Orange You Glad for Oranges!!!

I have been up to my elbows in oranges today.  Last week, I went to the ASL Club Halloween party.  One of the activities was orange carving, we ended up with a lot of oranges that were about to go to waste. So I took them home with me.

I made many different orange-y things!

I juiced a lot of oranges, by hand, while watching TV.  I got over 2 quarts of juice.

With the juice, I made a double batch of muffins.

 

I used a recipe from Family Circle Magazine.

Orange Muffins 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon grated orange zest

I added cranberries to half and chocolate chips to the other half.

The only thing I changed was the oil, I don't keep vegetable oil,

so I used my coconut oil instead.

I looked at the piles of orange peel, thought it was a waste. 

I found a few uses for orange peels online, so I cleaned my peels and set them aside.

One of the things I found was candied orange peels.

I figured I would give it a try.  It was a fairly simple process.

I followed the process, boil in water, simmer in syrup, roll in sugar, allow to dry.

 

These are slightly bitter, slightly sweet, and gummy.

They are quite good!

 

This is orange simple syrup, the syrup the peels simmer in.

I will use it to sweeten my herbal tea.

The peels were dried for later uses, they will be ground up,

for bath salts and for later use in cooking.

Some of the peels before drying went into olive oil with some anise.

In a couple weeks this should be delicious flavorful oil.

HOORAY FOR ORANGES!!!!