So, applebutter...

The applebutter experiment was a rousing success. I love that I was able to make it in the slow cooker. And the applebutter aficionado in the house says that it tastes like his favorite store-bought brand - a ringing endorsement, to be sure. Photos of the finished product need work, maybe the batch I do on Saturday will photograph better than this batch did.So, the recipe...

2.5 kilos apples, cored and finely chopped (I ran them through the food processor)

800 g raw sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

Place the apples in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the sugar, spices and salt. Pour the mixture over the apples in the slow cooker and mix well. Cover and cook on high 1 hour. Reduce heat to low and cook 9 to 11 hours, (mine took about 10) stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thickened and dark brown. Uncover and continue cooking on low 1 hour. During the last hour, blend it smooth with an immersion blender. Ladle into sterilized jars. Boil filled jars for 15 min. Cool and store.

I used organic Gala apples, but I think Granny Smiths or Jonathans would work well, too.

It seems to me, too...

"It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it; and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied; and it is all one." M. F. K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

Peaches!

Yay jam! My first attempt at peach jam appears to be a success. I used a super easy recipe from a food blogger, Orangette, called Italian Family Jam. I am very happy with how it turned out - though my normal tasters have not yet passed down their verdicts, so we shall see.

A few of the things on my plate this semester... - Classes - i am taking 9 graduate credits - Teaching - i teach 1010 every monday, wednesday and friday - Program for College Teaching - i am getting a teaching certificate - PRAXIS - so i am marketable on a high school level, in addition to college -Thesis - i need to have narrowed my topic by then end of the semester... a hard task for someone with such disparate interests... and that is just for school...

I made pickles!!! This may only be exciting to me, but I have never done it before and it is an exciting kitchen accomplishment for me. They are Garlic Dill Refrigerator Pickles and when the 3 days is up and I know if they are good, I might post the recipe. Until then....Squeee!