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One Hundred Dollars a Month

I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

Canning 101 – Orange Marmalade Recipe

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Have you noticed the stores seem to be overflowing with deals on lemons and oranges right now? Have you ever made marmalade before. Here is my favorite recipe, it’s super easy, I promise.

How to Make Orange Marmalade recipeIngredients

4 medium oranges
2 medium lemons
2-1/2cups water
1/8tsp. baking soda
1 box SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin
1/2tsp. butter or margarine
5-1/2 cups sugar, measured into separate bowl {also try low-sugar pectin or Pamona’s}

Orange Marmalade recipe

Directions

Bring a boiling-water canner 3/4  full with water, to a simmer. Wash jars and screw bands in hot soapy water; rinse with warm water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain jars well before filling.

Remove the colored part of the peel from oranges and lemons using vegetable peeler. Cut into thin slivers. Mix the peels, water and baking soda in large saucepan. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and let simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the fruit and juice. Cover and simmer an additional 10 minutes. Measure 4 cups of prepared fruit into a 8 quart sauce pot.

Stir pectin into prepared fruit in sauce pot  Add butter to reduce foaming. Bring mixture to full rolling boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.

Carefully ladle hot marmalade immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids and screw bands on. Place jars on elevated rack in canner. Lower rack into canner. {Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add boiling water, if necessary.} Cover; bring water to gentle boil. Process 5 min. Remove jars and place upright on towel to cool completely. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middles of lids with finger. If lids spring back, lids are not sealed and refrigeration is necessary}. Yields {6} 1/2 pints.

A few of my favorite canning books:
Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Put ’em Up!: A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide
Tart and Sweet: 101 Canning and Pickling Recipes for the Modern Kitchen

See More of my Canning Recipes HERE

Need a canner? I used the Granite Ware 11-1/2 Quart Covered Preserving Canner with Rack. And if you need a tool kit, I use one similar to this one.

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

Canning 101 | Meyer Lemon Marmalade

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recipe meyer lemon marmalade recipe

I love eating fresh fruits and vegetables when they are in season. So last week when I picked up 4 pounds of Meyer lemons from Costco,  I knew right away what I was going to do with the first 6 of them.

Make marmalade.

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE marmalade. Especially on buttered toast.

This recipe is super easy to make, I hope you like it. We sure do.

Meyer Lemon Marmalade

Ingredients

6 Meyer lemons {1 1/2 pounds}
4 cups water
4 cups sugar

Canning 101 Meyer Lemon MarmaladeDirections

Cut the lemons crosswise and remove seeds. Place the seeds in a cheesecloth bag, or tea infuser and set aside. Quarter each lemon half and thinly slice the lemons into strips. Place the lemons, 4 cups of water and the bag/infuser of seeds in a nonreactive heavy pot and let mixture stand, covered, at room temperature 24 hours.

Once the mixture has sat for 24 hours, bring a boiling-water canner, 3/4 full with water, to simmer. Wash jars and screw bands in hot soapy water; rinse with warm water. Pour boiling water over flat lids in saucepan off the heat. Let stand in hot water until ready to use. Drain well before filling.

When you are ready to make the marmalade, {after the lemon mixture has sat for 24 hours}, discard the lemon seeds and bring the lemon mixture to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat, and simmer, uncovered, until your mixture is reduced to about 4 cups {about 45 minutes to an hour}. Stir in sugar and boil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally and skimming off any foam, until a teaspoon of mixture dropped on a cold plate gels, about 15 minutes.

Carefully ladle hot marmalade immediately into prepared jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids and screw bands on. Place jars on elevated rack in canner. Lower rack into canner. {Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Add boiling water, if necessary.} Cover; bring water to gentle boil. Process 5 min. Remove jars and place upright on towel to cool completely. After jars cool, check seals by pressing middles of lids with finger. If lids spring back, lids are not sealed and refrigeration is necessary}. Yields {5} 1/2 pints.


See More of my Canning Recipes HERE

Looking for a few more awesome canning recipes?  Check out Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. Amazon has it currently in stock and ready to ship.

Need a canner? I used the Granite Ware 11-1/2 Quart Covered Preserving Canner with Rack. And if you need a tool kit, I use one similar to this one.

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

{Giveaway} Enter to Win a Bon Ami Canning Clean Up Kit

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If you are a home canning enthusiast like me, then you’ll really appreciate this giveaway.  The fine folks at Bon Ami sent me a canning clean up kit a short time ago, and I just LOVE it!  And guess what?  I get to give one away too.  Yee-Haw! I LOVE giving stuff away!

Did you know Bon Ami is America’s Original Natural Home Cleaner?  Yep.  They’ve been around since 1886 and you can actually pronounce the names of all the ingredients in their products. You can learn more about Bon Ami natural cleaning products on the Bon Ami website.

Only lucky reader will win

  • {1} 25 oz bottle of Bon Ami Dish Soap {Tangerine & Thyme scent}
  • {1} 25 oz bottle of Bon Ami Liquid Cleanser {Tangerine & Thyme scent}
  • {1} Red Bon Ami Apron with a super cute baby chick on it
  • {1} Bon Ami Dishtowel
  • {1} Wooden tasting spoon to sample all those delicious jams with

To enter this giveaway all you need to do is leave a comment below telling me:

1. If you have ever canned anything.

2. What is the favorite thing you have ever canned {or tasted that someone else canned}.

That’s it!

This giveaway ends on Friday, September 28th, 2012 at 9pm PST.

1 Comment will be randomly selected. The winner will be notified via email and have 48 hours to respond to claim the prize.

Good Luck!  I hope you win!

♥ Mavis

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

Dear Girly Girl, This Means War!

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Dear Girly Girl,

It isn’t bad enough you ask me for chickens and then give them back or that you and your friend bartered with me for some beets and gave me a piddly amount of chocolate in return, but this, this takes the cake.

This.Means.War.

-Mavis

__________________________________________

Are you ready for this?

Last night as I was pulling in to the driveway I received a text message from Girly Girl.

Girly Girl – Making 10 more right now. This is addicting! 42 jars of blackberry jam and counting!

Mavis – Did you pick all my freakin’ berries?????

Without even waiting for a reply, I whipped the car out of the driveway, and drove over to her house at 9 pm to see what was going on.

Now it all made sense.

For the past 2 weeks I have been unable to find any blackberries in our neighborhood to pick. At first I thought maybe it was Mrs. Hillbilly, but then I realized she only picks a handful at a time.  She’s not in it for the major berry haul, just a few here and there for her kids to snack on.  So when I received the text from Girly Girl, I knew right away she had been the one stealing my berries for the past 2 weeks.

What a punk!

When I walked into her house I found Chino the Handyman sitting at the kitchen table.

He quickly pointed over to where Girly Girl was as if to rat her out.

She was laughing her little head off.

Basically she is evil.

Girly Girl, you may think this is funny now… but you just wait. You. Just. Wait.

~ Mavis

This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.

Mavis Butterfield Etsy