Sometimes the best things are worth repeating!

Happy Mother's Day Mom! Orange Marmalade!

When my dad was stationed on the USS Observation Island we lived in Satellite Beach Florida. Truly one of the best times of my life. We lived a mere 2 blocks from the beach and at the age of 10 there was not a day that went by that my oldest brother Bill and I weren't down at the beach. To this day, I have not been able to find the freedom of those days. And what is so funny is that my mother could not swim but would not hold us back from our adventures, misadventures and explorations. Come to think of it, she didn't let it stop her either. I think it's funny, brave and very giving of her as I recall our afternoon fishing trips on the canals. She couldn't swim and yet there she was many an afternoon with 4 children on the canal bridges. Biggest trout I ever caught was with a string bean. She didn't know a thing about fishing but she taught me so much about it. How does that happen? She had a lot of those tricks. She also didn't bake (except from a box) and yet when I tried my hand a baking years later she had magical ingredients like cream of tartar...and she didn't bake.

My mom had a lot of magic to her. Just raising 4 kids, mostly on her own as my father played Water Hero with the Navy was magic. But the magic I remember the most today was Mother's day. One Mother's day in Florida, I scraped up enough pop bottles and turned them in for what I thought was the Ultimate Mother's day present....Breakfast in bed! There was a bakery down by the beach and they made whimsical breads, one was an alligator. At 10 I thought this was the bees knees and wanted to share this with my Mom. I bought the bread and being in Florida, Orange marmalade was plentiful and cheap....cheap cheap if you bought it at the commissary. Mother's day came and the alligator bread and the orange marmalade was the breakfast menu..with Tang to wash it down, we were, after all in the Space Center and Tang was the latest and greatest. Truth is, I remember the bread was horrible, cute but horrible. The orange marmalade, nothing special, nothing remarkable and the Tang, was just Tang. I remember thinking that it just wasn't much of anything to celebrate her day with. And she, being the magic that she was, made such a big deal over the orange marmalade that for years afterward, I made sure that every Mother's day also had orange marmalade.

Years later, when I made her angry just trying to learn how to live in the world, I could always smooth things over with an apology and a small jar of orange marmalade. For decades, when I sent her flowers, I never signed the card with who I was I always put 2 words...Orange Marmalade. The florist in her small retirement town remembered this odd habit when she made up the spray form my mother's casket and had the card signed Orange Marmalade. Mom died last year on Mother's Day. It was a beautiful day, bright, breezy, and we had had our Mother's day Orange Marmalade. I just don't have the words to describe how and how much I miss her, she truly was my best friend.

So here is the recipe for the Orange Marmalade that I made for her on our last Mother's day on this earth. Be brave, it is really very good, and not just because she said it was, it really was.

Carrot Orange Marmalade

1 Orange
Juice from that orange
2 lemons
Juice from those lemons
2 1/2 cups carrots
water
sugar

Squeeze the orange and lemons like a bear hug from your mother. Set the juice aside.

Sliver the orange and lemon rinds. Cook rinds in just enough water to cover until they are as tender as the touch of your mother's hand.

Grate carrots and add to the rinds. Cook till as tender as a kiss from your mother.

Add juice.

Remove from heat when tender.

Measure mixture and add equal parts water. For every cup of water/fruit mixture add 2/3 cup of sugar.

Return to heat. Bring to boil stirring constantly.Cook about 1 hour till syrup reaches jelly stage. (to find out if it's jelly stage, stick a plate in the freezer and every once in a while drop a bit of the syrup onto the cold plate, put in the freezer for 1 minute. When it is jelly stage, you can take your finger and push against the side of the syrup drop and it will wrinkle....like the corners of your mother's eyes when you make her smile) Jelly stage is also recognizable when the syrup sheets off the spoon instead of running off in a thin steady flow.

Remove from heat & pour into prepared jars.

Process 10 minutes in a water bath.

Share with someone you love.

Happy Mother's day to all the Mother's that hold the magic and make the world turn.

I miss you Mom.