Marmalade

Marmalade recipe courtesy of grandma E. Also the oranges were from her tree!

Cut the ends off 6-7 oranges.

Thinly slice the oranges. If I could do this over I would slice thinner- I ended up with some pretty thick pieces of rind.

Put orange slices into a large pot and add 1/2 cup lemon juice and 6 cups of water. 

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.

As the rind got softer I used my stirring spoon to chop it into smaller peices. 

Add 1 package of pectin then add 9 1/3 cups of sugar all at once. Bring to rapid boil for 5 minutes then remove from heat for 5 minutes.

Stir then put into jars. Place jars upside down for 10 minutes to help with rind distribution. Then let cool before storing. 

This recipe made way too much! I am giving away 6 jars and I still have a lot left over. Maybe next time I will reduce to a half recipe. It is delicious though.

Butternut squash soup

I decided to make some butternut squash soup to test out my new immersion blender, a Christmas gift from my aunt Suzanne! 

I wanted a savory butternut squash soup recipe because the last time I ordered this soup in a restaurant it was too sweet for my taste.

This recipe included onion, carrot, and celery.

Vegetarian soup stock and butternut squash. I also added some fresh ginger and red curry paste. 

Made the vegetable stock.

Sauté vegetables. 

Add other ingredient and simmer 30 minutes. 

Here is the hand held blender. No more messy blender explosions!

This was super fast and easy to use. Way better than transferring hot liquid in batches into a blender. 

This was hearty and savory. Perfect for a rainy day!

Lemon Bars 2

My friend Zaki brought us some lemons do I decided to make lemon bars.  I was excited to try this recipe because it uses the entire lemon!

Also for this recipe, all of the mixing was done in the food processor.  

First for the crust combine flour, sugar, salt and butter 

Press into 9x9 pan lined with parchment paper and buttered. Poke all over with fork and bake. 

Remove seeds from lemons 

Cut lemon into thin slices. Add sugar, salt, eggs, butter, and corn starch. I used 1 less egg than the recipe called for because I was ran out of eggs and only wanted to borrow one from my roommate.

Blend until smooth. 

Bake until set.

Let cool and then sprinkle with powdered sugar.