As a follow up to yesterday’s tip on uses for food scraps, here are some tips to use orange peel after you’ve juiced or eaten the flesh. They are adapted from an original article by Katie Waldeck on Care2.com.

CLEANING

1. Remove Water Stains. The oils in orange peels naturally remove stains on metal fixtures. Just rub the white side of peel on the fixtures to polish them up.

2. Polish Wood. The white side of the peel can also polish dull wood furniture.

3. Sponge. Still-moist orange peels are a natural sponge and leave a light citrusy scent. Try it on your stove top and counters.

4. Cleaning Solution. Toss some orange peels in a lidded jar and cover with white vinegar. Let it sit in the fridge for a few weeks and shake it occasionally. Transfer to a spray bottle, shake and use to clean surfaces, floors and windows.

Juice the orange, use the peel. Photo by Scott Bauer | USDA Agricultural Research Service.

5. Repel Insects. Ants, flies and mosquitoes don’t like limonene, a compound found in oranges and other citrus fruits. Place some ground-up orange peel in a dish or sachet, in areas where these pests congregate.

6. Home Aromatherapy. Dry the peels, grind them in a food processor and place them in a sachet. Place them in drawers, closets, basements, bathrooms or anywhere that can use a refreshing fragrance. If you have a dehydrator, dehydrating the peels releases orange fragrance throughout the room. Then, you can add the dried peels to potpourri.

7. Combat Garbage Odor. Place some dried orange peels at the bottom of your trash can before putting in the bag. And remember yesterday’s tip: grinding orange peels in a garbage disposal offsets bad odors.

8. Deodorize Shoes. Place dried orange peels in a sachet or piece of cheesecloth, and place in athletic shoes or others that need to be deodorized. The peel will absorb the odors.

Any other suggestions? Let us know.

Our childhood contribution was to add chocolate chips and M&Ms. But these Coconut Popcorn Snowballs with candy canes are spot on for the holiday season. (If you don’t like peppermint, you can leave out the candy canes.)

The recipe is from the Popcorn Board. While the recipe suggests four-inch-diameter popcorn balls, that’s a huge portion. We suggest making two-inch-diameter balls.

You can give them gifts and party favors—if you can restrain yourself from eating them.
 
 
RECIPE #1: COCONUT POPCORN BALLS

Ingredients For 8 Four-Inch Balls

Coconut popcorn snowball. Photo courtesy The Popcorn Board.

 
Preparation

1. PLACE a large sheet of waxed or parchment paper over a work surface. Spread coconut onto paper.

2. SPRAY a large mixing bowl lightly with cooking spray and place popcorn inside.

3. MELT butter over low heat in a medium saucepan. Stir in marshmallows and continue to stir until marshmallows are melted and mixture is smooth. Pour over popcorn and mix well until coated.

4. SPRAY hands with cooking spray and press firmly to form into balls. Place balls on coconut and roll and press coconut to coat. While holding popcorn ball, gently press a candy cane into each ball.

5. SERVE immediately or wrap individually in plastic wrap for storage.
 

RECIPE #2: WHITE CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT BARK

Ingredients For 1 Pound

 
Preparation

1. COVER a baking pan with foil or wax paper; set aside. Place popcorn in a large bowl; set aside.

2. MELT chocolate in a double boiler over barely simmering water, stirring until smooth. Or, melt according to package directions. Stir in crushed peppermints after chocolate is melted.

3. POUR chocolate mixture over popcorn mixture and stir to coat. Spread onto prepared pan; allow to cool completely. When chocolate is cooled and set, break into chunks for serving.

4. STORE in an airtight container at room temperature.
 
NON-PEPPERMINT VARIATION

Don’t like mint? Mix ½ cup dried sweetened cranberries and ½ cup sliced almonds with the popcorn. Pour chocolate over the mixture after it is melted.
  

We spent much of the weekend enjoying limited-edition, seasonal batch flavors from Ciao Bella Gelato: Cranberry Prosecco Sorbet, Montebianco Gelato and Pumpkin Sea Salt Caramel Gelato.
 
 
SEASONAL FLAVORS

Dig into:
Cranberry Prosecco Gelato. No matter how stuffed you may be from a big holiday dinner, there’s always room for sorbet. Ciao Bella’s Cranberry Prosecco Sorbet marries sweet-tart cranberry sorbet with a hint of Prosecco, the Italian sparkling wine.

Colorful and delicious by itself, it creates an easy cocktail—apéritif or dessert—when scooped into a glass of Prosecco or other sparkling wine. A great idea for Christmas or New Year’s Eve. It can be made as a mocktail for non-drinkers.

Montebianco Gelato. Montebianco, or Mont Blanc, is a famous European dessert made with puréed, sweetened chestnuts, whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Ciao Bella’s Montebianco Gelato is a luscious chestnut cream with organic dark chocolate chunks and a bit of rum extract. If you’re an ice cream lover who’s dreaming of a white Christmas, this could be it.

