Candied orange peel is one of my favorite treats, yet for some reason I’ve only made it once since I was a little girl. When I saw beautiful, seasonal Royal Mandarins at my local grocery store, I knew I had to candy their gorgeous peels. This is such a simple recipe, and also creates orange simple syrup and orange sugar, three recipes in one!My mother is a very smart woman. From a very young age she taught me that cooking and food were a lot of fun. I realize that sometimes this caused her more work than it was worth. For instance, at age two I put a plastic Cool Whip (yes, we did eat Cool Whip growing up) container in the broiler before we went off to a church event. Imagine how traumatized I was when we came home to a house full of black, oily smoke and a screeching fire alarm. I was certain that an ancient dragon had turned our little home into his fiery den and was bellowing a warning to stay away. I think it took a few weeks, but my excitement for cooking was renewed, this time with an element of caution.