When things get a bit stressful, there is nothing more re-assuring than making curd.  A lovely sweet tangy mixture that foams and thickens in a re-assuring way.   

My favorite lemon of all time is the mandarin lemon.  It has a uniquely lovely tangerine, lime, sweet lemon flavor.   The skin starts green and ripens to almost red.  At this time of year the fruits are a deep orange color.

I think curds are my favorite thing to make in the word.  Perhaps it is the predictable and relatively quick way the custard thickens so  to a silky smooth lovely gelatinous precipitate.  Or is it the colors, something lush about creamy yellows and oranges.   Later in the week, I think I'll make a silky pinky orange curd from passion fruit.

In an orange hole of my own making - time to stop digging any deeper.

The precise moment I realized how deep the hole was, was last night.   Gazing into the crystalline byproduct of my orange candying.   The fact is it looked, felt and even smelt very like the sugar I have used in the past to wax my legs with.   We have been getting some nice bare leg weather this week.  I mulled over the idea of testing my crystalline gooey sugar on my shins for about 10 seconds.  Thankfully common sense prevailed.

You see the desire not to let the oranges drop and rot on the ground is very strong.    However, this instinct to preserve can easily escalate into some out of control behaviors.   A bit like the old lady who swallowed a fly and ended up eating a horse - she is dead, of course.  

The orange version of the slippery slope goes like this.   

Step 1: Start juicing and sending Beatrice to school with bottles of juice and drinking it yourself

Step 2: Buy sugar, boil and make cordials - keeps longer, easier than squeezing every morning

Step 3: Buy even more sugar and pectin (which you bring down in your suitcase with mucho trouble from customs who want to know more about the white powder) and make marmalade. 

Step 3.5: Marmalade is a venture you can spend a LONG time on. Get side tracked with different citrus combinations and mixing with coffee and other fruits.  This is a large topic, large enough to earn a PhD at least.  It extends into cake making - marmalade cakes are delicious - coffee and orange marmalade cake scores very high.

Step 4:  Buy still more sugar and pay the maid overtime to peel and chop skins for candying.........

Step 5: Don't go there - what to do with orange flavored syrup left over.  Climbing up Volcan Baru would not burn enough calories.  Tempting to use to wax legs with............but not tempting enough.

Repeat above steps for various citrus.........navel sweet oranges, mandarin oranges, mandarin lemons, persian lemons and so on...

Yes, it is time to stand back and take a deep breath.  My maid tells me she is bringing me some tree tomatoes and other goodies from the high mountain tomorrow to play with.