Apple Picking & Applesauce Canning

A few weekends ago we went apple picking.  We didn’t know what to expect, since this was the first time we’d done any apple picking as a family.  BOY was it busy!!  There were so many people that we almost turned around and went home.  But I really wanted to make applesauce, and I really wanted to create a family memory, so we soldiered on. 

After driving to the correct part of the orchard (this is a BIG farm), and taking one bag from the attendant –a 20lb capacity bag – we made it to the part of apple picking that is actually picking apples. 

We were picking Melrose and Suncrisp apples this day.  Melrose apples were developed at Ohio State University, and they have become the official state apple.  They are delicious!!  They’re tart, juicy, and perfect.  Of course, when you go to pick apples, you have to try out the goods. 

When I tasted a Suncrisp apple, I have to say that I liked it just a bit better.  It’s amazingly delicious.  While the Melrose is a cross between a Johnathon and a Red Delicious, a Suncrisp is a cross between a Golden Delicious and a Cox Orange Pippin (never heard of that one).  It was a bit tarter, just as juicy, and still a great eating apple.  I have had a love affair with Honeycrisp apples for a few years now, but this one surpasses my honeycrisps in flavor for sure.

When I got home, I washed the apples and stored them in a jumbo ziplock bag in my crisper drawer.  Eventually, they were going to become applesauce.  A few will become pies, but those won’t happen until Thanksgiving.  I’m hoping they store well like they say they do.

Last weekend (after another trip to the farm to buy 3 more pecks – does 4 pecks equal a bushel?  That’s how many I ended up with) I set into making applesauce.  I LOVE homemade applesauce.  There is nothing like it, and it’s so stinking easy!  If you don’t take into account the time it takes to peel, core, and chop the apples before getting them into the pot. 

After 2 hours, and help from Rick, I filled to overflowing two crock pots. (Thanks, Heather for letting me borrow yours!!) I add some sugar – around a half cup, though a full cup makes it so much better – then sprinkle the top with cinnamon.  Mix it all up with about a 1/2 cup of water) and let it cook on low for about 8 hours.  My house smelled SOOOOO good!!! At the end of the 8 hours, I took a ricer to the sauce just to make sure it wasn’t too chunky. 

This was my first attempt at canning anything.  (Thanks, Heather for letting me borrow your canning equipment!) I must say, if there was a fly on my wall watching me can, it would have died of laughter.  I can’t say I’m all that good yet at judging how much water should be in the big canning pot.  The floor got a good soaking from the boiling water that was displaced by my 6 cans.  My feet were pretty soaked as well. 

You’ll notice there are no pictures of me actually canning.  It was just too big of a mess to think about grabbing my camera to document the hilarity.

I ended up with a total of 10 quarts of applesauce from about 3 pecks or 20lb bags.  I have another peck left to make sauce and enough apples pulled out from my first trip to make 2 pies (I hope).  There are a TON of apples in my house! 

This applesauce is the most divine thing I’ve ever tasted. If you ever find yourself with 8-10 apples (or 100lbs), please take the time to peel, core, and chop those apples, throw in some sugar and cinnamon if you want and make applesauce.  It’s REALLY something everyone should experience. 

Healthy Recipes

I was posting recipes here for a while, then I dropped off the recipe bandwagon.  I don’t love to blog about recipes, but I do love to share yummy food, so I’ll do a quick cheater recipe blog post. 

These are the recipes I’ve been trying out lately on our low calorie diet.  They’re pretty yummy.  (you can click on the pictures to be taken to the recipe)

This is Kraft’s Fish and Vegetable Casserole.  It was pretty tasty, though, I would never have thought about putting something like this together.  I ended up changing some basics of it, so I can’t say what the original recipe tastes like, but the skeleton of it that I used worked well with my changes.  It calls for red peppers (I used green), onions, white fish (I used Swai), tomatoes (I forgot to add these), Italian dressing, and red potatoes (I used sweet potatoes because that’s what I had on hand).  And then it’s all topped with mozzarella cheese (I used a Mexican blend because that’s what I had).  It did call for cilantro, but none of us really like cilantro, so I left it out.  I think this dish would be great with chicken or pork as well. 

