Sunday, January 31, 2010

Makin' Marmalade

Wow, my first blog post!* I feel like I'm entering a whole new world here. A virtual world that will be my own haven on these long, rainy Portland days. I can imagine myself in a rocker next to a blazing wood fire, tea cup in hand, and a book or knitting project in my lap as I converse with my virtual friends.

In reality I have no such wood stove. But I do have a couch, some warm blankets, and of course tea, books and knitting. In this space, I hope to share some of the ideas that are always bouncing around in my head, and be inspired to carry some of them through to fruition! My ideas on education and gardening, craftyness and sustainability.

I don't really know how to start a new blog. So I will just leave you with an account of my activities on the last rainy weekend.

Lately, I have been bewailing the lack of fresh citrus here in Portland. I am seriously missing the Arizona farmer's markets this time of year, with their abundance of grapefruit, kumquats, limequats, tangerines, etc. etc. What can I say? I'm crazy for citrus. I ate 40 grapefruit in a week last January, all by myself. Anyway, with my citrus cravings in full swing I went shopping at New Seasons, and was overwhelmed by the selection they had. Probably ten different kinds of tangerines alone! I bought a huge basketful of grapefruit, cara caras, navels, tangerines, tangelos, lemons, and even a Palestinian sweet lemon. When I got home, I just happened to read Ashley of small measure's post over on Design*Sponge about a triple citrus marmalade with star anise. I simply had to whip up a batch, especially considering I had all the ingredients on hand! It turned out fantastic, and I enjoyed it right away on some homemade bread with peanut butter. The bright color and tangy citrus flavor cheered up my grey, drizzly day right away. Yum!



Now I'm off to make some late night dinner with whatever I've got in the fridge...

*I feel compelled to note that I have, in actuality, had other blogs before. I started way back in high school, and they were the dramatic teenage diary type, where my friends and I went home and typed about the minutiae of our day that we all already knew about. I kept it going into college, before it eventually fizzled out about five years ago.