First, Eat Six Oranges…

Ho, hum: winter.

We’ve had a ragged start to the week.

Back-to-back shows on Sunday reminded us of the many reasons why we were English majors and not musical theater majors (not the least of which it wasn’t offered at our school). We started the week tired, cranky, and sore — five hours on stage, holding a folder full of music in outstretched arms and standing still or sitting still for a long, twelve-hour period in cramped quarters will do that to you.

With the weekend partially lost, the usual housework catch-up from Sunday got pushed into Monday. T. is still trying to come to a natural sounding conclusion to her middle grade novel, instead of just quitting because she’s sick of writing it, but she had to intersperse work with doing the laundry and grousing that one other thing she wished the Pro-Snow Contingent had mentioned was the fact that with snow, a pair of jeans you just put on to cross the street to go to the store returns inevitably filthy on the hem, unless tucked into boots. City snow is filthy — and means more laundry, and much-needed time polishing shoes. (T. also groused quietly about wearing the same pair of black leather insulated boots every day and everywhere, but with these near-freezing temps, it’s just another winter reality.)

D. groused about having to meet with his supervisors, and having to hurry to a deadline for work, with his boss asking for meetings he didn’t have time to attend. Tuesday found us prepping for our last big show on the 20th, plus another event at Kelvingrove on the 19th, and we found ourselves tired and grumpy — and too busy.

Obviously, that meant it was time to start the Christmas baking. And maybe take advantage of the fact that the store is selling tons of salt for very cheap (the ice has persisted, and it’s forecast to give us another eight inches starting tomorrow – oh, joy!) and dye something a bright color. Quickly.

Creativity makes everything better.

T. decided that she was sick of racing around frantically every year in the pre-stollen prep stage, trying to find sulfur-free citrus peel, and that she should make her own. It’s funny – it’s such a simple thing — it’s orange peels, how hard could it be? – but most people only ever buy it. T. did a little research, and came up with a simple recipe. All you need is oranges, two cups of sugar, a cup of water, and some time.

• First, eat six oranges. Or twelve clementines.
• Okay, they don’t have to be oranges or clementines. And you don’t have to eat them right away. Just PEEL them, and set roughly four cups of peel aside. You don’t have to worry about the pithy side of the peel, either, although you should remove all the stringy bits. Just peel the fruit, and slice the skin into a size you’d like it to be. We had some dried peels sent from our favorite California citrus tree (thanks, Bean!) and some fresh ones, and simply broke them up and sliced them into a suitable size. In the future, T. thinks instead of slicing the sections crosswise, for short thin pieces, that she’ll slice lengthwise, to make as long of pieces as possible.
• Next, chuck your peels in a heavy bottomed saucepan or whatever pot you’ve got, cover them with about three inches of nice, cold water, and bring them to a boil. Maintain that boil for forty-five minutes. The thicker the skin of your orange or grapefruit or lemon, the longer this will take. Clementines will become soft and pliable in much less time, of course, having thinner skin. If you’re using multiple citrus types, give the thicker ones a twenty minute head start. Don’t worry. This isn’t the tricky part. Just get them softened.
• Now, drain the water, and refill the pot, and do it again, this time for twenty minutes. Incidentally, I saved the water from my peels. It smells wonderful, tastes sharply, bitterly orangey, and I’m thinking I might be able to use it as an ingredient in something…
• As your peels boil for the second time, you can prep your simple syrup. In a heavy, non-reactive pot, put together your two cups of sugar and cup of water. I started out with boiling hot water so that the sugar would dissolve quickly. Set your syrup to simmering and when your twenty minutes are up, remove the peel from the water with a slotted spoon, and stir them into the simple syrup.

• Simmer for an hour and a half to two hours — but stir frequently. That’s the only “tricky” part. Things do stick and scorch in a sugar syrup, and while a little burnt orange is actually quite tasty, these aren’t meant to caramelize, just simmer.
• With a pair of tongs, allowing the excess syrup to drip back into the pot, remove your peel from the sugar, and lay them on a Silpat sheet, or a cookie sheet. (Many recipes call for tossing the peel in sugar at this stage; we did not — just seemed like waaaaay on the side of overkill.)The best idea is to lay them on a cooling rack, and let the excess moisture fall away. Especially if you plan to pack your peel away for later use, this is a good move. The peel will be ready to store in an airtight container in twenty-four to seventy-two hours. depending on how much moisture is in the air in your neck of the woods.


Aaaaand, that’s it.

Now we have sulfite-free peel for use in stollen, or to dip in chocolate and package up as gifts, or to ::cough:: scarf up by ourselves. Not that that would happen. Unlike with store-bought peel, this will be crisp and citrus-y, but not soft. (Don’t know why store-bought peel is soft. Does anyone?)

We took the excess sugar syrup, which we caramelized, added a bit of vanilla extract, and bottled it. Can we say “pancake syrup?” Why, yes we can.

Sometimes, when you’re exhausted and grouchy, it really does help to do one small, sweet thing right.