Cranberry, Orange, and Pomegranate Marmalade

My mother will probably cringe my telling this story; however, it’s been one of those humorous memories my three older sisters and I share from when we were very young. One day our mom decided to buy fresh pomegranates to give us girls a special treat. So, she sat us down at the table, each with our section of pomegranate, and unfortunately for her, she left the room, leaving us alone with this strange new fruit.  As my sisters and I began to eat the tiny, juicy seed pods, we were fascinated by their taste and how our fingers turned bright red when you squeezed the seeds between your fingers.  I’m not going to say which one of my sisters started it, but someone discovered you could pinch the seed pod at a certain point, and it would shoot the tiny seeds up as high as the ceiling.  Well, our kitchen ceiling was white, the juice was bright red, there were four of us all shooting our tiny seeds at the ceiling, and you can guess what happened next.  Our mother never bought pomegranates for us again.  EVER!

Continue reading

 

Golden Habañero, Bourbon and Pear Jam

Golden Habanero, Bourbon and Pear Jam

I started making this jam late last summer, after a more than abundant harvest of golden habañero peppers from my garden.

It took a few test batches to get the ratio of peppers to pears right, but after realizing I only needed six ingredients, five if you take out the bourbon (but why would you?), once I had the final recipe established, it was perfect.  The sweetness from the pears, followed by the low heat from the peppers, not only wakes up your taste-buds, the release of endorphins from the capsaicin in the peppers gives your brain a nice little jolt!

Continue reading