Spicy Orange Marmalade Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 lb clementines
• 2 lemons
• 1 lb sugar
• 3 dried thai chilis
• 1 tsp. thai chili flakes
• 12 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp chinese 5 spice powder

Instructions

1. Peel clementines, removing as much pith as possible. (A sharp paring knife makes this a lot easier.)
2. Take 1-2 clementine’s worth of peel (rinsed) and slice into long thin strips.
3. Peel and seed lemons.
4. Puree clementines and lemon in a food processor or blender until slightly chunky.
5. Puree garlic.
6. Pour all ingredients in sauce pan with affixed candy thermometer, and bring to a boil.
7. Reduce heat, stir frequently and simmer until mixture reaches 220 degrees Fahrenheit.
8. Skim any foam off the top, and pour mixture into a preheated (so it doesn’t crack) glass container.

You really could use any combination of fruit you have lying around the house. Most jam / marmalade recipes recommend a 1 / 1 ratio of fruit to sugar. (A kitchen scale is a tremendous help.) This didn’t turn out really spicy, I tried to keep the heat down in case I use it to cook for friends who don’t like hot food. I figured I could easily add more pepper flakes on a dish by dish basis. This could also be canned if you sterilize jars first. Some excellent uses are stir fry, spread on grilled cheese, or a glaze for any kind of roast. It finishes pretty thick, so if you want to use it in a stir fry you will want to add some liquid as well.

The Asian ingredients can easily be obtained at your local Asian grocer. If you don’t have one you could substitute other pepper flakes / dried peppers, just keep in mind the Thai variety is much hotter than typical red pepper flakes. The five spice powder can be substituted with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and a tiny bit of cumin.

If took about an hour on low heat for my marmalade to reach 220, if you don’t have a candy thermometer, when the mixture starts to become thick put a glob on a chilled plate and run a knife through it. If it runs together, it’s not done.

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Food Projects I’d Like to Tackle This Year

Making my own:

• Bread
• Cheese
• Jams (canning in general)
• Butter (and subsequently, herb butter)
• Prosciutto
• Sausage
• Pickled peppers or veggies
• Soda or root beer

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On Designing in the Browser

The bottom line is you should use whatever is most effective for you, but for me starting in the browser is working backwards.

I learned a design is done in layers, and I believe markup is just one of the outer layers. When I draw a figure I begin with a gesture, then a skeleton, then muscle, skin and clothing. If I start with the clothes I don’t understand what’s under them and how they should fall, where the light and shadows belong.

When I build a website I start with a list of the content it requires, then a doodle, a wireframe or a combination of the two, a comp, and finally markup and style. There are a variety of tools for any of these steps, but the browser is only a tool for one. Skipping any of those steps seems lazy and like a missed opportunity to think a design completely through.

Yes, you certainly need to be aware of browser limitations when creating a design, but those shouldn’t dictate your design. (People who have zero fluency in markup have no business calling themselves web designers.)Creativity in code can come from trying to make a good, usable design do everything it can and should. This is how we push new browser standards, or end up with tools that help fill the gaps, like jQuery.

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