The Orangina jelly did not happen, mostly because being pregnant sucks. I'm thinking the worst of the morning (meaning: all day) sickness is over, but I still have these tremendous highs and lows - one minute I feel as if I could dig my own swimming pool and the next I can barely walk by the kitchen without wretching. So, while I did not actually make the jelly I did settle on a recipe and procured the ingredients so at the next "high" I'll be ready.


I started by examining standard jelly recipes like grape or apple but realized pretty quickly that this was not what I wanted since these recipes start with actual fruit that is drained in a jelly bag. Since I'll already have a liquid I wanted to find a recipe that starts with a liquid - starting in the middle of the apple jelly recipe didn't seem quite right to me if I could find one that started with, say, apple cider. So I went out and got an apple cider jelly recipe to get some idea of the proportions. Since cider probably has some natural pectin in it where Orangina is most likely pectin-free (despite being 12% juice and 2% pulp, as the label proudly proclaims) I'm going to increase the pectin just a bit. Which means that I'm also going to put some additional sugar into the mix, since that helps keep the pectin from clumping (if you mix the pectin and sugar together before adding to the hot liquid). I'll keep you posted.


Finally, I was reading a book by Dorothy Rodgers today (as is the Mr. and Mrs. Richard Rodgers) entitled "My Favorite Things" published in 1964 by a company the name of which has escaped me. Anyway, in it she talks about the "advantages and disadvantages of live-in help" and goes on about the many sacrifices she makes to keep her cook and waitress happy. The passage concludes with a melancholy statement of missing the "flexibility present in serventless households." That's it! I will no longer think of my home as chaotic, but merely flexible. I think Mrs. Rodgers would be proud.