right now

right now

Sep 5, 2012

It may be hot still....

But it's fall in the kitchen!  We went apple picking and managed to get enough to put some up for winter.  The orchards around here are in dismal shape, most are rotting on the branch or just look awful, it made for a time consuming hunt to find the good ones!  All we get here due to our climate are Red and Golden Delicious, but I'll take what I can get and live vicariously through those of you who live far enough north to get the coveted Honeycrisps!



We ended up with 2 pecks, or what weighed in at home as right at about 20 lbs.  I would love more, but the condition of the apples along with the heat, humidity and mosquitoes had me quitting early!  Maybe another weekend I'll get more.


I finally relented and bought an apple peeler/corer/slicer.  


I spent the evening making apple pie filling to preserve.  Maybe my family will actually get more than one apple pie out of me this fall if all I have to do now is open a jar and dump it in!

This was only part of it, I had to do two batches or my poor burner would never be able to heat up that big pot!


Now that I have the peeler/slicer, I'm able to get the thin slices I prefer for pies.  I like my pies to have almost no syrup in them so they will pack into a pie nice and tightly with these.  The last time I made a pie I didn't have a slicer and tried to get them thin with a paring knife, ugh... never again!


Apple Pie in a Jar - bring it on, winter!


We were invited to a Labor Day cookout at a friend's house, so I also made an Apple Crisp, my first one ever.


It didn't end up looking like my grandma's, but I guess it turned out okay anyways - 


here is the pan an hour later... hmmm, of course it could have been awful and they were just being nice, they are nice people after all :)


a quick trip to Open House for Loch to meet his new teacher and see his desk -


then yesterday they were off!  Can you hear me shouting for joy?  I'm not being mean, they wanted back in school as much as I wanted them there.  This unbearable heat has made for some cooped up and bored children, and a frustrated mommy.  I love fall, always seems like time for a fresh start.


Marley took no time at all in getting back into her school bus waiting schedule.


I sat around in shock for a bit in the morning, then I figured I better get a plan together quick before they came home, so all I got done was jarring up some Apple Butter than had been going in the crock pot.  With that, all the apples are now dealt with.


Enjoyed a truly local summer dinner.  Although only the bread and onions here are mine, I was able to source the corn, potatoes, butter and pastured pork sausage from a local farm.  I didn't even realize it until we sat down to eat, but it certainly makes me smile to think that everything on my plate came from my own town.


Happy Back to School all you other mamas out there, enjoy!



22 comments:

  1. You have an apple peeler similar to mine, it sure saves a lot of time and they can well. I haven't looked for apples yet, we still have some from last year as we did several bushel. I would like to find some pears!

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    1. Sunnybrook, I am so glad I finally bought one of those contraptions, I would still be paring with a knife 2 days later and probably have bandaids all over my hands if not LOL Good luck on the pears, yum!

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  2. We must be on the same wave length . . . the Tattler lids and now the apple peeler. Yours looks just like the one I almost bought a couple weeks ago. But talked myself out of it. I'm not a gadget kinda gal and figured a paring knife and my hands were good enough. Now, of course, when I see that my very smart friend Erin thought it was a good investment . . . I kick myself for not getting it. (So it really does work pretty slick, huh?)

    My mouth almost watered when I saw that big pan of Apple Crisp. Just the ticket, it would be, for this cool and blowsy day we have going here in northern Minnie-soda. Yum!

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    1. Mama Pea, I'm always skeptical on those things but this is my first time buying lots of apples to put up and I had a 20% off coupon for Bed Bath and Beyond so that brought it down to 13.99 so I took the plunge. I will say it worked awesome BUT there is a part that does the slicing that is thin metal that bends and flexes too much for my liking. It works but I'm thinking too much of straightening it back into place will break it in half. If I ever get one again I will know to look for all parts to be solid - the rest of the contraption is really nice. I meant to post a video instead of the photo of Finn operating it :)

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  3. Sounds like a wonderful time. Too bad about those skeeters. And I laughed when you said maybe they just ate it because they're all so nice. Ha! I'm sure it was EXCELLENT!
    Enjoy the peace and quiet........
    :)

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    1. Sue, isn't it awesome that there are still people out there with some manners left in them? Even if it was awful they would have said "it's great! - for your first try" LOL!!

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  4. Your Apple Pie in a Jar looks delicious as well as your Apple Butter.

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    1. Thanks Tombstone! The kids are enjoying it on their peanut butter sandwiches in their school lunches, the apple butter won't last long :)

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  5. Ohhhh how I love apple pie. I don't make it very often because I can't make a pie crust and I don't need the extra calories. It is almost time to take a trip to find a big box of apples.

    That is one yummy looking meal and even better that it is all local made!

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    1. Sparkless, I'm with you there. I'm not too good at pie crust but I might try Mama Pea's method of making a bunch and freezing it. Otherwise I'll be on the lookout for a good coupon for those refrigerated roll-out crusts!

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  6. Erin - My husband loves to make pies, especially apple, pumpkin, and sweet potato. I'd love to be able to make some apple pie in a jar to have on hand for him. Do you have the recipe?

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    1. Hi Cate! I will admit that I don't adhere super strict to recipes as I'm more of a wing it kind of girl since I pressure can I have a little more leeway, but I loosely followed this how-to since she has really good recipes and ideas, and I had a bunch of syrup leftover since I pack the apples in really tightly and just add enough syrup to the headspace mark. Take her advice about just adding enough syrup to the cooked apples to coat them and you won't end up with a liquid mess LOL, have fun! http://www.simplycanning.com/canning-apple-pie-filling.html

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  7. Yum, your apple pie filling looks delicious! Could have used that in my pie this past weekend. :-) We went back to school August 20th and after three month of summer break we were all ready for it. Even the kids!

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    1. Anke, I remember being excited for school to start too. Although I'm anxious to have my days back, I admit to being one of the first to want them back home come May, and waiting for the end of June is awful!

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  8. That looks wonderful! Most of our local orchards were hit with a hard, late frost and lost the majority of their apples. It may be slim pickings this year. Good thing I canned enough last year to hold me - 'cept I love me my eating apples...What recipe do you use for apple pie filling? It looks scrumtious!

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    1. Susan, yep I think we'll just take what we can get this year and try and forget about it LOL! See my above reply to Cate about the recipe :) Hope you aren't getting drowned like we are today, rain nonstop!

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    2. Thanks, Erin! That site is a great resource. Hopefully, I will be able to find apples in quantities enough to make this.

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    3. Congrats on the local dinner, it does make you feel good to be supporting local farms.

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  9. I'm curious about your apple butter recipe. It looks wonderful & I'd love to try making some. Do you have a recipe for that you can share?

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  10. Hi Jocelyn! I didn't follow a recipe since I made 4 small jars that will keep in the fridge and be used right away so I wasn't as concerned with canning ingredient proportions. This was probably about a dozen apples, peeled and cored and placed in a crock pot and cooked down with some of my left over syrup from the pie filling for spice and sugar. I cooked it on low overnight and when you can put some in a spoon and let it sit for 5 minutes without a "water puddle" oozing out around it, it's about perfect. There are lots of good recipes out there, I would start with SB Canning's website, she has some good recipes, but the best/easiest ones involve the crockpot and the tip with the spoon. If you can do both of those it should turn out great, the rest is just adjusting sugar & spices to find the one you like best :)

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  11. Theresa, it was! Wish I had time to go apple picking again, but I've been swamped with yard work and housework :)

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