Anybody have any good apple preserving recipes?

I have a problem with apples.

Or rather, it's not so much a problem with apples themselves.  Apples are delicious, especially when covered in sugar and cinnamon.  (And also by themselves because nutritious and healthy and goodforyou and all that, blah, blah, blah.)

But apparently I overdid it with the apples at a recent trip to an orchard.

Adele and I went on a field trip with her school to Hinton's Orchard, a local orchard that is full of lovely people and delicious fruits and vegetables and baked goods and homemade peanut butter.

And pumpkin patches.

We go there every fall, and also bug the owners at random farmers markets throughout the year because my husband loves to talk apple trees and I love to buy herb plants.  Super nice, amazing people.  Go there if you get the chance.

Usually Chris is with me during our annual fall apple buying extravaganza and he reigns in my crazy a bit.  But this year it was just me and my girl so I came home with two bushels of Mutsu seconds.  (Two bushels for $28.  A ridiculously good price.)

I don't think it's a secret here that I like to make things from scratch and to preserve food when I can.  So the apples were destined for applesauce and apple butter at least.  I started out well last Friday - peeling, coring and chopping a ton of apples while I watched last year's The New Girl on my kindle.  But I didn't even get through half a bushel.  I did get about 5 or 6 quarts of applesauce though.  (Not nearly enough.)

My applesauce recipe isn't really a recipe at all.  I prefer the apples without any added sweetener or spice.  I put the peeled and chopped pieces in a large pot with little bit of water, maybe a half a cup, to keep everything from sticking, then cook over medium heat until mushy.  Maybe an hour or so.  (It's a really big pot so it takes awhile.)  Then once it's done I let it cool, put in jars and put the jars in the freezer.  I could can them but it's much easier to freeze.  I don't puree the applesauce because I like it chunky.  The texture of pureed applesauce is too much like baby food for me.

I used the apple peelings from the applesauce to make apple peel jelly using this recipe.  It was a giant failure.  Or rather, maybe it became more an apple syrup than jelly.  I tried to use the natural pectin from the peels, but something went wrong.  I think maybe I cooked the juice too long?  And now that I'm looking at the recipe again, I'm not entirely sure I used lemon juice.  Woops.  So I have a thick, sticky substance in my refrigerator that tastes apple-y.  We put it on pancakes and it worked fine as long as you ate it before it cooled.  Once cooled it was a bit too thick, almost caramel.  So maybe it's apple caramel?  I should probably dip apples in it.

After the applesauce I made apple fritters.  Make this recipe.  You will not be sorry.  Easy, delicious fried dough.  The kids wouldn't eat them (WEIRDOS) so Chris and I ate them all.

Then there was apple butter.  I doubled this recipe.  It worked fine - hours and hours in the crock pot, then I pureed the result and put it in jars then in the freezer.

Once again I couldn't bring myself to throw out the peels.  It just seems so wasteful, you know?  We do compost, but there's so much stuff left on the peels!  So this time I attempted apple peel cider using this recipe/guideline.   Not much has happened yet but I have hopes.  I am trying to use the wild yeast that's on the peels, but it may be that I have to use some yeast that my husband has from his own beer/cider making.  We'll see.

I've also made apple dumplings using this recipe.  Do you know how difficult it was to find just an apple and dumpling recipe that didn't include soda or canned bread?  I just wanted cooked apples with dumplings on top - like chicken and dumplings.  In hindsight I should have called my parents.  My dad makes awesome blackberry dumplings.  I wasn't too keen on the one recipe I did find.  Or rather - I wasn't too keen on how it turned out.  I think I may have overcooked the dumplings, which was entirely my fault.  The kids refused to try them because they are insane.

Last night I made an apple crisp which was delicious and just what I wanted it to be.  I used this recipe, which was simple, thank goodness.  I did add a quarter teaspoon of salt to the topping because otherwise it would have been too bland.  The salt balances out the sweetness.  Apple crisp is one of my favorite desserts, and this didn't disappoint.

That finished off the first bushel of apples.  Keep in mind we are all eating them fresh, too.  And I still have a whole bushel to go.

My future apple plans include apple pie, of course.  And maybe canned apple pie filling.  Definitely more applesauce.  Maybe a couple of whole pies to freeze.  More apple crisp.  Another attempt at apple jelly.  Possible more hard cider.  And dried apples.  We also like to put apples in salads, lest you think that we are all subsisting on apples, sugar and cinnamon at the moment.

Guys.  I love apple season.

I think my children are happy I'm caffeinated as well, because I am much more patient

I've decided that ridiculously strong french press coffee at 2 p.m. while I sit on my front porch waiting the bus to drop Sebastian off from school is the best idea ever.

