruit on hand - join Ruma's Royal Fruit Club or purchase a monthly plan for a friend! Shipping is FREE!

Recipe of the Week: Pear Scones

Hmmm, decisions, decisions. All the fruit in that box looks tempting, but we're gonna go with the pears. And it's not just because they're in season and so yummy and full of nutrients.

No, those are all great reasons but to be honest, we're picking pears because we have this great recipe for scones that calls for pears. And, as previously mentioned, we kinda have a thing for breakfast so when the opportunity to incorporate pears into our morning meal presented itself we jumped at it with arms (and mouths) wide open!

Pear Scones

You need:

• 1 cup chopped pear
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/3 cup butter, chilled
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup half-and-half cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt
3. Cut in butter until the mixture has a crumbly texture
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and half-and-half
5. Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture until combined
6. Stir in the pear
7. Drop large spoonfuls of the dough onto an ungreased baking sheet
8. Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes
9. Rest on cooling rack before serving

Looking for more great fruit recipes? Click here!

_____________________________________________________

Always have fresh fruit on hand - join Ruma's Royal Fruit Club or purchase a monthly plan for a friend! Shipping is FREE!