Citrus Marmalade

One of Shane's favorite things is marmalade. When I asked him if he had any requests for canning this year all he asked for was marmalade.

I thought it might be fun to try a couple different variations to see if we can perfect our family favorite. First up is this Three Citrus Marmalade from Marisa at Food In Jars.

This recipe calls for grapefruit, navel oranges, and lemons to create a slightly more bitter marmalade. I used a peeler to get all the zest off the citrus and then minced it into fine little strips. The zest was boiled for a bit while I removed all the rine, seeds, and membranes from the remaining fruit. Then the zest pieces, 4 cups of the zest liquid, 6 cups of sugar, all the fruit pieces, and a packet of pectin were put in a large pot to boil. The original recipe has you keep all the membranes and seeds to extract the pectin. Simply place all the leftover pieces in a cheesecloth and place it in your marmalade as it cooks. Then discard the bundle before you place your jam in jars. However, I did not have any cheesecloth handy so I simply added the pectin instead.

My first try at the recipe did not set up so we ended up with a bunch of marmalade syrup. The following day I opened all the jars back up and cooked the jam up again. This time I made sure to get the marmalade up to 220 degrees and cook it there for 3 minutes before placing it back into clean, sterilized jars. In the future I just need to remember that citrus doesn't have a lot of pectin so I need to take care to make sure it gets all the way up to temperature. Of course, extracting the pectin naturally from the seeds and membranes of the fruit would also helped with this.

We did keep one pint of syrup to use over french toast or for yogurt parfaits. I think we might have to make some homemade ice cream to try with it soon. The jam tastes so perfectly sweet and bitter on toast. I think it would also be amazing on biscuits so I think I'll be making some soon.

Do you have any favorite marmalade recipes we should try?

Urban Homesteading: Putting up Produce (Cherries)

As I have mentioned I am enjoying our little community garden. However, in reality most of us city-folk do not have the space to grow enough fruits and vegetables for our family to eat. And we definitely  do not grow enough to can or put food up for the winter. One of the keys to homesteading regardless of your location is the ability to look around you and use what you have available to you. A benefit of living in the city is all the local markets and ethnic groceries. Here in Southern California we have a wide variety of produce available to us and if I keep an eye out I can get amazing deals when markets are trying to quickly sell large amounts of fresh produce.

I posted about our great deal on zucchini last year. This past week a market in town offered fresh locally grown sweet cherries for 99 cents per pound. How could I pass that up? I quickly picked up about 11 pounds and called a friend to borrow a cherry pitter. I was able to process all the cherries over the course of two days. During the cleaning, pitting, and processing I had lots of little helpers appear in the kitchen. Little Luke would hear the sound of the pitter and come running with his mouth wide open for a fresh cherry.

After eating a bunch fresh for every meal including snacks, I was able to freeze a few pounds for summer smoothies. I also made a batch of fresh cherry jam. The jam was delicious over a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yum!

One evening as I was finishing up the last of the processing I decided that a fresh cherry cobbler was called for. I did not get a picture since Shane and I quickly dug in when it came out of the oven but I assure you it was the perfect evening snack.

If you don't have a big garden to provide food for your family year round start looking for opportunities to preserve fresh produce for the winter. For the next few months, most fruits and vegetables will be fresh, at their peak season, and at their lowest prices. You may have a neighbor with a lemon tree or an abundance of produce from their garden. Or you might be able to find a great deal at the grocery store this week. With a little extra work now you will be able to provide good, healthy food options for your table this coming winter without breaking the food budget.

Apple Cranberry Jam

Back in late October I was able to get a great deal on some apples and cranberries at our local market. I have had this recipe tagged ever since she posted it so I gave it a try. I peeled and chopped up all the apples and then added everything into the pot. I also added some cinnamon and a little dash of nutmeg. The whole house smelled so yummy all afternoon; it was delightful.

In the end, the jam turned out delicious but more like a chunky chutney because I did not cut the fruit up enough. I will definitely make this again next year but cut the apples up much smaller to start with. I was expecting them to cook down more than they did. I guess that is just part of the learning process.

So now we have all these jars of delicious jam that is a bit too chunky to spread on toast. Instead we have been learning new ways to use it. We have added it to plain oatmeal for a warm holiday-flavored breakfast. I have also made whole grain pancakes with a spoonful of the jam in the middle, inspired by this post. They were super yummy and we will be doing that again. Both of my girls love yogurt so I think our next experiment will be added a spoonful of Apple Cinnamon Jam to plain or vanilla yogurt. Have any of you ever tried added fruit preserves to yogurt before? Any other ideas for ways to use our fruit chutney?

Preserving: Broccoli

Yesterday we woke up to a bunch of broccoli on the front porch, which we found out later was from a generous neighbor. Getting surprises like this is always a blessing. So what do you do when you get this much broccoli early one morning?

Well you eat some fresh of course. Then with the aid of a little helper you blanch and blanch and blanch. We just put batches (about 2 cups) of broccoli into boiling water for 2 minutes then quickly dumped them into an ice water bath. Once the broccoli was cool we laid it out on a clean towel to dry a bit.

Most of the broccoli went into bags in the freezer for dinner use later in the winter when fresh veggies cost more. I'm already thinking of different soups and casseroles to add it too.

We also saw this recipe for pickled broccoli and thought we'd try a little. We just did half the recipe and ended up with three little 8 oz. jars in the refrigerator. I'll let you know how it turns out.

And of course, we set some aside for our dinner of potato broccoli cheese soup. I did not get a picture of it because we all ate it too quickly. I think we will definitely be repeating that soup as the weather gets cooler but in a bigger batch next time.

Watermelon Jelly

Yes you read that correctly, watermelon jelly. Shane and I both have become more interested in canning in the past year or so. We like the idea of getting produce when it is fresh and canning it for during the winter. I also like the idea of being able to control all the ingredients I feed my family. Living in an apartment in a large city does restrict our ability to grow lots of our own produce. However, I am learning how to find locally grown produce at a cheap price. When something is in season it is so much cheaper and that is the time to can. At least for our family it is the right time.

A couple weeks ago I saw this recipe for watermelon jelly from Food in Jars. It seemed intriguing to say the least. I'd never heard of watermelon jelly before. But last week when I found watermelon for 9 cents a pound I was ready to try out the recipe. I have made freezer jams many times before in different berry flavors but this was my first try at a jam or jelly that needed to be cooked, canned, and processed in a water bath. It was a bit intimidating for my first try and the smell of the cooking watermelon didn't encourage me at all. So I prepared myself for the worst. But for a dollar worth of watermelon and a couple other ingredients I was not going to worry too much. When we canned the jelly it did not seem like it was going to set however when we came back the next morning all 6 jars had set nicely.

We tasted it on toast with butter and it was really yummy. As you can see in the picture only 5 jars are left. It is refreshing and has a very light flavor. We have plenty for now but I will definitely make it again.