Ma makes marmalade

Seville oranges

January. Resolutions. Detox. Change. Seville oranges in the greengrocers. Not much happens. It is a time to hang around the house avoiding the dull, endless twilight world of January. What to do with the time? Make marmalade.

Mama's minced-orange-soaking-bowl

My childhood memories are of my Ma spending much of January  making marmalade.  Marmalade had its own cupboard in our house -first cupboard on the right on the way up the attic stairs. My Ma's method was to cut the oranges in half, scoop out the pulps and pip and then put the peels through a hand-operated mincing machine securely fastened to edge of kitchen table. The peels were soaked overnight in a the bowl in the picture and another large green and white bowl and then put in a pan with tons and tons of sugar until the set was reached - tested by the cold-saucer-on-the-window-ledge method. My ma's marmalade (and the version made by my pa after she died) was delicious, soft, succulent and golden marmalade but when I when I came to try myself I wanted to try something a bit different. My first effort I remember well - it was toffee. It was too soft one minute and then the next it was rock hard. I still don't know what I did wrong. I persisted and found a method that I heartily recommend. One of my favourite cooks is Lady Claire MacDonald of MacDonald. She runs an hotel and restaurant on Skye.  Her Seasonal Cooking book is a true friend to me in the kitchen - it is a real firm family favourite, not at all trendy, just solid good seasonal food.  Lady Claire's marmalade method is wonderful and over the years I have adapted it to my own taste.  The method is to take seville oranges, add a few other citrus fruits (sweet orange, grapefruit and a clementine or two) and simmer them for eight hours. Patience. The most delicious, enticing aromas fill the house, deeply comforting. After the simmering comes the cutting. Lady C uses her food processor - I do it by hand and this does take AN age but I love the result. Chunky, irregular marmalade. The pips and pith are boiled up in a pan, pushed through muslin and then added to the chopped peel and tons and tons of sugar and cooked slowly til the sugar desolves. Then rapid boiling followed by the frozen saucer. I am impatient and always want it to set first time. It never does. I find I can't make a huge amount of marmalade at a time whereas my Ma made big batches at once. Maybe I'll get more confident - I've only been doing it for ten years. I also make a extremely sharp, extreme wake you up lime marmalade. It is bitter but a small amount spread on good toast is a delightful jolting way to start your day.  I've included some before, during and after pictures of the fruit. 

Making marmalade - and in summer and autumn jam and chutney - is one of my great pleasures. It is a true joy to me to see those jewels shining in my larder. I am not like my own beloved Ma, I am spoiled and have many more choices compared with her. But I love to do this and it makes me feel close to my her. I am a madly busy woman, work more hours than I should, feel guilt over all the things I haven't done for my children (and dogs) but I do cook for them and have given them a taste for good food.  They aren't mad keen on marmalade so far - but they love the jam, the chutney and the chilli jam. And they do appreciate it - they turn their noses up at shop bought stuff. Dogs aren't mad keen on oranges they say. Mr Inch turns his nose up at an orange, Miss Innis loves to have a segment (or ten) of a clementine. They both love toast with a smidge of marmalade on it. The dogs do object to the time making marmalade takes. Not much in the way of walkies on marmalade making day. One has to hang around the kitchen keeping an eye on the simmering fruit you can't really go out.  Sorry darling dogs. I've made two batches so far. Will make more on Sunday. This year I am going to try freezing the oranges, Seville oranges freeze well I've read. We will see.

Our first post

So here we are our first post on our new blog. I tweet as @mrinch and have made a lot of great friends through twitter. I have a companion Miss Innis, sometimes known as Dolly, who has quite a lot to say for herself and I thought a blog was a good way of sharing our stories and things we've been doing.

For our first blog we'll talk about snow. We've had lots of it here (Edinburgh). It came in November, then we had a heap more in December and then it went. On Friday it came back. It's fun up to a point but mostly I find it cold on the old undercarriage. The salt and grit on the pavements is horrid and hurts our paws. 

Today we went with Ma and Fergus (big boy of the pack) to the heavenly Hermitage of Braid. This is one of our favourite walking places. It's got a lot of variety in terrain. Hills, grass, water and woody bits. It is v popular with the dogs of Edinburgh particularly labradors and other larger dogs. Today I met a delightful young lady Westie who looked v sweet in her Stewart Tartan coat. We had a bit of chasing and sniffing and then she went off. 

Here's a picture of Innis with her tennis ball. She is very possessive with that ball and doesn't let me have it much.  I got hold of it today very briefly and then it fell in the burn. No way was I going in after it - I'm not mad keen on water at the best of times so certainly not today when it was v cold.  I told Fergus as much and he obliged by fetching it for me.  I then surrendered it to Miss. I am a pushover.

The snow does make the ordinary look wonderful and we have taken lots of pictures of Edinburgh looking delightful dusted with white.  Most mornings we walk with Ma across Bruntsfield Links and the Meadows to her office at the university. We get a lovely view of Edinburgh Castle and Arthur's Seat - this is a big lion of a hill that protects Edinburgh. It's another fav walk (good fox poo rolling opps up there) and I'll post some pics from there another time. Here are two pictures: the Barclay church and the Castle; and a mist on the Meadows looking towards the new Quartermile development.

After our outing to Hermitage of Braid we came home and slept by the fire for a while. Lovely and toasty.  There were a lot of tantalising smells that drew us away from the fireside. Ma was roasting lamb and doing something with a bit of a pig in a pot.  We got lamby bits and did our bit to help with chores by licking all the stuck on bits off the roasting tray. I have to earn my keep after all.

This week everyone goes back to school and work. Too bad we've had a lot of fun having the pack around so much. 

Right that is it for the first post.  Back to the fireside. Goodnight.