Posted on 01/19/2019 2:16:14 PM PST by greeneyes
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All those gifts sound marvelous. I’m sure that everyone was happy to receive them.
I’m just going to sip tea and wrap up in a blanket today.
I’m currently sipping tea and crocheting a blanket. Woo. It’s not as cold at my house as yours though thankfully for me. I’m cold natured. I’ll probably crank up the crockpot tomorrow for some cold weather comfort food. Probably chili of some sort.
The vanilla bourbon (makers mark) marmalade was the universal favorite. I’ll probably exclusively make that for gifts next year.
I use the crockpot like that a lot in winter. I have a beefy onion soup right now that I’ll eat for supper. It will last a few days. We just finished a pot of Chili earlier this week.
When the onion soup is gone, we may have some clam chowder or broccoli cheese soup.
Maybe you should post that vanilla bourbon marmalade recipe for the benefit of all of us drooling gardeners? LOL
It’s more a process than a recipe.
I started with 5 or 6 largish cara cara oranges.
I sliced them very thinly, discarding the end cuts that are mostly rind. Be sure to save the juice so cut these in a plate with large enough rim that you can conserve the juice.
Measure how many cups of this you have (I use an 8cup pyrex mug a lot in my marmalade making) including the juice you saved. Put them in a large glass bowl and cover with however many cups that was of water. Make sure they’re all immersed, cover the bowl with foil or plastic wrap and put in the fridge for a day or two. (this softens the rind and takes out a bit of the bitterness from what I’ve read).
When you’re ready to start your cooking process empty the entire contents of the bowl into a large (non aluminum) pot and cook on medium heat until it begins to simmer and let it simmer for 30 or 45m (this softens the rind even more) stirring constantly. Once you can cut the rind easily with the edge of your spoon take the pot off of the heat and pour the contents into that 8cup pyrex mug.
However much of the cooked mixture you have measure out that amount of sugar and place into a shallow dish in the oven on 200F or so. I’ve read this makes your marmalade clear and not cloudy.
I usually let it cool to develop the pectin a bit more. Add it back into the cooking pot and cook on medium heat until it begins to simmer/boil a bit. Add your heated sugar mixture. Add it quickly, stirring constantly.
Place a saucer in the freezer.
Cook, simmering/boiling for 15-30m. Take your saucer from the freezer and place a tsp or so of the cooking mixture on that and let it sit for 30s to a minute. Push the edge of the spot gently with your finger and see if it wrinkles. If it doesn’t wrinkle put the saucer back in the freezer and cook it 5m more. Repeat until it wrinkles.
Add 1tsp of vanilla, stir in and taste. Add vanilla 1tsp at a time (I think I used about 2 tbsp total) until it tastes the way you want. Then add your makers mark. I think I added somewhere between 1/4c and 1/2c. Stir thoroughly and let all the ‘action’ of alcohol evaporation stop.
I jarred this into 4oz jars (ace has a good deal on those if you have an ace close) and 8oz jars (freds had the best deal, even cheaper than walmart). I heat these up/sterilize them using my dishwasher so they’re already hot/clean when I need them. I start the dishwasher when I start my second cook and pick a short cycle. place ring/top and tighten ‘finger tight’.
I waterbathed the jars 15m in my new waterbath canner thingie I got for Christmas from Ball:
https://www.acehardware.com/departments/home-and-decor/canning/accessories-and-prep/6293146
Yippee skippy.
For the lemon ginger marmalade I did everything as above only with lemons. When I started the second cook I added 1/2c of shredded/grated baby ginger (this is so easy to grow, lots of howto’s out there on how to do this!) and proceeded as above.
Peat moss is anti-microbial. Not really useful in gardening other than storing bulbs and whatnot. Have you ever seen pics of the bog bodies?
Beefy onion soup sounds divine.
I’m craving French onion soup right now. *sigh* the baguette is off limits just now.
I too am feeling the pinch of ordering seeds for this coming year.
I’ve got about 25 citrus cuttings (attempting) to root in a tray in my front window. I’d ideally like 3 or 4 of each (lemon, orange, lime, calamondin) eventually.
OH, btw, if making marmalade from ‘citrus’, make sure what you use has a thin ‘pith’ layer (that white layer just under the colored peel part) or it will be bitter. You’ll have to ‘supreme’ the citrus or something like that.
Oh, and if your citrus has seeds ditch them when you’re slicing it up. I usually miss some and end up fishing them out during the first cook. Meyer lemons have a bunchoseeds.
That’s beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing. Sounds delicious.
I am substituting low carb toast for the baguette.
Got it. Thanks.
I tested it last fall and since I don’t remember anything standing out I believe it was very close to neutral.
Wife’s garden seed order arrived in the mail today. Baker Creek, Park Seed and one other vendor. My pepper seeds arrived a couple weeks ago.
Brutal cold wind and very light snow here at the Lake of the Ozarks today. I’m torn between getting the seed starting gear out of the attic and being thankful for a good furnace.
Birthday feed at local restaurant Pepperoni Bill’s tomorrow, then nap, then football.
Oh my goodness. They are majestic and beautiful. Wow. Thanks for the pic.
I would vote for the furnace today. LOL Happy Birthday. We have carrot cake for youngest grand daughter’s Birthday on Sunday.
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