homemade marmalade

There's something almost magical about some things that you make yourself. Especially when they're items that you usually buy from the supermarket. This is me and marmalade - I love it, as you can probably tell from here, but I've never made it myself.

So when a lovely blogger friend recently invited me to take part in a cooking club, with this month's challenge being to make something from scratch that you would normally buy in a jar/carton/bottle/packet, I leapt at the chance. The universe was giving me a little nudge to get over my weird fear about preserving and canning and just do it.

There is a wealth of information out there about preserving, canning, bottling, pickling and it can be a little overwhelming to say the least. I think part of the secret of not talking yourself out of doing it is to start small. Remember when I made pickles a while back? - well I made so much of the stuff and was worried that I hadn't properly sterilised the jars so I ended up having to throw some of it out - something I hate doing.  Since then I've found a few good tips, such as here and here on sterilising jars.

So now onto the fun part, making the marmalade.

Orange Marmalade
Adapted from A Year in a Bottle by Sally Wise

Makes 750g, approximately (enough for three jars)

4-5 large oranges
1/2 a lemon
3 1/2 cups water
500g sugar

Start by chopping the oranges finely.  Place them in a large pot, add the water and bring to the boil. Cook for about 25 minutes or until the fruit is soft. 

Now add the sugar and bring to the boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Continue to boil on high for 25 minutes. Don't do as I did and try to make an omelette for dinner at the same time and forget to stir your marmalade - burning will ensue.

Allow the marmalade to stand for 10 minutes before pouring into warm sterilised jars.  Seal immediately.

This recipe produced a fairly chunky, thick marmalade, which is exactly how I like it but if you prefer yours more runny, I'd suggest adding more water at the start and reducing the heat a little in your second boil, towards the end of the 25 minutes. 

I opened up one jar this morning to go on my toast, one jar went into the cupboard and the other was gifted to a friend at work. I have a feeling I'm going to be finding ever more inventive ways to feature marmalade in my cooking over the coming months. I'd like to think my marmalade loving Gran would be proud of my efforts.

You can find out what the other wonderful members of the cooking club came up with for the challenge below:

Lucent Imagery http://www.lucentimagery.com/

Quiet Paws http://quietpaws.com/

From River’s Edge http://fromriversedge.net/

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smakfulle øyeblikk

It's been a little (long) while since I stuck my head out here and said hello... so hello there and hope things are going well with you.

As for me, I've been keeping busy - making salads and birthday cakes, running and reading (lots) but also suffering a mild case of bloggers block. Now and again the internet (and the world at large) can get a touch overwhelming and it's in those moments you sometimes need to take a break to refocus, to find the joy in small things again.

I think Meryl Streep said it rather well in the movie Adaptation:

There are too many ideas and things and people. 
Too many directions to go. 
I was starting to believe the reason it matters to care passionately about something, is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size. 

Still, sometimes it just takes making a simple cake or a rocket salad or snapping a photo or even a great phrase to get you back on the horse so to speak.

The other day I discovered the wonderfully onomatopoeia-ish phrase smakfulle øyeblikk on this great blog. It's Norwegian for tasteful moments. And my word it's those tasteful moments that you've got to savour. They're not always the big brash momentous occasions you think will be important but the quiet spaces where you feel unexpected peace - in the kitchen, on the phone, in the garden, reading a good book, holding hands. Those words acted like a smack to the head, a whimsical nudge back into the land of here.

So, whilst I'm here, a few things I've been enjoying of late:
Inspiring questions;
This book;
Salads, specifically those featuring rocket, walnuts, parmesan, apple and balsamic - our rough and ready take on the great waldorf;
Inspiring lessons in creativity.

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food for friday

I've discovered the picturesque wonderfulness of pinterest food boards and so has my stomach.

I think I'm not alone in eating with my eyes but heavens it's becoming a bakelust expedition every time I go on there now. I've started a little file there called eat and have been enjoying adding some of my favourite things. Pinterest is also a strange and fascinating world to browse when it comes to food.  You might find something beautiful and inspiring or something truly bizarre. There are some scarily over the top sugary creations on there let me tell you.

It's also interesting to see patterns in what you pin and from where. At the moment for me it's vegetables and green things of the pesto type variety, lemon and bagels. I'm finding lots of good things on some of my frequent go-to sites for inspiration - roost, green kitchen stories, sprouted kitchen, simply breakfast and whole larder love.

Happy pinning and happy friday!

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