Rhubarb-Orange Marmalade

So this marmalade came into being because we have a LOT of rhubarb. Last year, at the beginning of spring, my husband and I split our plant into 8 smaller plants. We gave away 4 of them, and kept 4. Those divisions were fairly large and now I have 4 huge plants.

My rhubarb is green. It's a Victoria-type that's very sweet, very tender and tends to have thinner stalks that get very long. The bottoms are red, but the lengths are a celery green.

Those oranges are fairly large oranges.

There are a lot of recipes for orange-rhubarb marmalade on the internet. They call for various cooking methods and varying amounts of the ingredients. Sometimes they have nuts or spices in them. Our recipe is fairly simple, but it's really tasty. My daughter did the cooking. I did the harvesting and gave her the recipe.

Rhubarb-Orange Marmalade- makes 3 pints of marmalade

You will need:

7 cups of  rhubarb  (12-15 stalks)
2 large navel oranges
6 cups of sugar
2 cups of water

Wash your fruits. Anything that you grow yourself and you know what gets on it, you can decide how best to wash it. For oranges from the store, wash with a bit of soap and water. For store bought rhubarb, dunk it in 1:4 vinegar water mix, scrub lightly, then rinse.

Zest the oranges into a bowl using a paring knife, microplane or vegetable peeler. After that, cut the orange into quarters, and cut off the peel and pith. Then cut the quarters in smaller pieces and put them in the bowl.

Cut the rhubarb into half inch pieces. This might require cutting them in half length-wise then chopping them into smaller pieces.

Put the rhubarb, oranges, sugar and water into a heavy bottomed 5 quart pan and bring to a boil. Turn it down and let it simmer for about an hour stirring frequently. It will thicken. Check it by lifting the spoon, when it sheets off the spoon, it's ready.

While you're doing that, prepare your jars. We used a combination of 4 oz jars and those gorgeous Ball Canning Elite Jelly Jars that are in the photo.

Fill the jars leaving a 1/4 inch headroom, remove bubbles, wipe rims and process jars (hot water method) for 10 minutes.

This makes a lovely, tart and sweet marmalade that is delicious on pancakes according to my daughter who is eating some just that way right this moment. Me? It's hard not eating it just by the spoonful, but I'm looking forward to trying it on chocolate ice cream.

Citrus Mandala to color

I adore citrus fruits and juices! If it's the first days of spring, summer isn't far behind. (I just need to believe that right now, we had 16 inches of snow earlier this week)

I hope you enjoy this mandala. Click on the images for larger versions, print and color.

Small JPG version:

Large transparent PNG version:

Cadbury Creme Egg Printable Box Set

I haven't made a creme egg box yet this year! I hope you enjoy this one. Click the images for larger versions, print at 8x10 inches on card stock. Cut out, score all folds. Glue side seams, then glue the bottom tabs of the egg boxes (seriously! those eggs are a bit heavy), fold top lip of base box over and glue to the inside to reinforce. Fill egg boxes and put them in the "basket". You can find more complete instructions and another creme egg box here. Print 2 of the egg box pages, and one of the base box pages.

You can buy the blank template in PNG, JPG or PDF format from my Etsy store (emailed) or in PDF format from Craftsy (instant download on Craftsy!)

Printable Valentines and Cookie Box- blue and orange

2 weeks until Valentine's Day, which means it's time to start posting some Valentine projects.
Click the images for larger versions. One is Valentine cards ready to personalize. Business card sized. The other one is a cookie sized box. Print both on card stock.

More heart themed projects
More Valentine projects

Leave a comment if you have a preference for Valentine printables. Would you like to see more business card sized Valentines? Bag toppers for treats? Andes mint slide boxes? Specific colors or themes?

Favor Boxes

5 colors, 2 sizes. The 3x3x1 inch size and the 2x2x2 inch. I hope you like this set, I think it would be a good one for favors for a DIY wedding or wedding shower. If you really love the design, but need another color, let me know in comments. 

Click on the images for the full sized versions. 300 dpi and .png format for very clear colors.

If you like this set, you might like the circle dot boxes, in 100 ppi here, and 300 ppi here.

Citrus gift boxes- 3 sizes!

I just finished the listing for these box templates at my Etsy store and made up these.

I made all 3 sizes in all 3 fruits. 100 ppi, but the templates in my Etsy shop are 300 ppi, and 3.75 for all 3 templates.

As you can tell from the photo, I need to refill my ink cartridges! If your cartridges are fuller than mine, they will print out better. :) Click on the images for the full sized versions. Also, if you liked my watermelon box, take a look at my entry in the current Spoonflower contest. The theme was surrealistic fruit. I made a watery watermelon!

Sugar Free Chocolate Orange Cake Treats

One of my newer family traditions is to come up with a new recipe every year on my birthday for my Uncle Lamar. He was diagnosed a few years ago with diabetes.  Last year it was Banana Chocolate Bread which he doled out to himself a sliver at a time. 

This year, it's chocolate orange cake filled with a coffee cream cheese icing. If you want to substitute sugar you can. 

I made the cake in my sandwich maker because my oven still isn't fixed. Mike's just started a new job a couple weeks ago and just hasn't had the time. 

Baking cake in a sandwich maker? It's like Easy Bake but for grown-ups. 

For the cake:

Chocolate Orange Cake-

Dust off the sandwich maker you never use. Wipe it out very clean. Make sure the non-stick surface is intact.

Dry ingredients- 

1 cup Splenda or similar measures like sugar sweetener

1 cup flour- I used my usual whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

Mix dry ingredients well

Wet ingredients-

1 egg or equivalent egg substitute

1/4 cup melted butter (you could use oil, but I like the richness butter gives sugar free recipes), I used salted so didn't add salt to the dry ingredients

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. orange peel or orange zest. Adjust to taste. I used dried orange peel because it's convenient

1 tsp vanilla (everything is better with vanilla)

Mix wet ingredients well

Make a well in the dry ingredients, and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix well. The batter is fluffier with Splenda. it's sort of weird to work with. Just trust it will all work out okay.

Heat up your sandwich maker and put a 1/4 cup of batter in each well. Close it. Because it's non-stick it doesn't need to be buttered or greased.

Check after 3 minutes with a toothpick, if the tooth pick comes out clean, it's done. Otherwise check about every minute. It doesn't take long at all to bake cake in a sandwich maker.

Keep making cakes until you've used all the batter.

Frosting/filling

1 8 oz package of cream cheese

1 cup Splenda

1/3 cup of coffee

The Splenda might foam a bit. Mine did. This stuff is so weird to work with. 

Beat well until it's fairly smooth and fluffy. 

Cut each triangle cake in half, spoon in some frosting to make a sandwich. Wrap in plastic wrap individually and chill.

My daughter and husband both tried it and declared it a success, and in fact didn't hesitate to lick the frosting beaters.

I'll let you know what my Uncle Lamar thinks of them!