Making Candied Orange Peel, and Orange and Beet Salad

I made candied orange peel for the first time yesterday.  It's a pretty long process.  You have to boil the peels in water and let them simmer for ten minutes, pour the oranges and water into a strainer, and start over again three times. Then, you make a syrup from 2 1/2 C sugar and water (for the peel from six oranges).  Bring that to a boil, and let it simmer until almost all the syrup is gone.  The peel goes on a rack inside of a baking pan to get cool, and become sticky, and then you roll them in sugar.  The longer you cook the peel in the syrup, the stiffer and more chewy it will become.  I'll dip the bottom ends of the candied orange strips into melted chocolate, sprinkle a litte colored sugar on, and enclude a little bag of them in my gifts this year.

That leaves me with six oranges that are now peeled to use up.  So, I made this orange and beet salad with walnuts.  It used up four, and we ate the other two for snack time.

Orange Beet Salad

3 peeled oranges sliced into 1/4" rounds
1 can/pint of sliced beets drained
Red leaf lettuce
1 chopped shallot
Tajin Seasoning
1/2 C toasted walnuts

Dressing
1/4 C italian dressing (I used leftover mushroom marinade)
juice from 1 orange
Tajin seasoning

This is an arranged salad.  Greens on the bottom, then the beets, then the sliced oranges.  Toast walnuts in a dry skillet, or in the oven at 400*F just until you can smell the nuts.  Sprinkle nuts and diced shallot over salad and season with a little Tajin.  If you don't have tajin, you could use the juice of one lime, and a little cayenne pepper and salt.