oranges & lemons & that elusive cinnamon stick

There's a smell in this house that has usually comes around only once a year.  Its something that tells our family that the Christmas season has arrived.  The smell of spiced apples and oranges coming from our pot of Wassail will fill our home, lending to the cozy nostalgia that only Christmas brings.

But this morning our chickies came into the kitchen searching for Wassail.  ...Wassail you say?  In April?  Wellllll, not exactly.  But it sure smells like it.  So much so that it sent us looking for our Christmastime fire and waiting to hear our beloved Christmas music that always accompanies that time of year.  But no.  What is whetting our palettes is not that wonderfully delicious spiced drink but a huge pot of orange marmalade.

We have a couple of orange trees and a lemon tree in our backyard.  These trees produce an incredible amount of fruit each year so by the time the citrus season is closing, we've about had our fill...which leaves us with some fruit still on the trees.  So I decided to do something with those yummy things this year and try my hand at marmalade.  Being that I've never made it nor truly loved it, I was a bit hesitant in starting the project.

But I tackled the project anyway.

Surprisingly (to me), this marmalade is crazy easy if you have a little time, at least this recipe is.  There were some recipes that were exhaustingly involved, with about 93 ingredients.  But being the farm girl that I am, I chose a very simple and pure recipe that called for four ingredients: oranges, lemons, water & sugar.  Now, this recipe went a little crazy with the sugar calling for eight cups of it.  YIKES!  There was no way I was using that much sugar when I was using only 4 oranges and 2 lemons.  So I cut that sweet stuff in half.  I also thought it would do well to add a couple of cinnamon sticks.  And yes. --definitely yes after tasting it!

I made a batch of marmalade yesterday which only filled 3.5 medium sized mason jars ...which was perfect in my opinion seeing that I wasn't completely sold on the outcome of my experiment...

...until it cooled and it entered my mouth.

OMGsh.

Can anyone say, 'MORE PLEASE?'  

Let's just say, I ate about 1/4 of a jar b.y.-m.y.s.e.l.f.!

So, the next three batches started last night and is finishing up on the stove as I write this. I put a little less sugar in this round, to bring out even more of the real citrus flavor...which of course adds to the cooking time but thats ok.  After the night 'soak' the fruit got with the cinnamon sticks, I started pulling out the sticks this morning...3, 4, 5...no 6th stick.

♪ Where or where has my cinnamon stick gone?  Oh where, oh where could it be? ♪

Searching.  Searching.

10 minutes.

Searching more.

15 minutes.

Still no cinny-stick.

Blerg.

Someone might just be getting a cinnamon stick in their jar.  ;)

I love making jams and breads and cookies and whatever else tickles my fancy.  I love that we chose for me to stay home.  I love that God shows us the blessings of "working at home" (Titus 2:5), of the high calling it is of caring for the family and home on a full time basis.  Staying home allows me to offer hospitality in ways that I would not be able to do otherwise.  This manifests itself in sharing things like jams and breads and whatever else I have the pleasure of making.  And all these things can be used in our lives as our offering of hospitality to our sweet Lord.