Today is the day before X-man’s birthday and a Sunday. I had great plans for today including going to the park to pick pine cones to make bird seed feeders to hang from the trees and little Christmas trees for the mantle. (I know, it’s not even Halloween yet but I thought I could get a head start.) Then, to the Gardens to run around and enjoy the sun and fountains and maybe catch a snack at the Uncommon Grounds shack. I thought we could perhaps head to the Boring Playground after that (I’ll explain later) and the boys could drive their Hot Wheels around the half-pipes at the skate part.

Well…

X-man came down with some sort of flu made up mostly of fever and a lot of sneezing and snotting. So, we stayed inside for the day. Since I originally had grand plans of busy-ness as I always do (something I have to work on) I decided I would make some marmelade with the monstrous amounts zucchini that my friend, Juli, dropped of earlier in the week. It was Juli who also sent me the recipe for this marmelade.

First things first, I went to the library and checked out a couple of books on preserving and read the basics before beginning which was a good idea. I found out that you only use the flat tops of the lids once (what a waste and what do I do with these lids once I cannot use them again???) or they may not seal the second time around. No wonder you could buy extra lids separately.

Second, I did something I rarely do, and that is to get all the ingredients ready to go BEFORE I started. I was entering unchartered territory in the Shards kitchen so I wanted to be sure I was fully prepared.

I cleaned all of the jars and placed them into the oven to sterilize for 15 min…

I got the lids boiling at the ready…little did I know they’d be in there a while!

Once all the ingredients were added I stirred and stirred waiting for it all to thicken. I read it would take about half and hour…I think I cooked a little too long because some of the zucchini started to brown a bit from the sugar. Oops! So I turned off the plate and removed the pot. It was preetttyyy thiiick….

I let it sit for the 5 minutes the recipe stated. I started getting all excited about my first time making jam (yay!) and forgot to skim the top before ladeling it into the jars. :0 Ah well, it’s a learning process. L was eager to help with the labeling and did a great job. I think it was a great idea to put the labels on the tops since we wouldn’t be using them again for jams. Again, what do you do with all these unused lids??

According to the recipe I was expecting to get a full 10 jars. I got 5. Interesting…

We all tried a bit of the left-over marmelade once it cooled down and even though it was ridiculously thick it was good. So, I give myself a gold star for effort and completion. Now, spreading it on bread, well, let’s just say the bread suffered a bit. :0

Oh, and the whole Boring Playground thing: When X-man was about three he started asking to go to the Magic Playground. I had no idea. One day we drove by a playground and he said that was the one. Oh! Wow! Okay! Great! Magic playground!

Well, it was a pretty cool playground.

Until…

They removed two of the slides from the big playset and one slide that stood alone. Now that one is just a set of stairs that are blocked off at the top. Seriously? Yes. So, a serious demotion it got from the boys.

Thus, the Boring Playground.

-tam-