One of my dearest friends lives far away, not east coast far, but in the armpit of California far. Keene, CA far. At least from Napa. So the Mr. and I felt like we all needed to visit this past weekend, so we scooted the half a dozen hours down to see our new-ranch-owning friends.
Going to their home, is like taking a mini vacation filled with land, horses, throngs of dogs, and lots of home chores. Home chores that both the Mr. and I love to partake in, making us what I think of as the perfect house guests to a place like theirs.
As Kate's husband Nick started a burn pit of old wood (amongst other things), Kate took the Mr, and I to the craziest fruit farm we have ever been to. It reminded me of a circus, that was overtaken by fruit trees and pony rides. I thought about taking some pictures, but decided not to scare anyone. Despite the craziness, they did have some exotic (and cheap) citrus that Kate and I picked up determined to make something of it all. Kumquats, however took priority, as mysteriously, we both had the idea to make marmalade.
Kate and I have a lot in common, we like to can, cook, garden, etc. and it is one of the many things we love to do together that we do not get to do often enough. So in our best of intentions, we planned to do all of those things on our visit, and as you already can tell, marmalade was on the plate.
I brought my mecca of jamming cookbooks, which we both ogled over prior to starting our venture. So while the boys played outside, and somewhere in between making lunch, pickling green beans, feeding the horses and drinking cocktails, we made some of the most tedious beautiful marmalade.
Kumquat Marmalade.
from Blue Chair Jam Cookbook.
We had a day, not three, which the book suggests to be the correct amount of time to make the marmalade properly, so we condensed the waiting time in between steps, which did not seem to be an issue in concocting the final product. So if you are doing this at your leisure, please, feel free to take your time, but if not, feel free to alter it to your time frame allotted.
After careful consideration, and reviewing the entire recipe again, I did not feel I would do justice to the recipe by posting it. I want you to just buy the book. Really, do it.
I say this with love. xoxo.
After careful consideration, and reviewing the entire recipe again, I did not feel I would do justice to the recipe by posting it. I want you to just buy the book. Really, do it.
I say this with love. xoxo.
Gosh, I'm so jealous of Kate's ranch! Chickens, horses, oh my! I love the idea of kumquat marmalade, as they're easily in my top 5 favorite fruits, and while I like the idea of traditional orange marmalade I generally find it to be too bitter. I definitely just added the Blue Chair cookbook to my amazon wish-list. I'm currently on a cookbook buying hiatus as I bought quite a few recently, but soon this will be MINE.
ReplyDeletePS I think you would LOVE Melissa Clark's Cook This Now
Oh, I know, its so lovely. You are going to love the book, making this with Kate convinced her to order it too! I have had the same buying problem you have, ha ha ha, I was just looking at that book {probably not shockingly} and was curious as to what someone I may actually know thinks of it so I am glad to have your recommendation. Amazon recommended it to me after my purchase of "Plenty" {which by the way, I have loved so far!} The kumquat turned out great, however, I have made her other citrus marmalade{s}, and none of them came out with the bitterness that I too might thought they might have. I think it must be in the way she soaks, boils simmer, etc... there are just about a million steps but VERY well worth the effort. Let me know what you think!
ReplyDeleteSo far I've only made two things out of Cook This Now (Whole Wheat Honey Cornbread and the Sticky Cranberry Gingerbread) but they were both fantastic, and things I've made multiple times, so I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to you. Plenty is also on my wishlist (well, technically it has been sitting in my Amazon shopping cart the last couple weeks - I have a SERIOUS amazon addiction, hello 2-day shipping!), so that and the Blue Chair cookbook will likely be the next two I buy! I've actually never made jam or preserves, but I'm super excited to try it out, I'll definitely let you know how it goes.
ReplyDeletePS We should get together for a baking afternoon sometime!