On my last trip to visit my Mom I had a chance to catch up on all my favorite magazines, one of my favorite things to do when I visit. She can afford to subscribe to all the trendy magazines and I get her hand me downs. Anywho, one of the Martha Stewart Living mags inspired me to make some orange marmalade as Christmas gifts. To my delight my local market had oranges on sale for an irresistibly low price when I returned home.
Having canned before with my mother-in-law I knew I needed all sorts of handy dandy gadgets, but being Mrs. Frugal I thought I'd just improvise since I only planned on making a few jars. Above is my substitute for the large canning pot and jar holder. Behold — my le creuset stock pot with forks to keep the jars from touching the bottom of the pan. Well, I thought it was pretty ingenious and my forks were nice and sparkly when I was done. I also used my tongs with plastic ends to lift the jars out instead of the standard jar tongs. If you try this at home make sure you have a folded dishtowel handy to set the jars on and carry them to the cooling rack, don't trust the tongs as they tend to slip.
I was shooting for plain old regular marmalade, but it took so long to reach setting temperature that it caramelized, which was a fantastic mistake. It turned out amazing, at least my hubby thought so. I created some simple Homemade labels and cut out a piece of kraft colored wrapping paper to cover the tops and tied them with red cord. Hopefully all the "foodie" recipients will enjoy it as much as we are!
