Its Cold and Flu Season!

Nothing is worse than waking up in the morning with that horrid ache in your throat and that pressure in your nose and head. You *SNIIIIF* try and *SNIIIIF* and try to breathe but...*SNIIIIF!* all you do is give your nose a good work out. You swallow and it feels like you ate cactus needles at some point, and your head feels like a bunch of little evil faeries were playing kickball with various parts of your brain. Its worse when you have nausea on top of it and the chills of a fever. For years, honey and lemon have been the old standbys for that horrid chill and ache that seems to creep along the populace during the early Fall and Winter months. Ginger ale, due to the ginger of course, is Mom's best remedy for a troubled tummy. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have all that in one place and then add it to something warm to fight that chill? A perfect mug of comforting, soothing warmth.

Look no further! Recently I came across a recipe for honey-lemon marmalade and all I could think of was this interesting citrus concoction my sister used to get from our local Asian market. She would add it to her tea, especially when she had a cold, and often told me how wonderful it was. So as I was contemplating the possibilities of this particular marmalade, I thought of how soothing it would be on its own, in just a cup of hot water. But it was missing something crucial to be my ideal, natural, home remedy for the ickies. Ginger! (Seems I want to add that to just about anything huh? I have an over abundance at present, so sue me!) Yes, ginger would be just the thing to take this from a great sore throat, cough and fever chills soother to a tummy tamer too! So I got to work and tweaked the recipe and came up with this wonderful concoction of my own!

You will need:

14-16 lemons (Depending on the size you can find)
3 small hands of ginger
2 cups of honey (Always try to get local if you can)
4 cups of sugar
1 1/2 cups water
2 pouches of liquid pectin



The first thing you want to do is of course, get your jars clean and in water to boil for sterilization. Or you can just run them through the dishwasher and leave them in there on the drying cycle until ready to use. Fill your boiling water canner with water and get the water heating, caps in a saucepan of water that has been boiled and then the burner turned off, and your tools in some boiling water to sterilize, or in the dishwasher with the jars! (Two birds with one stone!)

Now I have made this before and as my dear friend Danyale will tell you, chopping lemons is a pain in the eye. Yes I said eye! Because those suckers will squirt and aim straight for your baby blues!! (Or green or brown or hazel, whatever color your eyes are) So we used my old beat up food processor. That was a mess! Juice everywhere! So I had to purchase a new one and I went for high quality instead of a Black Friday deal this time. Not only am I making some yummy marmalade, I'm test running my new toy! And it worked great! Easiest way to do this is to cut the lemons in half, and then quarter the halves so that they are small enough to get broken up by the blades of the food processor.



Pulse the lemons in the food processor until the they are nicely chopped up. Add them to an non reactive pot.

Next, cut up the ginger into chunks, and pulse in the food processor until well chopped. This is a fibrous root so the chopped up bits are going to look rather like a cross between a puree and soggy wood shavings. But it will smell wonderful!!

Add the ginger to the lemon in the pot and place on the stove.

Now time to add the water, honey, and sugar. A trick to keeping the honey from sticking to your measuring cup is to spray the cup with non-stick cooking spray. It will flow beautifully out of the cup and into whatever it is your making if you follow this step.

Bring this to a boil and then let it simmer for 30 minutes. This is an incredibly fragrant marmalade and it will have your house smelling so good! Give it a few stirs just to ensure even cooking while its bubbling away. This is a great time to do up your dishes! Or in my case, do a touch of schoolwork!

After the thirty minutes has passed, add in the two pouches of pectin and boil gently (Not a full on roiling boil) for five minutes.

Now, using your sterilized jars and tools, ladle the hot marmalade into jars leaving 1/4 inch of head space, make sure to wipe the rims of the jar with a clean cloth or paper towel. Cap and screw on the bands, processing in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Once ten minutes is up, pull out your jars and set them to cool in a draft free area on wracks or towels. Anything with liquid pectin should sit undisturbed for about 24 hours to give the pectin a chance to work its magic. But here is my favorite part! *PING!* I love the sound of a jar sealing! Music to my ears! This recipe makes about 11- 12 half pint jars, so there is plenty to hold you for the Winter months as well as to share with friends and family, if you can bring yourself to share it that is! Its just as tasty as it is comforting! Hopefully this recipe will serve you well on one of those cold, miserable days where you feel just like the weather looks...ICKY!

Brightest Blessings!