A little bit of food coloring goes a long way....

PI usually post on here about my sewing projects, but this event was so funny that I needed to post it so that you can laugh along with me over this mishap.

I have been toying with the idea of canning some curd to add to the jam repertoire.  I love the taste of citrus curd in my desserts and the "brit" in me loves it on toast.  I made a batch of lemon curd for a wedding I did recently and had a bunch leftover.  So, in my scientific nature, I decided to bring the batch to work and have folks taste it, and then make a new batch, can it, and open it some time later for my guinea pigs to taste again to see if it held up in quality after being canned.  It was met with rave reviews from the folks at work.  Many of them had never tasted lemon curd before, so it was such a joy watching their eyes widen and then grab additional spoons to eat out of the container.  I only had one tough critic that felt it was too sour and sweet, but everyone else really appreciated the bright, fresh taste.

Luckily, one of the ladies at work loved the taste of curd so much that she bought two jars of it from me already.  I explained the conundrum and asked her to report back on the curd quality from the jar.  I also had a few other volunteers to participate.  It is always nice to have folks around who love to try new things!

Well, today I found myself with time to experiment, so I headed off to find lemons to make curd to can.  I bought a large bag of lemons and two dozen eggs.  I got a wild hair on the way to the store and decided to try lime curd too.  I wasn't sure how many limes I needed, as they are a bit smaller than lemons, so I bought a big bag for experimenting.  I had made lime curd before in school, but it had been a while and I couldn't find the recipe we used.  So, I just decided to use the same recipe I used for the lemon, but substituting lime and increasing the number to get the proper amount of juice.  So I cooked away at my stove, starting first with the lemons, as I was certain about that recipe.  I was able to make 7 jars out of the first batch....NICE!  The second batch yielded 6 jars and a 7th that was 3/4 full.  Not bad.  I need the curd for tomorrow's dessert project, so I will use the one that didn't quite fill to the top.  Excellent!  Now I did the lime curd.  I got to the end and tasted.....AMAZING!!!!  It was so fresh and bright!  But there was just one problem.  It was the same color as the lemon curd.  I paused for a brief moment thinking how awful it would be if it stayed yellow, and not a shade of green.  But, then I thought I could just add a little food coloring to make it a light lime green shade.  No problem!

I need to remember.....a little bit of food coloring goes a long way.....

I sat and chuckled to myself for about ten minutes at the obnoxious green curd sitting on my counter.  I was half kicking myself and half laughing on how I was going to fix this.  I had run out of eggs and butter, so another batch to dilute this batch was out of the question.  Tossing it would be sinful, as it tastes too good for just throwing away.

I normally save my experimenting for pawning off stuff onto others.  I have to say that I was lucky I wasn't making it for an event today!  Oh well....

So, I leave it to you, my family and friends.  Calling all "lime aficionados!"  I double dog dare you to try the green curd.  Let me know if you are brave enough to try it!

Happy Crafting!