the bitter comes out better with a Seville orange

It's proper marmalade-making season at the moment, so we've slipped some Sevilles into a pan.

The myth goes that Keiller cheaply bought up a cargo of stranded Seville oranges in Dundee. Turns out they were too bitter to eat, so his mother cooked up a rind-inclusive marmalade.

I'm told that marmalade is dwindling in popularity nowadays, with only 5.6% of English eating it, with a mainly 'over 45 years' demographic. It might explain why many hotels have those little pots of jam in flavours like apricot and raspberry for breakfast which, to me, just seems wrong. The Scots still have it ranked at number three amongst the morning preserves, after strawberry and honey.

So for a simple recipe:

Wash the fruit. Cut the oranges in half around the middle. De-pip (any excuse to use the food processor).

Cut some 2-3 cm strips of rind and whack the rest through a julienne blade in the processor.

Add the rind and juice to a pan with water at around 1 cupful per orange. The pips could be added to this in a muslin bag for later removal. Simmer for around an hour to release the pectin. About 1/3 of the liquid will have been reduced away and the rind will be soft and transparent.

Slowly add sugar at approx 2:1 weight ratio and boil for about 20 minutes.

Check a few drips for that not-runny, wrinkle-on-a-cold-plate effect to know when it's done.

Tip into jars.

There.

A yummy jam.

And it's orange.

Even better with home made bread.

I'm gonna need a hacksaw (Guitar Part 1)

There's an article in the weekend papers by a motoring journalist along the lines of 'most cars are roughly the same' and it references a well-known make from which many variants are derived.

It then goes on to make a similar comment about most electric guitars, based upon a conversation with a well-known guitarist.

Now I don't know about either of the statements. It could be like saying all books are the same because they have pages and words in them.

Although, when I was fixing the electronic bit on my acoustic guitar some time ago, I was struck by the craftsman-like innards of the carpentry and thought that even if it had been inexpensively mass-produced, there was considerable sophistication to the construction.

Then I looked at a couple of electric guitars and noticed their relatively simple construction. I think one of them has a nickname as 'the plank' no doubt referencing the way it is put together.

So I've thought of a side-project for February. It's supposed to be FAWM "February is Album Writing Month". I'm not sure if I'll have a bash at that this time, I already have a surfeit of songs.

Instead, in a suitably ham-fisted way, I might have a crack at building a guitar. It's not that I need another one. I have more than my rather basic playing capability.

It just feels like one of those projects that needs to be done. I'm pretty sure I can handle the electronics. I know I can't build a fretboard, so I'll have to source that part. I'll also need to set myself a scarily meagre budget. And I won't be too worried if I have to pick up some of the parts along the way. Was it Carl Sagan that said if you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you first have to invent the universe?

First things first, what shape? I'm thinking expensive-looking Les Paul?

Then I have to decide whether to make it look like other guitars? - generic sunburst colours and so on?

Instead I'm looking at car paint colours. Would a metallic orange be too extreme?

In the words of Jack Bauer, "I'm gonna need a hacksaw."

candy fix

I'll need to break away from my obsessive series of posts about the fixed wheel bicycle restoration project, but not until I've had a chance to Juice Lube the orange pedals and apply them symmetrically.

I realise it's a whimsical cartoon look, what with the green rims, white chain and an inexpensive but essential retro purple bit in the back wheel. I'm hunting around for a brown saddle, which is somewhere in the recesses of the garage and will add further weirdness.

I know that this candy coloured thing won't blend inconspicuously into the scenery like my faux-scungy chameleonesque MTB parked secretly in a useful place, but it's a different sort of project.