Friday, December 19, 2008

early morning with Tanner

Tanner has been up since 5am. Today is the first day of winter break. I was hoping for a little sleeping in. My hopes were in vain. He is playing here in the box sent by Grandma Karen. It was filled with gifts for Christmas, but as is always the case it is the box that is just as interesting to 2 year olds. If you notice strange marks on his cheeks that is fingernail polish-he applied it himself. Boys without sisters don't have these problems. Girls without brothers don't have to keep their polish under lock and key. Last night the girls were pretending to tap dance. Tanner was wearing a pair of purple dress up shoes to tap as well. He took them off for a moment and Heidi put them on and he got really mad because she had on his shoes.


So, this is what I was doing while Tanner was playing this morning. It looks good. Looks can be decieving. I have been toying with the idea of making orange marmalade, which I love. Oranges are just starting to ripen here and I thought I would take advantage of excess citrus. As I searched for recipes I found that most marmalade is made with Seville oranges, which are bitter. I had the thought that perhaps the oranges from my ornamental orange tree would make good marmalade. I found a recipe online and started last night. The process is intriguing and I was really excited until I added the sugar, tasted my brew and realized it was really nasty. I left it on the stove and thought I would see if I could salvage it this morning. So before heating to 220F I added more sugar, pinapple juice and some orange juice concentrate. I was feeling pretty confident so I heated it up, added some vanilla at the end and then laddled some on my oatmeal. That was an hour ago. My mouth is still burning from the bitterness. It is a weird feeling. The oranges I used were probably not completely ripe, but I am not sure if that is the reason for my failure. I was hoping to make this for neighbor gifts. If I do I will have to get sweet oranges. I am also thinking I might need to wait until the oranges are more ripe-which foils my Christmas gift plans. I would do the traditional baking thing, but I burned out my mixer. I could do things the old fashioned way-bowl and a wooden spoon, but it is more fun with power tools.

3 comments:

holly and matt said...

Looks like you had some fun experimenting time. It also looks like its time for a bosch silly girl.

Mix Family said...

i just read your whole blog and laughed out loud. i also kept saying "cannon, guess what happened", then i would relay the funny incident. it is sooo great to read your blog and feel not so far away. the marmalade experiment was hilarious, as was the nail polish on tanner's face! ha, ha! we'll see you in a few days.

Zalia said...

Oh, man! Ben is so missing out on lots of fun adventures by not having sisters! He wanted to have the "my little pony" option in his kid's meal the other day rather than a bionicle. So, I'm thinking he probably would find purple heels great fun and what little boy doesn't love paint in any form?