When I got the idea of preserving stuff, either by jamming or pickling, I probably had the idea that I would be doing it all the time.  Isn’t it something that cooks do?  But, the reality is that it can be a whole lot of work.  I’ve really decided I like what amount to micro batches.  3 or 4  precious little jars of tasty things.  When I have to boil multiple batches I find that things don’t work for me as well.  I get stressed out  Things in the second or third batch don’t seal.  Things don’t gel.  Things go …wrong. The Sunday I came down with the flu Z went to the grocery store for me.  It is something I normally do on Sunday afternoons.  I made him an ambitious list thinking I’d be better in a day or two.  He came home with the whole deal and 2 1/2 pounds of Meyer Lemons too.  Meyer lemons are a super sweet lemon that is a Chinese hybrid between lemon and mandarin oranges.  So, after I started to rebound from the flu I figured I’d make some marmalade.  Ever since we were offered marmalade on a cruise I have been a total fan.  I used to have those kid feelings, of gross-the peel’s in there-but I’m over it.   I like the faint bitterness and long cooked carmelly texture of a well done marmalade.  It usually  has a certain body that is richer than regular jam.  The recipe I used was out of Food In Jars by Marisa McClellan – She is kind of a darling of the canning/food blogger world right now during this rebound time from the recession where people are looking at how and what they spend and eat and with the explosion of Pinterest where people can take pretty pictures of things that someone made and packaged up nicely.  In this particular recipe she advocates for soaking the chopped fruit for a couple of days.  I think this made my jam  bitterer than I would’ve liked.  I’d probably actually skip it next time.  I tend to like a bit more sweetness although the offset of butter and English muffin cures some ills.  For some reason my marmalade also doesn’t have much jelly-more thick and bitey.  I don’t think I’ll share these jars out which kind of defeats why I make it.  This makes two marmalade fails recently which is sad.  Hopefully I can get back in the game next month.