27 | March | 2013 | Oscar and Lucy

Sunday Opi celebrated his 80th birthday. Happy Birthday!
It was wonderful to spend time with family and friends.
Having cousins Ciara and Fiona in town was especially AWESOME.
We enjoyed a beautiful lunch at L’Olivier restaurant, which was open just for us!

I made a couple of small efforts with the birthday gathering in mind. Bob doesn’t like a big fuss, and he specifically asked for no gifts, books, slideshows, prints or albums!
No fair!
Still, I had to try.

Candied Meyer Lemons (from Bob’s Tree!)

Bob has always grown beautiful meyer lemons in the backyard. I think it must be the combination of the gardener and the bartender in him!
I picked a bag full of lemons one night last week, and when I saw them on my counter then next morning, I knew what I wanted to do. You can “candy” any citrus fruit. Now that I’ve done it, I realize it’s not difficult, and I’m sure I’ll try some other fruit soon.

Lucy helped me with the sugar part. I ended up cutting these guys in half lengthwise again, in order to have more to package up. Also they were pretty strong, so smaller bites was better.
Here’s what I did:
Quarter the lemons and remove the fruit. Put the peels in a pot, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Strain and repeat two more times! This removes the bitterness. I had two pots going due to so many peels. Make simple syrup (1 part each water and sugar) and simmer the peels for an hour and a half. Strain and dry on a rack for 24 hours. Toss the now very sticky peels in sugar. (This is when I cut them in skinnier strips, and tossed them again.) Dry on a new rack for one more day. Package and tag.

I wish I had counted how many lemons I started with. Meyers are smaller, and I think it was around 12 or 14? I know I ended up with 17 little bags containing about an ounce each. And I barely remembered to get a photo of the finished product! The bag shown is missing a couple of pieces! (shh!) We put them out as ‘favors’ at a big family dinner the night before the birthday. I was happy when I saw folks eating them, smiling, and trying to accidentally take home each others’ bag.

The View Master
I got this idea from Pinterest! The link to the company is here.

This was So Fun! I can’t wait to do more reels. It was nice to pass the viewers around the table, and with only 7 photos each, the viewing was short and sweet.

Reel One: