How to Relieve Stress? Make Marmalade

It was a long Monday at school.  The PSSA testing began.  Six classes of art, out of order with the schedule.  And we lost that precious hour this weekend, changing the clocks.  After school I headed for the gym.  On my way to the gym, I got an idea.   I stopped at Ritter’s Diner thinking I might photograph their juke boxes for a memories post.  I ordered a cup of Orange Pekoe tea with lemon and started to read the City Paper. And an order of wheat toast with the butter on the side.  A small plastic rectangle of grape jelly sat on the plate.   But I was sitting there in a small booth reading and on page 36 there was a photograph of some oranges  at the bottom left of the page with a recipe for Marmalade.   I wished I had it on the toast.    Cooking or baking something always relieves stress. So I thought, I have all the ingredients and skipped the gym (uh-oh) went right  home and  sliced two oranges and a lemon really thin and added 2 cups of boiling water. A full cup of sugar seemed so much  (I used 3/4 cup) and cooked it down ’til it looked like marmalade. The scent from the simmering pan was delicious.  Growing up I never enjoyed marmalade, preferring honey, strawberry or raspberry jam. My mom would make marmalade or Mrs. Burns from church would bring some to the house.  I enjoy the taste now. Tart and sweet.  Can’t wait to try it on buttered toast in the morning.  (Oh, and the juke boxes have CD’s inside of them now and a putty colored metal and or plastic, not the chrome I was seeking so did not shoot them. Evoked no memories for me.  Just the marmalade came from the excursion.