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| Calamondin Marmalade |
On Thursday, I decided to make a small batch of calamondin marmalade with the fruit I picked off the branches that were cut on Wednesday. I meant to take a picture of the calamondin fruits, but, I forgot to. But, here is a picture of some calamondins that I took a few years ago when I made a batch of calamondin marmalade:
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| Calamondin Fruit (picture from 2021) |
I had far fewer fruit, this time. There were about 40 fruit and most of them were fairly small. By the time I seeded them and sliced them up, there was about one and a half cups of the prepared fruit. Today's batch of fruit wasn't very juicy and I added 1 1/2 cups water and 3 cups of sugar and brought it all to a boil and stirred the mixture until it reached a setting point. I was able to get three half pint jars of the marmalade (at least one of which will be given as a gift).
There was a little bit leftover, which I put into a small bowl:
Later, I warmed up some frozen meat balls and the little bit of extra marmalade made a nice glaze for them. Breakfast had been oatmeal and the meat balls were lunch, with some leftover ramen noodles. For dinner, I cooked a half a bag of frozen General Tso's chicken that I had in the freezer long with some broccoli and we had that with leftover rice and cucumber salad.
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| Just a bit extra marmalade |
Later, I warmed up some frozen meat balls and the little bit of extra marmalade made a nice glaze for them. Breakfast had been oatmeal and the meat balls were lunch, with some leftover ramen noodles. For dinner, I cooked a half a bag of frozen General Tso's chicken that I had in the freezer long with some broccoli and we had that with leftover rice and cucumber salad.
I also cooked the dhal curry I had been planning to make and froze most of it for the almsgiving. I put the rest of it in the fridge to have over the next couple of days.
I called friend R in the evening to check on her and we had a nice chat. I also called Dancer's vet clinic and made an appointment for his arthritis injection for Saturday morning.
In between making marmalade, cooking, and doing some housecleaning, I crocheted. Borders take me a long time to crochet! While I crocheted, I watched some news and online videos.
On Wednesday, I was grateful for:
- Calamondin from the garden and three jars of marmalade
- Another warm day of 80F
- Texts, emails, and phone calls with family and friends
- Another warm day of 80F
- Texts, emails, and phone calls with family and friends
- Working appliances
- What I was able to accomplish
- What I was able to accomplish
Thursday's joyful activities included crocheting and making marmalade to preserve the garden bounty.
Plans for Friday include making some gifts and getting the living room decorated for Christmas.
How was your Thursday? What are your plans for Friday?
What a good idea to use the leftover marmalade as a glaze for the meatballs!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bushlady. It made a delicious glaze. :)
DeleteI've never heard of that fruit! It looks interesting. Well done for making the marmalade. Looks lovely
ReplyDeleteIt's a type of citrus and looks like miniature oranges. Thank you; looking forward to enjoying a slice of toast with the marmalade for breakfast one of these days. :)
DeleteI'm not familiar with calamondin, either, except when you've mentioned here. So much of what you grow sounds exotic to me.
ReplyDeleteThe fruit is a little like a kumquat, except it is round. The calamondin tree was already growing in the garden when I bought the house. :)
DeleteA small batch of preserves is still a batch of preserves! Does the marmalade taste different from orange marmalade? Would one be able to tell them apart, without knowing it was calamondin? How do they taste raw?
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lady Ella. I think the calamondin marmalade has a more intense citrus taste, probably because the ratio of peel to juice is greater. The plant is a hybrid; a cross between kumquat and mandarin orange, as you might already know. My daughter loves it (most regular jams are too sweet for her) and says it tastes like biting into a really juicy, perfectly ripe tangerine, while orange marmalade tastes blander to her. The raw fruit tastes very sour to me and when I eat it raw, I don't generally eat the peel, just the segments.
DeleteOther than on your blog, I have never heard if calamondin. You did an admirable job stretching your light harvest this year into the 3 nice jars.
ReplyDeleteI like meatballs in general and am a big fan of a sweet glaze especially this time of year.
In 1979, a good friend got married and that year she and her husband had the first of many New Year's Eve parties. She asked me to bring cocktail meatballs. I took out my trusty Betty Crocker and made the cocktail meatballs from that cookbook.
The classic sweet and sour glaze of chili sauce and grape jelly from that era was a hit.
I still make it to this day. My husband and I used to throw a Christmas party every year that our friends referred to as The Meatball Party. lol
Thank you, Debra. I'm happy I was able to get three jars from the fruit I was able to pick, this time. One jar will definitely go back with my daughter because she loves it. :)
DeleteI love the meatball party story! The combination of chili sauce and grape jelly sounds great. :)
Three jars are better than none. And I imagine the meatballs tasted delicious, with that glaze. Xx
ReplyDeleteDefinitely better than none! Yes, the meatballs tasted great with the marmalade glaze. :)
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