This next recipe is one of our favorites now.  Honey Mustard-Glazed Pork Chops from Eat Better America is now our go-to recipe for quick and yummy dinners around here.  We’ve had it twice in the last week.  You just sear the chops real quick, then add a mixture of honey, mustard, ground cloves, onion powder, salt (or onion salt if you have it)  and pepper to the chops and let them cook for about 10 minutes.  It’s that easy.  I usually roast some broccoli or do a mixed veggie on the side.  YUM!

Beef and Bean Enchiladas.  This is our other OH MY GOSH IT’S AMAZING recipe.  We fell in love with this recipe as soon as it crossed our lips.  I haven’t made it again yet, but I will be making it as soon as ground beef goes on sale again.  That’s how I roll.  I don’t like beans, so I was a little leery of this one, but I didn’t even notice the beans in there when I was eating it.  It’s another super easy recipe.  Sauté the peppers and onions, brown the beef, add the  seasonings and beans, then wrap everything up in tortillas.  Put some salsa in a pan, lay your wraps in the pan, then cover with salsa and cheese.  Bake and enjoy!  Really.  It’s so super easy and so super yummy.  I used low carb tortillas last time, but I’m going to use my homemade ones next time.

 

That leads me to this final recipe I’ve tried recently.  I like tortillas, but I don’t love them.  They usually have a harsh taste to them that I just can’t describe.  But it leaves me reaching for the hard tacos instead of the tortillas on taco night.  I decided to try my hand at homemade tortillas and WOW are they good!  I could eat the whole batch in one sitting I’m sure!  That strange, harsh taste is not there at all. Flour, salt, baking powder, water,  & oil.  That’s all.  Now, I do have to admit that they take a lot of work to roll out super flat, and my arm muscles were given a workout when I made my batch, but they really are worth it.

There ya go!  I hope you try something listed here.  They really are yummy.  Let me know what you try – I love to hear other’s reactions to what I think is yummy.  Oh, and if you’re looking for more healthy recipes, you can check out my ever growing Healthy Recipe Pinboard.  If you need an invite to join Pintrest, let me know and I’ll get you started.  it’s addicting, but oh so helpful when you want to find really great ideas. 

Fall “Easter” Eggs

The other day I hard boiled eggs like I do every few weeks, and I decided that Jack and I were going to color eggs again.  We did it for Easter and loved it, so why not do it more often?  I chose fall colors this time (yellow, orange, green and brown) and I think they turned out great! 

I started out with my tools :

The paper towel roll cut up into little egg drying stands works best if they’re not glued together.  For the colors, I followed the ‘recipes’ on the back of the food color box.

One egg must have had a crack in it when I put it in the pot.  We didn’t color this one, but it sure was fun to eat after we were done coloring the rest of the eggs.

I have a feeling we’ll be dying eggs for every holiday coming up.  Thanksgiving will be the same, but Christmas may look a tad different. 

I’m linking this up with La-La’s Home Daycare Holiday Kid Craft link up.  Hop on over to see what other holiday crafts have been posted. 

Foto Friday–Machines

This was my suggestion, and it was SO hard to narrow down my pictures to just one.  So I didn’t.  I like that I can do that with this prompt.

A few weeks ago, they repaved our road.  It was a great day for Jack!  We walked around the neighborhood and watched the truck pull the ‘box’ along behind it, laying down the ‘slurry’.  Real technical terms here.

They truck ran out of mix right in front of our house, which means they had to leave the box here and go fetch another truck that had more mix in it.  You know what that means….I ran over and started taking pictures of the box like it was a supermodel! The workers (who were still there waiting for the new truck to come) were a little confused about why I was taking pictures.  One even asked me, “what are the pictures for?”  I said “I just like to take pictures, and how often is one of these things in front of my house?”  He wasn’t seeing how it was a picture-moment. 

In all honesty, when I suggested the theme Machines, I was thinking more about the machines we have laying All.Over.My.House.  Jack has a few loves, the biggest being machines. 

I hope you have a great weekend.  Rick took off work today, and he doesn’t have to work on Monday, so it’s a four day weekend in our home!  I wonder what we’ll do (besides doing some laundry and grocery shopping)

(Don’t forget to click on the Foto Friday box to go see other pictures of machines.)