Sunday, November 6, 2011


In the photo, lime marmalade. I started with 9 limes, a grapefruit and a lemon. Sliced it all very, very thin – 1/16 inch strips are ideal, but most of them were a shade thicker. Put it all in a 6 quart pot with about 2 cups of water and started to cook it. After about 15 minutes, I checked the recipe on the Sure-Jell light box – nothing like doing things in the right order. However, as luck would have it, I did begin with the 6 cups of prepared fruit (they suggested 5 ½) but because I was doing a Seville-style marmalade, I hadn’t done the fancy stuff about separating fruit and rind, peeling off the pith and boiling it separately and so forth. I just went ahead with the directions. As soon as the Sure-Jell entered the mix, it began jelling beautifully. I added the sugar, brought it back up to boil as directed, and it was done. The jars are mostly olive jars- one held jam, about 12 years ago; another once held maraschino cherries, which we couldn't quite bring ourselves to eat. I washed them in the dishwasher, then sterilized jars and tops in boiling water. They all sealed… though I had my doubts about one of them, so I suppose I’ll make the ultimate sacrifice and keep it. It’s very, very good.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011


Grandpa Bill is back after a whirlwind trip to Indiana to visit his friend Gerry. With my car. (I did NOT enjoy driving his truck!) We compromised, because it’s a long trip, on having him break his journey with Meg on the way there and the way back. Probably a good thing to do. While he was gone I did some canning and a lot of cleaning. I made apple butter that came out really, really good, much better than my grape jelly which came out as a dandy sauce to put on ice cream. They do say to watch proportions, and I clearly hadn’t been paying close enough attention on that one.

I was surprised Friday morning, to come back from a trip to the post office, after hanging out the wash, to see it actually steaming in the air! It did eventually dry, but it hadn’t gone on the line hot – the rinse cycle on the washer always is cold. It looked magical.