Category Archives: DIY

So it’s the day before New Years Eve.  And we’ll be hosting a small dinner party, well part of one.  Nothing fancy.  Just a group of neighbors.  We’ll be doing a different course at each house.  We have the main dinner course.  It’s going to be easy-baked trout.   We live in a shoe box sized house so we can do anything big and extravagant…..like sit at the dinning room table-CAUSE WE DON’T HAVE ONE.  We have to shove all our living room furniture to the side and set up a folding table to accommodate all of us……..a whopping EIGHT of us that is.  Did I mention I have a crafting problem.  And I’m coming off a holiday high of crafting, and I found myself wanting to make something fun and quirky for center pieces.  So here it is-Citrus Candles.

All you need is:

Citrus-I used Satsumas

Olive Oil

Sharp paring knife

Matches

Optional: tooth picks, hole punch, crafting scissors

Start by carefully cutting the peel horizontally around the citrus.  You need to be able to separate the fruit from the peel so don’t cut too deep.  The ‘top’ or where the steam is actually becomes the bottom.  You can experiment with cutting in half or thirds to create different looks and heights.

Cut all the way around.

Carefully separate the peel from the fruit.

Try to keep as much of the ‘wick’ (the part that runs down the center of the fruit)-if you look closely you can see it in the peel to the left.

Cut a ‘chimney’ in the top so the heat and smoke have a place to escape-like you would a jack o’lantern.

Pour some oil in the bottom peel.

This is what it should look like with the oil.

Feel free to get creative at this stage.  You could use a tooth pick to poke decorative holes int he rind.  Or a paper punch.  Or maybe even decorative scissors if your brave.

Light.  I found it helped to rub oil on the ‘wick’ and give it some time to absorb before lighting it.

Turns out I’ll never be a hand model…..or can I now write off a manicure?……..