[Sca-cooks] Rescuing a Failure

[Elise Fleming]

Greetings.  On Jan. 6 I began making some of Dawson's sugared orange
peels in the hope that I could have them finished by Aethelmearc's
Twelfth Night (Jan 12).  No such luck.  I was still at least two
"boilings" behind in the sugar syrup, so I left the covered pan,
peels and syrup on the counter and went to the event.  To make a
long story short, I never had time to get back to them due to being
away from home (being a good Princess) every weekend until
yesterday.  By Jan 27 I decided to see their condition, and as I
should have expected, they were dried out and white-edged from
dessication.  I hate wasting food and sugar so I just left them on
the counter.  (If one leaves food long enough, it will mold and one
can then throw it out with a good conscience!)

On Feb 11 I had some leftover boiling water from tea and, not being
one to waste boiling water, poured some over the dried out peels and
hardened syrup.  I left it until yesterday 16th).  Gee!  The water
was absorbed into the peels and they were now moist!  I finished
boiling them up to drive off the excess water from the syrup and now
have a nice batch of sugared orange peels.  They are a little firmer
than normal, but totally usable.  So, what have _you_ "ruined" and
brought back to a usable state??

Alys Katharine