Finishing the marmalade meant forfeiting a home-cooked din

But ah well. This is why it's great that Cafe of India delivers. For starters, I don't have much experience cooking Indian cuisine, and secondly, there are no other good delivery options in our area. So, yay for CoI, and yay for finally crossing three-citrus marmalade off my to-do list. It's quite good, in addition to being beautiful. The recipe's author, Marisa McClellan of Food In Jars, calls for boiling the peeled and finely sliced (mine are in a chiffonade) citrus rinds and then adding them and much of the reserved cooking liquid to the supremed fruits and sugar. Although preparing the fruit was labor-intensive, it's nice to have a one-day version of marmalade-making, rather than the usual 3-4 (in that method, you soak your citrus for several days to ease the bitterness of eating its rind and pith).

Today dawned on Tom and me with many hours of parental divide-and-conquer ahead: Oliver had a birthday party in one direction, while Jack had Tae Kwon Do and his first rehearsal for a school theater production in the other. T did the party, while I headed out with J. I think we're all pooped now and are lounging in various states of recline. Well, except for Oliver the machine who is concurrently eating, singing and shaking something. God I wish that kid would take smaller bites when he eats. Have mercy man, it's not a race.

Three-citrus marmalade in the midst of gray

Today has been the most satisfyingly productive one thus far. I've flown through all the usual sorts of household tasks, donated a trunk-full of items to one of my favorite local anti-poverty centers (D.C.-area folks, do you know about A Wider Circle? They just opened a new professional development area which is so exciting and helped me encourage T to clean through his closets!), found hugely discounted skeins of gold ribbon and gold cord with which to make the golden lassos Wonder Woman uses (Oliver is having a Wonder Woman birthday party, folks; his crush on her is enormous), chatted with my mom, walked the dog and am now about to embark on Day 1 of marmalade making. It feels like ages since I've canned; it's an activity that seems so natural during the summer with all the fabulously delicious and cannable fruit that's in season then, but I should remember more frequently what you can make and can with pears, apples and winter citrus. It's cold and drizzly out today, so I decided that a marvelous way to combat the outside dreariness was to surround myself with this visually heartening buffet o' fruits.

Do y'all know what T and I were forced to do last night? It's almost sillier than the cat leash but it was critical as Nutmeg has been scratching at our wooden furniture (no!): we applied the feline equivalent of Lee Press-On nails to each of N's claws. I bought a large box of Kitty Caps and after gluing my fingers together (truly, I did this, and it hurt like a mother to pry them apart), T took over and finished the job. You fill each cap with some adhesive, slide it on the claw and then "keep your kitty calm and still for five minutes" (who the eff wrote those instructions? someone who's not attempted to apply Kitty Caps to an actual, live cat?) while the adhesive sets. I must say that Nutmeg was a trooper and has not attempted to remove his Caps. He can still do all the natural scratching stuff (I'm not inhumane, folks) but without the damage. Aah! 

The sun is out!

Folks, I will tell you that I started this day off in a seriously grumpy way. I was having the best night of sleep when lo, Oliver woke me up at 5 carrying on about a tee-tee deluge. I recognize that a flooded diaper is decidedly yuk, but how does such a small being produce so much after he's not eaten or drunk for hours. I changed him and put him in bed with me and told him in no uncertain terms that he'd best not consider uttering even a peep. Then he starts wailing, Mr. Overly Tired, Nearly-4-and-Thusly-Dramatic child that he currently is, telling me that I was making him do it. Y'all, I did not feel happy thoughts at that moment. I just did not at all. I believe I slipped back asleep for a bit but it wasn't much in the way of good rest, and I was extremely peevish by the time I finally dropped him off at school FOUR HOURS LATER. Isn't it absurd to have already been awake FOUR HOURS when you're to then spend a day at school?! I'm so over being this tired. I've been tired of being this tired since it became abundantly clear that while we'd hit the sleep jackpot with Jack, we went in the opposite direction with Oliver. That was about 3 years ago. No wonder I look like I do sometimes. Shite! Nonetheless, I came home to my quiet abode, tidied up, was excited to find that my Celeriac-Potato Mash with Beer-Molasses Reduction was chosen as a Community Pick on Food 52, made some fresh ricotta (I've been pining for it for ever; why has it been so long?!?), ate a great sandwich and chopped up some fruit for a playdate here later. The sun is out, my mood is improved, I think I'll hit the gym!