I’m no college football fan, but I was glad to see that Mediacom and Sinclair Broadcast Group reached a temporary agreement on New Year’s Eve so that thousands of Hawkeye fans who are Mediacom subscribers will be able to watch tonight’s Orange Bowl game between Iowa and Georgia Tech.

This thread is for Bleeding Heartland readers to discuss the game. Cyclone fans, please accept my belated congratulations for Iowa State winning the Insight Bowl.

Alternatively, feel free to post any favorite dishes involving citrus fruit. I like oranges and grapefruit so much that I almost always eat them plain. However, I’m interested to hear other recipes for using them in salads, side dishes or desserts. I use a little lemon or lime juice frequently in Indian or Thai cooking, but the citrus isn’t the centerpiece of the dish.

After the jump I’ve posted a recipe for lemon-sesame salad dressing and a cake with lemon syrup that I haven’t made since before I had kids. It’s not even that time-consuming, but making the syrup seems to be one step too many for me these days.

UPDATE: Congratulations to the Hawkeyes for beating Georgia Tech 24-14.

I just had the perfect lunch: a big orange local tomato sliced with olive oil, fresh basil, Northern Prairie Chevre and a little salt.

Since summer is the best time of year for salads, I thought I’d invite you to share your favorite recipes in this thread.

What do you love to pour over a leafy green salad? We’ve been getting fantastic greens from One Step at a Time Gardens, and I keep making the same dressing: grapeseed oil, a little cider vinegar, a little dijon mustard, a little honey, a little salt.

Here’s a dressing for potato salad that will suit vegans or mayonnaise-haters like me. It’s a North African dish from The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden. You can also stir it into cooked carrots, or a mixture of potatoes and carrots.

A few Tbsp of lemon juice

4-5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika

pinch cayenne pepper

3 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped (you can go lighter on garlic if you don’t love it)

salt to taste

Combine the dressing ingredients while you are boiling potatoes, carrots or both. When veggies are tender, chop them or mash them, then mix them with the dressing in a bowl. This is a great dish for potlucks at any time of the year, because it’s good at room temperature too.