It may have something to do with my daughter who thinks that sleeping is stupid and so wakes up at weird hours, like 5 a.m., and won't go back to sleep and my husband waits until I've already gone up and semi-comforted our precious angel and come back downstairs before telling me that he was getting up anyway and could have gotten up with her instead of me.

Thanks, Christopher.  That was super helpful.

So I've been dragging all day, even after my morning dose of coffee.  But that coffee isn't thick, french press coffee.  So as I prepared myself to sit outside, which is my favorite part of the day because I am alone, sitting outside quietly knitting, I decided to make some coffee.  But I didn't want to make a pot because it seemed wasteful for just a cup.

And I'm so glad I opted for french press.  (I'm also trying to see how many times I can type 'french press' in one entry, and how many words I can write about coffee.  Because coffee is delicious and life-affirming.  Especially french press.  French press.  French press.)

But strong coffee in the afternoon makes me feel like a human again, instead of an exhausted mutant.  And it also makes me feel slightly less aggravated.  Like, I've been interrupted just now no less than 58 times to fetch my children random snacks and I'm still not wanting to lock the door and lock them out.  I mean really, you'd think that sitting them in front of the television would offer enough of a distraction, but no.

So strong coffee in the afternoon makes me want to accomplish things.  I've been plugging along pretty steadily making things for my etsy shop, but I've been pointedly ignoring the quilt I'm making for Sebastian.  Sometimes it just seems overwhelming, you know?  But I'm close enough that I think the super tedious part is behind me.  So I dove in this afternoon.  See?  Progress:

Notice the Tardis fabric? It makes me smile.

And I also decided to finally mix up the cream that's been sitting in my refrigerator and make some butter.  My sister gave me a bunch of milk that I needed to skim and pasteurize, and so I had an over-abundance of cream.  I made the mistake of pouring it all into the mixer at once and made a helluva mess.  But fresh butter was the result.

Butter.  Almost.

Strong coffee in the late afternoon even makes me want to blog when more often than not by this time of day I've already given up on finding the time to write.  Of course, I should be making dinner, as is evident by my starving children.

So I'm going to go now.

But just know that I am cooking dinner with gusto and boundless energy.

(Of course we all know that I'm either going to come down from this caffeine high at 7:30 and crash, or I won't be able to sleep all night long and will, once again, repeat the non-sleeping cycle.  I'll keep you informed as I'm sure everyone is waiting impatiently to hear how my evening went.)

If you'll excuse me I have to go hippie up my lifestyle now

I probably shouldn't be taking the time to blog because my house looks like life exploded inside of it in the form of unmade beds and toys and random dishes and Duplos all over every room because a grumpy little girl threw them at me. 

Also I've scheduled myself to can a bunch of crushed tomatoes this afternoon, thanks to my parents and their abundance of romas that they are willing to share.  And I'm making yogurt as soon as the milk thaws.  And I want to try coconut milk yogurt on account of all the paleo that's happening in our lives right now.  Also I'm making Quark for Chris' mom, which for those of you who have no idea what it is, much like myself before my German mother-in-law, it's a sort of yogurt-cheese-thing that can be used to make cakes (Quark-Sahne Cake!) or savory dishes. 

First day of kindercamp.  Before he left me on the bus
and I went inside and forced myself not to throw up or
cry, because MY BABY!

And tonight is Sebastian's open house for kindergarten (!!!!!!!!).  He went to kinder-camp last week to get him used to his classroom and teacher and general school-related atmosphere.  He insisted on riding the bus, which I thought I was okay with until I put him on the bus and my stomach dropped and I felt like I didn't give him enough of a goodbye and my heart hurt because I wasn't going to be walking him into school and you better believe I won't be making that mistake the first day of actual school, though now that he's already ridden the bus he's questioning why I have to drive him. 

As his father told him, "IT'S FOR YOUR MOTHER, CHILD."

And then when it was time for him to leave school I sat on the porch to wait for the bus to drop him off.  And then I waited some more.  And even more.  And 45 minutes after he was let out of kindercamp that is all of FIVE WHOLE MINUTES from our house I started calling the school.  But unfortunately I was not unique and I'm assuming that all the other mothers of bus riders had the same hyperventilating worry and the phone was busy the entire 12 times I called.

Oh yes I did.

But he made it home fine, if an hour and ten minutes after camp ended. BUT WHO'S COUNTING?

To compensate for my stress level I took the kids out to McDonalds.  I ate a quarter pounder with bacon.  At least the bacon was paleo, I guess.

So tonight I will meet Sebastian's teacher and attempt not to cry when I see the room where he will be spending all of his time away from me.  I think he's a little nervous, too.  We've had some behavior issues, and then this morning he told me he had a bad dream where I drove away from him and the school bus left him and he had to find his own way home.

I told him (again) that he doesn't have to ride the bus, that I will drive him if he'd prefer, but he told me that IT WAS JUST A DREAM, MOM.  IT WASN'T REAL.

