Blood orange and Prosecco jelly

How fabulous does that sound?!? Well, it is. Blood oranges have been 5 for $5 at Whole Foods lately, and I can't stop buying them. I love to eat them plain, am smitten with their always uniquely marbled interiors as well as the wide range of hues their flesh takes on and have been wanting to make a blood orange jelly for some time now. Betwixt and between various school opening delays, volunteer work, pick-ups and drop-offs today, I managed to juice about four pounds of these oranges which resulted in about three cups of beautiful juice.

I strained it several times to remove as much in the way of rogue pith and tiny seeds as possible and then set it to boil with sugar. After the sugar had melted and everything was quite hot, I stirred in some Prosecco and minced crystallized ginger and let it boil some more. For good measure, I whisked in a teaspoon or so of powdered pectin towards the end because the Meyer lemon jelly I made last week is still hovering in the jam purgatory that is a wobbly soliquid. Hoping this firms up a bit more BUT if it doesn't, imagine this stuff for cocktails. Wow!

In the meantime, enjoy my study of blood orange halves. I've got a meeting at J's school tonight so won't be offering much in the way of dinner but here's hoping for something beautiful tomorrow evening.