Fleece Baby Blanket

I was productive today.  Between Mr. Man and me watching my son, I was able to sew a simple baby blanket in an afternoon.  I was first inspired by this blog post when I was pregnant with my Little One.  For some unknown reason, I didn't get around to it.  

After giving birth, I accumulated fabrics for projects (e.g. baby blankets) that didn't happen.  Then this Christmas, my sister gave me a printed blue flannel fabric (as seen above and below).  I think it may have been used by one of her sons, and even though it may be gently used, it's still in great shape.  I've been wanting to finish up projects and since I had a nice soft brown fleece fabric, I decided to pair it up with the printed blue flannel fabric.

This was a very simple project and the only tedious part of sewing the blanket together was pinning the two fabrics together before sewing (there were pins all over the fabrics) and taking all the pins out after the sewing was done.  Since both fabrics were  may have been a bit "slippery," it was important to pin the fabrics together.  If one or both fabrics were 100% quilting cotton, it wouldn't have been necessary to pin the two fabrics together in so many places.  Now, that the project is done, it's just a matter of seeing someone getting to use this 

 I think the blanket turned out great!  What do you think?

Grapefruit Marmalade

I had just come back from visiting family in California and brought back some homegrown, "organic," grapefruits.  Maybe the grapefruits weren't fully ripe, but they were still delicious.  I wanted to bring back more, but Mr. Man said that I would be going over the weight limit for our checked in bag, so I had to give away a couple to my sister.

I've been wanting to make marmalade for a very long time, but didn't have immediate access to fresh organic fruit.  I didn't want to use store bought citrus because the citrus rinds are covered in wax and the rinds are an essential ingredient in making marmalade.  So, when I spied these grapefruit beauties on a tree branch, which was hanging over in my sister's yard, I told her to pick me some.

I did a lot of research and just came up with the recipe below.  I wanted a marmalade that was sweet, sour, and had some bitterness to it.  Of course, I didn't want a marmalade that was too bitter, but it had to have the bitterness because that's what's often associated with marmalade (at least, to me).  I hope you enjoy the following recipe:

Grapefruits

1 C of sugar per 1 pound of fruit (add more or less, depending on taste)

Juice of  a lemon for every three pounds of grapefruit (optional)

1. Take the peel off from the fruit.  Cut and scrape as much of the pith (the white parts) off the peel.

2. Blanch the peels by putting the peels into a pan and cover with water, and put the pan on the stove.

3. Bring the water to a boil and turn off the stove.  You can either let the peels sit in the water for 2-4 hours OR you can can drain the water and blanch the peels again, and after the second blanch, let the peels sit in the water for about 2-4 hours.  The more you blanch and let the peels sit in the water, the more bitterness you will remove from the peel.  (The downside is that you will also remove a lot of grapefruit's essential oils.)

4. Juice the grapefruit into a pan.  (You can just cut up the grapefruit into pieces and cook it all in the jam, but the membrane - the thin lining that encases each segment of the fruit - is also bitter).  Add the juice of the lemon, if using.  Add the sugar and let it sit on the stove until the peels are ready.

5. Drain the peels.  Slice the peels as thin as possible and as long as you want.  (My peels were about two inches long and half the size of a matchstick.)  You can use all the peels or some of it.  (I used about 4/5 of the peels).  Put the thinly sliced peels into the pan with the grapefruit juice/pieces.

6. Cook on medium heat and stir constantly until desired consistency.

7.  If you were going to water bath can the marmalade, then check out this website.

Enjoy!