How not to make marmalade

Mmmh, marmalade

So, a busy week.  I've ended off the day with a quick blast of the Sound of Music - Isobel loves it! Good to get them started young on singing 'How do you solve a problem' really badly!!! Although, perhaps she will sing well...who knows.

Had a bit of a bad day last Friday - was it because it was Friday 13th? Was it the moon? No, I think it was basically the fact that I was tired and I thought that finishing off the marmalade I'd started the day before would be a good thing to do whilst also looking after Isobel and Arthur.....surely it couldn't be that difficult - all I needed to do was let it bubble away for 3 hours......or so I thought.

I decided to make marmalade as frankly, I love marmalade.  I could eat marmalade toast every day, probably for every meal (though that might not be the healthiest of diets!).  I've never made marmalade and in the age of austerity thought that making it would surely be cheaper than buying jars of the stuff.  So, I followed the recipe of the trusty Delia:

http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/preserves/how-to-make-marmalade.html

Now the problem was I started it on an Isobel free day - all the poaching etc was done whilst Arthur was asleep.  I read the instructions and I thought I could just do the boiling the next day, get it started and then play with Isobel and Arthur until we needed to test it to see if it was done.

Problem 1 - Arthur was teething and not wanting to not scream and want lots of cuddles and attention

Problem 2 - Isobel was not wanting to make marmalade

Problem 3 - I was completely convinced that if I could just get the marmalade on to simmer for 3 hours I'd be laughing....

Problem 4 - the pan was far too small......ah, and the blood pressure went up as the marmalade spewed over the sides, Isobel wanted to try to eat it (despite the fact it was bubbling on the cooker) and Arthur was screaming.....

Note to self - get a bigger pan

Oh the joys.  Anyway, I made vats of marmalade - loads of it.  It's lovely and dark, slightly runny but still really really yummy.  And the ingredients? About £9 I think to make probably about £35 of marmalade.

I need to learn - don't try to do these things when the timing just isn't right!

Anyway, we then went off to the lovely Coolings (voted the no. 1 Garden Centre in the UK don't you know!)...not to do any gardening but to look at the nature trail.  However, by the time we got there (some tantrums and massive baby poos delaying the process) it was practically pitch black so we had to make do with the polar bears instead!