il ne faut pas mettre tous ses ouefs dans le même panier. Putting your eggs in one basket… the same proverb exists in French as in English. And though my actual eggs were safe and sound, I had squarely placed all of my online life on the same web host. Six websites, two blogs and numerous email addresses… all in the very same basket. So when the web host accidently disconnected the account 3 days ago… poof, everything disappeared.
After a lot of hand wringing and many, many hours on the telephone, most of the sites have been restored, including this blog. Whew! Email’s still not working but there’s hope on the horizon. Just before this catastrophe I had added a subscribe button, which disappeared in the restore process. I know that a few friends had stopped by and signed up but I’m afraid that the cord was cut, so if you’re reading and you happened to be one of them, please submit your name again. And if you sent me an email after the 13th, unfortunately I didn’t get it. Uhhggg.
Luckily I’ve had other baskets to distract me. The kitchen is one of my favorite places to de-stress, and the apricot tree has decided to ripen all at once, so jam’s on the menu. Last year I played around with several different recipes and this version was the star. It has the sweet honey tang of the apricot and a subtle bitter marmalade notes from the lemon peel. It tastes like sunshine.
Apricot Lemon Preserves
- 500 grams (1 pound) lemons (organic and washed) sliced and finely chopped
- 500 ml (2 cups) water
- 5 kilos (12-1/2 pounds) fresh apricots, halved
Place lemon pulp and water into a jam pan and simmer until citrus is soft.
Add halved apricots and cook slowly until fruit is soft and beginning to break up. Add sugar and raise the temperature gradually until it has reached the boiling point. Boil steadily for at least 30 minutes. You may need to stir during the last bit to keep jam from spitting.
Pour into sterilized jars. Lid jars and invert them for about 2 minutes. Turn jars upright and cool then refrigerate. Or can in a hot water bath.
This recipe will make about 8 pints of deliciousness. Not only is it excellent on toast but also stirred into unsweetened greek yogurt or as the base of an almond tart. Apricots and almonds play so well together.