I love citrus

I love citrus. When we lived in Utah for school I missed the fresh fruit all winter long and would pine for home when I would see the sickly green-tinged oranges being sold for far too much at the grocery store. Now that we are back in sunny Arizona, my baby and I head to the backyard and pick an orange at least once a day. It's wonderful. Well the days are heating up now and summer is nearly here, which means if the fruit isn't gone already, it's almost done anyways. Here are a few things to do with the left-overs:

*Zest the fruit with a microplane and freeze the zest (make sure to only get the bright skin, not the bitter pith)
*After removing the zest, juice the fruit and freeze what you won't use in half cup portions (baggies layed flat in the freezer work well for this, just be sure to label them!)
*Make homemade lemonade or limeade, my favorite- 1 C. juice, 3/4 C. of sugar (more if you are like my husband!), and a pitcher full of water. Yum!
*Make a cake and add zest to the frosting. Substitute the liquid in the recipe for lemon or orange juice. I like this especially with red velvet cake and to garnish the cake with some strips of zest too.
*Make a chicken marinate- lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper- put it all in a baggie, add the meat, let it sit for several hours, and toss it on the grill (or grill pan for those still in the depths of winter!)
*Try Jenny's lemon poppyseed muffins over at Picky Palate. These are so delicious, I honestly make them once a week. This is the first recipe I ever made off a foodie blog and my favorite yet. Seriously, go make them right now.
*Make french toast and top it with a little butter, powdered sugar, and a squeeze of lemon or lime.
*Take your favorite cinnamon roll recipe and instead of brown sugar and cinnamon, spread the dough with butter, granulated sugar, and orange jest. After baking, top with a glaze of powdered sugar and orange juice.
*Try Barefoot Contessa's Mini Orange Chocolate Cakes- I make mine in muffin tins and they don't disappoint (love Ina!)