Mandarin Dream and other delightful things

in which our plucky heroine sees a rainbow, and has a productive day...

This afternoon there was a long and very low rainbow, which cut across all the sky between the houses to the east...

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My effort for the Food in Jars Mastery Challenge this month was Mandarin Dream jelly... The leftover mandarins (tangerines) from KASB were juiced, and were augmented with the juice of two lemons and a splash of vanilla. The skins and seeds boiled up for two hours in an effort to extract their natural pectins... then strained out skins and seeds, mixed all back together, added 2½ c sugar, and boiled it all down until it was concentrated enough to jell.

I ended up with seven 4 oz jars, which filled the canning kettle, and an additional 6 oz to put in the fridge and use right away. It should be an excellent treat to dollop a spoonful over a bit of Greek yoghurt. But, as always, the effort to create a clear-er end result and call it jelly seems excessive, since I personally prefer the slightly more textural jams, marmalade, and preserves. The flavor is reminiscent of lemon drop candy, and the color is a spectacular transparent gold. It is lovely, assuming it actually does set overnight as it cools, but will not be joining the short roster of pantry preserves that get made in rotation every year.

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This bowl was rather an afterthought but I particularly like how the blue underglaze spots dripped onto the dark center, and am quite eager to see how it will look next week (when our glazed and fired pieces are returned at the final class).

These experimental buttons, now underglazed half brown/black and half blue, will hopefully end up as functional and decorative fasteners on a handmade cardigan:

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March SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	grey pinafore	green onions planted	paper recycle bin
2	2 stencils	bike tires and tubes	yard waste bin
3	black/cream knit top	bicycle brakes	dead bike tires
4	grey/blue knit top	x	x
5	peg people playset	x	x
6	needlefelted sheep	x	x
7	Seville marmalade	x	x
8	Mandarin Dream jelly	x	x
9	-	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x

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