Mandarins

I was always fortunate to have mandarins growing up and still look forward to enjoying them at Christmas time.  Everyone in my family likes to eat them and since they are so easily peeled and segmented, they are the perfect snack.  (My son will eat about 6 at a time!)  They are larger than clementines  
and rarely have any seeds.  Chinese mandarins are the most readily available but sometimes we can get Japanese ones (our favourite).  The prices vary each year, with a box costing anywhere from $3.99 to an incredible $15.99 one year!  Even at that price we couldn't resist having one box - it just wouldn't be Christmas morning without a mandarin in your stocking.  And what do my kids like to do with the first mandarin of the season?  Make an elephant head out of the peel - a trick my DH showed them as toddlers - by peeling the skin in one continuous motion to form a trunk, face, and 2 giant elephant ears!  Try it...

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[sherry :O)]

MMmmm, I love them too! They sell boxes of "Cuties" from California at the Costco stores here and we have one sitting in our kitchen right now.

The more exotic ones are sold at a place here called New Sagaya, but they're sold individually there.. not in the big boxes. :o)