The futility of frugal orange marmalade

Recently I was wondering about the possibility of using the peels of nice oranges to make orange marmalade. You know how it goes... "waste not, want not." Well I love orange marmalade and sometime in the far, distant past I heard that you could save the peels (after you've used the inside fruit of the orange for other purposes) and make orange marmalde with basically peels, sugar, and water. So I Googled orange marmalade in search of the magic recipe. Well, I really couldn't find one, so I thought perhaps I could simply put it together on my own.

O.k. guys - here is the low-down on how NOT to make orange marmalade.

I used the peels of 4 large navel oranges, plus 1 whole orange

I put them all in my small food processor and chopped it all up.

I then added 2 cups orange juice (out of a carton) and 4 cups water.

I cooked this for about 1 hour. Cooled. Refrigerated overnight.

Next afternoon: I measured the mess and put an equal amount of sugar in the pot with it. Cooked it for about 1 hour. Cooled. Refrigerated overnight. (First I tasted it before refrigerating it and thought, "My this has a 'bite' to it!")

Today, I took it out of the fridge and tasted it. I intended to perhaps add a cup of water and another cup of sugar and cook until it thickened. However, after this taste "treat" I decided that my tongue and my stomach would not be able to tolerate the "bitters" this much. So now I have a syrupy mess to dispose of.

Now I want all of you good jamming cooks to get your chuckles out of this for I have learned my lesson - there just isn't anyway to use those orange peels and make decent orange marmalade. Folks, I'll stick to the good store-bought stuff any day over the mess I conjured up.

Snow, ice, snow = not good

Well folks, we just got to go back to school today after a winter storm that deposited a nice amount of snow on those of us here in North Carolina. And now, they are telling us that North Carolina is about to get socked again - this time with snow, then ice, then snow, and maybe some rain somewhere in there. At first they said the stuff was coming with no appreciable accumulation. We can deal with that. Of course, some of the first snow is still hanging around waiting for some new snow friends to play with.

Then earlier today they (the forecasters of things dealing with the weather in general) said, "Oh yes, yes sirree! There IS going to be some accumulation of the stuff. We're speaking 2 to 4 inches of snow, then 1/4 to 1/2 inch ice, and then a wee bit more snow on top of that. Well, that is enough to scare those of us here in North Carolina who are already trying to recover from a case of cabin fever or "snow-drip-mess-up-the-house-itis."

Now it may be that our part of North Carolina has just been "granted" a slight reprieve. They (again the aforesaid prognosticators of things dealing with the weather) are now prognosticating that our particular little wedge of North Carolina is lying betwixt and between the area of "you gonna get a lot" and "you just might get spared a bit on this one." So we're waiting tenuously for the outcome and trusting that we'll get spared this time.

Choose you

Today's Bible Verse:
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Joshua 24:15 (King James Version)

Through the years, we have held to this verse as a declaration for our household - we will serve the LORD. Raising our children, we taught them and led them in the ways of the LORD. God is important. Jesus, the Son of God, is important as our Redeemer and Saviour. This we declare.

So "choose ye this day" if you, too, will serve the LORD.