Candied Citrus

I have a lemon tree in my backyard, which is great, except now I have a ton of lemons that I don't know what to do with.  Which wouldn't be that bad, only my mother sent me a huge stockpile of oranges and grapefruit she got as part of a fundraiser.  Now I have oodles of citrus, and I can't eat it fast enough before it will go bad.

I've made lemon ice cream, frozen lemon juice, frozen lemon zest, sweet and sour mix...what's next?

CANDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every year on Christmas Eve my family has a large extended family gathering.  Everyone brings food and a great time is had by all.  After dinner, pictures, and presents we have appetizers (a little backward I know, but hey we are who we are).  I wanted to bring something and I thought why not kill two birds with one stone?  This year I brought Candied Lemons and Candied Oranges to Christmas Eve.  They went over so well my aunt asked me to candy some kumquats from my Dad's garden for her!

I used Martha Stuart's recipe for the lemons.  The second batch I made I altered a little bit, the lemon's only needed to cook for 45 minutes.  I halved the amount of sugar for the oranges, they are sweet already, and added a cinnamon stick for extra measure.  The oranges cooked for 45 minutes as well.

Once the citrus cooled I cut them into fourths and piled them high into a serving dish.  I recommend serving these bit sized fruity treats with toothpicks, they stay quite sticky.

If you are looking for an easy dish to wow party goers I highly recommend these! They are easy, delicious, and make you look so cool!  Candy away my friends!