Pumpkin Sea Salt Caramel Gelato. What a great way to enhance delicious pumpkin gelato! Made with real pumpkin purée and a hint of cinnamon, the thick swirls of sea salt caramel make it the best pumpkin ice cream you could wish for. While you can still get pumpkin ice cream, pick up a pint.

Make a sparkling cranberry sorbet cocktail (poto © Lognetics | Fotolia).

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. SOFTEN sorbet at room temperature for 5-7 minutes. Add optional sugar rim to a Champagne glass.

2. PLACE 2 small scoops of sorbet in the bottom of the glass.

3. TOP with Prosecco or soda, garnish and serve.

Use Nutella and pizzelles (Italian waffle cookies) to make a most delicious ice cream sandwich.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. SOFTEN gelato at room temperature for 5 minutes. Lay the bottom pizzelles on a cookie sheet, 2 per sandwich.

2. SPREAD Nutella on the bottom pizzelles and top with 1-2 scoops of Montebianco gelato. Add the top pizzelle and press down slightly to seal.

3. DIP half of the sandwich in the optional melted chocolate.

3. PLACE sandwiches in the freezer to harden until ready to serve.

Before you toss out trimmings or wilted produce, consider these uses for food scraps. Most are from an article by Becky Striepe on Care2.com.
1. BREAD CRUSTS & CRACKER CRUMBS. If you’re making crustless sandwiches or if nobody want the end of the bread, grind them into breadcrumbs. Store them in the freezer until you have enough. The crumbs from the bottom of a box of crackers can be used for breading or to top off a casserole. If there aren’t enough cracker crumbs, mix them with your other breadcrumbs.

2. CITRUS PEEL & ZEST. After you’ve squeezed the juice from the lemon, zest it or remove the peel. Add zest to salad dressing or dough; stir zest or peel into cold drinks or tea (without milk). Use zest as a garnish; infuse it into vinegar, vodka or other spirit.

A small slice of citrus peel keeps brown sugar from hardening. Just store the sugar and peel the fridge to keep the peel fresher, longer. If you have no immediate use for peel or zest, you can freeze them or grind them in the garbage disposal to generate a fresh aroma.

When an apple is no longer crisp enough to eat, cook it. Photo by Evan Dempsey | THE NIBBLE.

3. COFFEE GROUNDS. Use the grounds to deodorize your hands and cutting board after chopping garlic and onions. Rub them on, then rinse off. Seriously, it works!

4. FRESH FRUIT. Aging apples, pears and other fresh fruits can be baked, sautéed or puréed into a sauce. The peels can be stepped into a cup of black, green or white tea. Apple peels can be steeped in boiling water with cinnamon and other spices to make a tasty “cider tea.”

Save those pretty celery leaves for garnish. Photo courtesy Burpee.

6. VEGETABLES. Wilted veggies, broccoli and chard and kale stems, peels, tops with leaves: Many people toss them; but they’re just as edible as the rest of the plant. Steam and purée, stir fry or bake these veggie bits with tomato or cheese sauce. Add garlic or chile. Beet tops can be cooked like chard, a close relative.

Or make broth: Celery tops, onion and garlic skins, carrot peels, and other food scraps can be used to flavor vegetable broth. You can save the scraps in a freezer-safe container until you have enough to cook. When the broth is done, strain out the solids. You can always give them to someone with a rabbit, hamster or gerbil.

Instead of throwing out celery leaves, use them as a garnish.

Try any or all of these tips, and see how good you feel about not wasting food.

Flowers are lovely, of course. And arrangements of seasonal fruits and pine—lady apples, clove-studded oranges, pomegranates, pine cones and branches—have been our centerpiece of choice.

But how about an edible centerpiece that becomes part of dessert?

There’s nothing more charming than an old-fashioned gingerbread house as a holiday centerpiece. And if the gingerbread is top quality, it’s a joy to be part of the “demolition crew.”

You can serve it at the end of a big holiday meal with ice cream—a much lighter choice than most cakes and pies.

We have to give props to the creative bakers who’ve thought “outside the house” to produce these two gingerbread centerpieces.

To grace your table, a gingerbread train. Photo courtesy Mackenzie Ltd.

ALL ABOARD THE GINGERBREAD EXPRESS

Destined to become a classic, this three-car gingerbread train (photo above) replaces the traditional gingerbread house with a whimsical choo choo.

Entirely edible, the train is a memorable holiday centerpiece that will delight children and adults alike. If you know model train enthusiasts, it makes a delightful gift.

It’s 21 inches long, $59.95, at MackenzieLtd.com.

This stunning centerpiece is also 100% edible. It measures almost a foot tall and 15″ across. You can provide some optional old-fashioned carousel music during the dessert course.

With an impressive amount of hand decoration, the gingerbread carousel is $149.95 at MackenzieLtd.com.
Both the train and the carousel are made of high-quality gingerbread and arrive fully assembled to immediately grace your table.
 
Here’s the history of gingerbread, which evolved in 15th-century Germany. The Medieval German Lebkuchen Guild (lebkuchen is German for gingerbread) turned it into a highly-decorated art, crafting fancy shapes decorated with sugar and gold.