Yup, it's that time up here. Apple time! I like apple time because there are so many things you can do with apples, and picking them is a lot of fun. One of the benefits to living here is that there are farms all around us, and plenty with apples. But even though we are surrounded by apples here, we still went further upstate to do the picking--Rensselaer County, near Troy--to visit my brother who lives up there and go to an orchard. It was a great day, the trees were FULL of large, beautiful apples. We got completely carried away, and picked 86 pounds. Yeah, I know, it's crazy. But we split them with my parents and brother, so we took home maybe 50 pounds of apples for ourselves. A good haul overall.
You are probably wondering what I would do with 50 pounds of apples. Well, I can them. Or really, jar them. I have spent the last two days jarring different apple concoctions that we can all enjoy for the next year, because that's how long they will keep. It took me about 8 hours over the two days to do it all. Not too bad a time investment, I don't think. I like it up here because it is easier to find the canning supplies I need. On Long Island, forget it, you were lucky if you could find the jars themselves. But here the jars are in almost every supermarket, and Wal-Mart has them as well as lids and pectin and I've even seen the canning pot there once or twice. My mother gave me my canning pot and the Ball Blue Book (which has the recipies in it and directions) a few years ago. I bought the magnetic lid picker-upper thingy and the jar lifter. There are a few things you need to can, that's for sure. And it takes up the whole stove top too, but still I like doing it. It must be that nesting thing. The whole idea of storing food makes me happy!
This year I made a lot. I made:
6 half pints of apple preserves
3 pints of brandied apples (well, rummed apples I guess, because I had rum and not brandy)
2 pints of caramel apple butter (which is so good, it should almost be illegal)
4 pints of sweet cider apple butter (also ridiculously good)
4 quarts and 2 pints of applesauce
And I baked and made:
apple pudding cake
apple crisp
brownies
Yeah, I know brownies do not contain apples. :) My daughter requested some for snack, and since I had the oven on anyway, I whipped up a batch. I also made lemon-mint vinegar, because I was using a lemon minus the peel for the apple preserves, and I didn't want to throw the peel away. That, plus the proliferation of mint in my garden, just lent itself to the vinegar. So that's what I did. I like using everything I can!
The final product!
Today, I am looking forward to not canning. :) Hopefully I will be able to rip out some of the quilting on my halloween quilt. I had this great motif to use on the border, I quilted it, and discovered...I can't see it. The fabric is too "busy", and it disappears. Kind of puts a damper on the whole great motif thing. So, I'll rip out the quilting I did (luckily only one side), and then I will quilt some straight lines or something instead. Something to give texture, but not really be seen (because it won't be, most likely). I hope to post some pics of the quilt later this week or weekend, because that will mean I am done!!
Thank you for stopping by! Have a great day!
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