While most of the rest of you either watched or avoided the evening festivities surrounding the adulation of The One, I was busy in the kitchen.

Ooey-Gooey Mac N Cheese with bacon for dinner.  I needed comfort.  That's the very definition of comfort food.  Plus, I had to use up the last of the fancy cheeses from our New Year's Eve party, which were remarkably still mold-free.  I didn't want to press my luck further.  This was real white sauce Mac N Cheese, too.  A first for me.

After dinner it was back to the stove.  I'm like a kid after Christmas with my new toy.  Some of you may recall I got a small-batch canning cookbook for Christmas and I have been waiting for the stars to align to use it ( and by stars I mean time, inclination, and pectin). 

Last night I broke open the book for the first time and made a batch of Blood Orange Red Wine Marmalade.  Sadly, because our blood oranges are tiny, it made only a cup and a half.  Tonight I broke rule #1 and made a double batch.  Which made just over 4 cups.  YAY!

Then I decided to try and use up some of the apricots in the freezer that we got from our tree in the spring.  Batch #2 was a Winter Pear Apricot Jam.  That was tasty cleanup!  That recipe made 5 cups after skimming.  Not bad.

I was ably assisted by my awesome husband who is quickly learning the difference between tongs and jar lifters, and who has always been a dab ahnd at cutting, measuring, and heavy, hot lifting of pots and plates.

Net: 5.5 jars (+ a bowl in the fridge of leftover) Blood Orange Marmalade (two days), 5 jars Pear/ Apricot Jam, and half a casserole dish of leftover MacCheese.

Yum.

Pictures as soon as I get a chance to download.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:06 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Bou and WB have each completed the Walt Disney World Marathon.  YAY!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:20 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 thank you for your encouraging text messages and all the support you've provided me these past few months.

Posted by: wRitErsbLock at January 12, 2009 06:55 PM (0Pi1o)

2 THANK YOU! I'm still on my marathon high. I still can't believe I crossed and did so without throwing up. ;-)

Posted by: Bou at January 13, 2009 07:59 PM (SeuaG)

3 Just in case you missed Fred: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKc4XFK0iVY

Posted by: cs at January 15, 2009 10:15 AM (BKG9k)

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... And sprinkle a little fairy dust....

Tomorrow, January 11, two amazing people are going to follow through with a resolution they made in August and run a marathon in honor of people who have been touched by cancer.

WB and Bou are running the Walt Disney World marathon on Sunday as part of Team in Training, raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  Together they've raised just shy of $5300 for cancer research.

I'll be thinking of you both and watching your split times from here, and wishing you fleet feet and much success!

Please take a minute to click over and wish each of them well! And maybe enough of us do it, then maybe just maybe, they can fly!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 02:20 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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