What can I make with a jar of Marmalade

Some of my earliest memories relate to eating breakfast at my grandparents home where we used to stay a lot at weekends when we were little.  I remember steaming cups of tea,  thick doorstep hot toast off the Rayburn and then either Pop's home produced set honey to spread on top or Nan's home made Marmalade.  So I was introduced to good things from a very early age.  

Most households have Marmalade in the cupboard. Its innocuous enough - most of us eat it on toast and that's it.   If you are lucky it is home made which is absolutely scrummy otherwise most people buy off the shelf. 

Marmalade just isn't marmalade it can be made of various ingredients.  An all time favourite for me is home made Seville Orange Marmalade as you get the tartness, and sweetness with a touch of caramel thrown in.  All rather exotic but another hot on its heels favourite is Pumpkin Marmalade; this I really adore and love for breakfast or Ginger Marmalade and err there is Lemon Marmalade, three fruit marmalade and it goes on and on - there are numerous recipes out there each different in their own right - so the flavours do vary quite a bit and they are all pretty special in their own way.  

How about ringing the changes and using a different flavoured marmalade in that cake recipe, it all helps ring the changes and helps you stamp your own i.d. on a particular recipe.  Or why not add  that half a jar that is going nowhere  to your crock of home prepared mincemeat. Or make that Marmalade Cake or add to Parkin, or make a quick orange sauce for duck, or a sweet hot sauce for pouring over ice cream (just add a little water or fresh orange juice to the marmalade and/or a little orange liqueur put in a pan and heat until bubbling and the consistency is as thick or as runny as you want it); and then pour it over your ice cream; or make a tea loaf or Marmalade ice cream or use to glaze that gammon joint for Christmas or those gammon steaks that are in the fridge or make a mousse. The options are only limited by yourself.

Unfortunately as is often the case with jams etc some always gets left in the jar, forgotten about and is often thrown away. Hands up have done it before, don't really intend to do it again as I hate waste.   

Rather than just thinking of jam as a partner for toast, how about thinking of it as an ingredient in its own right.  Has that got you thinking?  Well in the spirit of waste not want not, and with everything costing so much more these days why waste a perfectly good ingredient.  There are other things you can do with this innocuous ingredient and none of the taste is lost and it makes something very much out of just a few ingredients.

Remember It's not just a jar of marmalade it is a revelation it has new uses - it just needs a different way of looking at it i.e. a different mindset.  So don't leave a lonely jar of marmalade on the shelf, go on be a devil and use it up and add new recipes to your repoirtoire.  Simples as the Meerkats would say.