Tuesday, January 19, 2010

I Have a Good Excuse

I have several actually....

1. Blogger and I still disagree about uploading photos with posts...it isn't taking too kindly to them and I haven't had the time or patience to deal with it

2. I have to go out of town again for work....but will then enjoy a long weekend at the beach

3. There have been LOTS of things going that have totally disrupted my daily routine....well really one...I had a picture to share as proof but refer to #1 on that one...and no it is not a baby...I'll share more if and when the decision is final...if I don't have a stroke before then.

I'll be back I promise with pictures...I'll just have to blog from home...my work computer kicks me off blogger when I upload pictures...I'm pretty sure its a conspiracy...Have a wonderful week. I'm off to Oklahoma City!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Labor of Love


**Editor's Note Blogger and I had conflicting ideas about when this post should be posted...I have been trying since last Thursday...it decided that today would be more appropriate so enjoy...I promise I am not this much of a procrastinator on wrapping up Christmas...its the post that is the labor of love...the other was super easy...promise

I'm just going to go ahead and wrap up Christmas...otherwise it will be March 12th and you'll be getting a picture of my Christmas tree. The weeks leading up to Christmas were such a flurry of gift buying, gift wrapping, candy making, tree decorating, stressing, packing, one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish....that I probably could drag it out that long to everyone's pain and misery. Instead, I thought I would share something that is so easy...that I can do it....and it makes a great gift...at least I think so....you may have to ask my 873,482 family members and co-workers who received some.

I start craving apple butter sometime during the first week of October...it just happens...something about the crispness in the air reminding me of the crispness of an apple....I don't know...it just hits me. So this year, instead of sitting around moping about how I won't get to go to Huber's in the fall I decided to take action and do something about it. I Googled appler butter and decided I would make my own. I'm not sure how it happened...divine intervention maybe but I found what sounded like a foolproof recipe. Go figure it was over on Darby's blog. She does all sorts of great homemade things...and she has three kids....and I just have three dogs so how hard could it be?

Crock Pot Apple Butter {yields 5 pints}

16 peeled, cored & chopped apples
1 1/2 C white sugar
1 C light brown sugar
2 T cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/2 t kosher salt

Place all ingredients in crock pot and stir so all apples are coated. Cook on HIGH for 1 hour. Reduce to LOW for 8 to 10 hours; stir occasionally...but really walk away for 8 hours...I think I forgot the stir occasionally part and it was just fine.
 
A few notes. I used a variety of apples. I read that the best apples for making apple butter are the baking kind, or the ones that have a firmer texture, so I used some granny smith, gala, cameo etc...Also, before adding the dry ingredients to the crockpot I dumped them in a bowl and mixed together so that everything distributed evenly and there wasn't one apple piece that tasted like a clove.



Before
{You should really put the cover on your crockpot at this point but I was too busy trying to take a picture to be distracted by details}


After
{notice the stay warm light...it was probably more like 9.375 hours...I had things to do}


I used a ladle for soup to scoop out the soft apples into a blender with a little of the juice. That way the apple butter stayed pretty thick when blended. I pulsed it a few times in the blender and wah-lah! The first batch I made I put juice and all in the blender and it was fine...it was just a little thin for my taste. It also yielded 10 1/2 pint jars just as the recipe says...using less juice only yielded about 7 1/2 pint jars so I had a few extra batches to make...don't mind the spatters of apple butter you will see...I am still finding them in my kitchen.




After blending the mixture, I poured it into the jars {I had already sterilized them...or in my case put them in the dishwasher...same difference....right???} I had the water boiling for the water bath and once I sterilized the lids I put them on, screwed on the tops and dropped them in...



Gan came through and saved me with a pot...apparently they don't make stock pots as deep as they used to and Wal-Mart has decided no one cans anymore and has done away with the canning section...not to mention my glass top stove {they are NOT cool no matter what anyone tells you}refuses to make a normal water bath canner boil....but I digress...I boiled the jars for 10 minutes...in water...not real impressive. Then I put them aside until I heard them tink...or whatever it is they do when they seal...if they didn't I had to take the lids off and start over but only a few dared defy me...by the 3rd batch none of them did...they must have known I was at my apple butter making end.




The final step in the process was the label...in my search for a water bath canner online I came across canning pantry. They have a new design service that lets you customize labels in all shapes and sizes and their designs are way cuter than the standard old lady label...no offense old ladies.




I was going to get really fancy and put fabric over the lids with a spreader tied to it...but that was a little much to ask mere days before Christmas not to mention everyone and their mother decided to buy every Christmas spreader in the Birmingham area...and coordinating fabric with labels was never my strong suit...coordinating fabric with anything is not my strong suit. So I am sorry family...I did not go all out on your Christmas gifts...maybe next year I'll start in May...so you can have fabric on your apple butter.

This was SOO easy I encourage everyone to try it...and it was foolproof...I mean I did it...and as far as I know no one has gotten food poisoning from it...The longest part is the peeling and the coring and the chopping of the apples...after that it is a breeze. High 1 hour....Low and walk away for 8 or 9.375....blend...pour... boil...I think it took about 30 minutes total to can {boil} each time I made a batch {about 7 jars}. Really you could skip that part because most people are going to finish their jar before it goes bad...I just wanted to pretend I lived in 1932 in a rural area and that I was going to have to survive on apple butter over the winter so I canned it. Try it please...you won't be sorry if you do...you will if you don't...

Hope everyone had a very happy New Year and hopefully Blogger and I can make amends even though it got off on the wrong foot with me....