In frigid weather like we've been having the kitchen is just about the best place to be. The other day I decided to warm things up by making marmalade with the organic lemons and limes I bought earlier this week. I checked online for recipes and ended up, as I often do, taking bits and pieces from a couple. From a blog called A Mad Tea Party I got the intriguing idea of making pectin from pips, though my lemons and limes didn't yield enough pips to make anything. The Tea Party woman also suggested adding roasted dried peppers to the marmalade, which I did with half of the batch. I don't know how it tastes but I like the red accents.Yesterday meanwhile I used some of the marmalade without to make oat bran muffins. They went nicely with some soft goat cheese and the soup I also made yesterday morning from root vegetables.
Also heating it up are the 76ers, who on Saturday against the still-motley Knicks ran their win streak to seven. Can they make it eight today when they host the Mavs at one this afternoon? I hope so. I wanted to be at the game, always a great way to celebrate Martin Luther King Day, but will have to settle for following on the radio.
For whatever reason, since Tony DiLeo took over from Mo Cheeks, the Sixers have played a much more energetic brand of basketball---on both sides of the ball. And I don't think it's just the competition, though that's been part of their recent success. After a sluggish couple of months, Andre Miller has become the great floor leader he was last season and Andre Iguodala is again showing brilliance. Dalembert seems to have remembered that defense wins games, and Young, Speights, and Williams, babies all, are absolute delights to watch. Not to forget Ivy, Evans, Green, or the occasional Marshall. Getting Elton Brand, who's been sidelined with a dislocated shoulder, back into the mix may be today's biggest challenge.
