So many oranges...

When we were in California two weeks ago my (fruit monster) partner planned a detour to an orange grove. I have to give him credit freshly picked citrus is amazing.  The flavor of the oranges was delicious. We picked up a 10lb bag of CaraCara oranges and a 25lb bag of some other kind and another 20lb bag of grapefruit.  You could argue that we went a little overboard but we had free checked bags on our return trip so we went for it!

Lets be honest though the question of, "What do you do with all that citrus?" came up quickly.  

So while the kiddos napped on afternoon in the VRBO Rental house we stayed in Sean and I made 8 jars of orange marmalade and 4 jars of grapefruit marmalade (I don't have any reccollection of where we got the recipe from).  We managed to get those all in our suitcases and none of the jars broke on the flight!

 That only made a dent in our stores of citrus though so I've been trying to figure out what to do with all these oranges before they go bad.

Here's what I've made:

• Orange Curd & Orange Lemon Curd in classic form I didn't really use a recipe I just looked at several and winged it.  They are delicious though!
• I zested a bunch of oranges and froze the zest in 1 teaspoon heaps that way I can use it later.  
• then I froze the slices for smoothies.
• I  took an abundance of orange slices to snack time for both Miriam and Junia's preschool...
• These cranberry orange shortbread cookies were amazing.  No one else in our house would know because I think I at all of them (actually the kiddos didn't like them which thrills me when I don't have to share a dessert with them)

I am proud to say we don't have any oranges left from our trip!

So