We recently acquired a significant number of grapefruit; however, no one in our household particularly cares for grapefruit. So I did what I usually do when there is something in my kitchen that I don't know what to do with - I googled new recipes. In my research I came across the idea of making grapefruit marmalade. I like marmalade, primarily because when I was a child I was determined to like it, probably because it was "British", and I kept forcing myself to eat it until I actually started liking it. So I figured that marmalade would be a good thing to try making. And besides, I needed something that used a significant number of grapefruit. Here is the recipe that I found:
Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit Marmalade
I didn't quite think through the fact that canning becomes a whole new experience when there is a 5-week-old in the house.
So for anyone else out there who is crazy like me, here it is:
How to make grapefruit marmalade (while caring for a baby).
1. Cut 5 grapefruit in half, cover with water in a large pot and boil for two hours.
2. Drain and cool.
3. Try to calm the baby, who is fussing in his bouncy chair. Apparently watching you work in the kitchen is not entertaining him.
4. Wash and sterilize your jars.
5. The baby is still fussing, so move him to his nap corner, hoping he'll fall asleep. He does fall asleep - holding your hand. He's so cute that you feel bad to move your hand, so you sit there for a while with him.
6. You finally get up the motivation to remove your hand and go back to the kitchen.
7. Just as you get going in the kitchen again, the baby wakes up and starts crying. You go back to check on him and realize he needs a diaper change.
8. You change the baby's diaper, and while you're doing so you realize the load of laundry you had in the wash has finished.
9. You put the baby back in his nap corner and go to deal with the laundry. While doing so, you realize you still have a basket of laundry that is dry but hasn't been folded yet. You decide that it can wait.
10. You just get back into the kitchen and the baby starts crying again. You look at the time and realize that he's probably hungry.
11. That reminds you how hungry you are, so you scour the kitchen for something that would be convenient to eat while breastfeeding. Meanwhile, the baby continues crying and shows no sign of getting any happier, so you give up trying to think of something healthy and grab a bag of corn chips.
12. You feed baby while trying not to drop corn chip crumbs on his head.
13. The baby is once again happy to sit in his chair, and you try to decide whether folding the laundry or continuing with the marmalade is more important. Marmalade wins.
14. Cut the grapefruit into chunks, and remove the seeds.
15. Baby is letting you know that once again all is not well with the world, so you check on him and realize that he needs another diaper change.
16. Change the baby's diaper.
17. With baby settled into his chair once again, put the grapefruit, peels and all, into a food processor, and blend until finely chopped.
18. Notice that the daffodil plant on the table has a double-headed flower. Take pictures of it.
19. Put the grapefruit into a pot, along with lemon juice, sugar, and honey.
20. Bring to a boil, and taste. Realize it is still ridiculously bitter, so add more honey. And more honey. An embarrassing amount of honey. Realize that marmalade from the store must have a ridiculous amount of sugar in it.
21. Your husband gets home and you look at the clock and notice that it is already the time that you had planned to leave for supper. Decide that the marmalade has probably boiled for long enough.
22. Pour into jars and finish the canning process. Aren't they pretty!
23. Go out for dinner, leaving the kitchen a complete mess!