He's also been letting me kiss him without smacking me in the face, so that's been nice.  Although he tells me every time that he doesn't like kisses because they are gross.

So to sum up, I'm batshit crazy on account of all the Hippie Homesteading I'm doing to distract myself from the fact that I'm batshit crazy because my oldest baby is starting kindergarten in two days.

(Let's talk about Kombucha and Kefir next time!  Hippies Rule!)

Homemade Friday: Mozzarella straight from the cow. Almost.

My sister, Courtney has a cow.
No, I mean a real cow.  Like a milk cow.  That she milks every morning.

This may be humorous to those of you who knew her, who remember her saying that she was going to only have one child and live in the city and be an actress. 

Those days were a long time ago.  She has three kids, a couple of step kids, and she lives in the country.  With a cow.  And chickens.  And dogs.  And a horse.  And I suspect that she only said she wanted one child because her younger sister had a tendency to read her journal.  Also - can't we all say that some point we wanted to be an actor?

So, this is who my sister is now.  And I love it.  She gets up in the morning and milks a cow.  And I get to benefit from it.

See?

That's three gallons of milk.  Fresh milk.  The hipster in me is completely delighted at all the stuff I can make with Whole! Fresh! Milk!

First off was mozzarella. 

We have pizza every Friday - homemade pizza with homemade dough and sauce.  And while I can't make the pepperoni myself -yet - I thought it would be super neat to make my own cheese.  Plus we're trying to save money and I spend $8 for a big bag of Wal-mart brand cheese that doesn't last as long as you'd think.  Or maybe I just use too much cheese.  What can I say.  I like cheese.  It runs in the family.  Just ask my mom.

So my sister gave me a ton of milk and cheese making supplies because she's awesome.

Her instructions came from The Cheese Queen.  And they were simple.  Sort of.

The first few steps are completely easy.  You put diluted citric acid in a pot with a gallon of milk and heat it up to 90 degrees, then add the rennet and let it sit for five minutes.  Then cut the curd and heat it up again to 105, take it off the heat and stir it for a few minutes.

And here's where I started having problems.

I drained off the whey and microwaved the curds, but once I tried to knead the curds, they were so hot that I couldn't touch them.  And then I repeated the process.  And then again.  I have no pictures of this because I was too busy trying to administer first aid to my scorched fingertips.

At one point I had the cheese exactly like it was supposed to be - silky and smooth and even touchable without raging burns.  But then I realized that I'd forgotten to put the salt in.  So I sprinkled it on and kneaded it in, and my cheese turned hard and rubbery and the salt wasn't worked in enough so some spots were super salty while others were bland.

I was so sad.

I tried again another day with better results - and rubber gloves.  But even though I put the salt in right where I was supposed to and didn't overwork the cheese nearly as much before it still was too hard and too bland.

However in spite of the disappointing cheese, once it was melted on the pizza it still tasted good.  And I'm not discouraged.  If anything I'm even more excited and determined to do it the right way.

See? It runs in the family.

I used the rest of the milk for ice cream - dark chocolate, vanilla and strawberry - so I need to visit my sister and steal some more.

I think I'm almost giddy with this whole process.  I mean, think of what else you can make with fresh milk!  Cream cheese!  Butter! Sour Cream! Buttermilk! EVEN MORE CHEESE AND ICE CREAM!

Homemade Friday: Corn! And Beans! And Salsa!

In hindsight I was ridiculously unprepared.

In the spring my dad planted a whole bunch of corn, enough for my sister’s family, my family, and my parents.  At least.

I wasn’t able to help much with the care of the corn so I guess I didn’t fully comprehend how much was there.  So when my dad said it was ready and we needed to come pick it, I went, but didn’t actually take anything to put the corn in.

The corn harvest coincided with Dad’s birthday so we had a nice lunch (corn!) before braving the heat and scratchy plants.  They’d invited Dad’s sisters to come, too.  It’s all about sharing the (corn!) wealth, really.

Dad drove his truck around back and we all picked buckets or bags full, then dumped them in the back of the truck until it was almost to the top of the bed.  (It’s a small truck, but still – lots of corn.)  

When it came time to take our share home I realized that unless I wanted it all rolling around in the back of the hatch I needed some grocery bags.  I filled up about 10 bags full, I think.  And a couple of bags of green beans, too.  Naturally.

Sunday night, when we got home and put the kids in bed, Chris and I did shuck a couple of bags but I didn’t want to mess with them that night.  I was beat.  We’d been swimming and were not in the mood for all that work.  So I left shucked corn in the bags for the next day.  And the next.  And the one after that, too.

I’m really not that excited about corn anymore. 

Any spare moment I had was spent shucking or cutting it off the cob or heating it up or cooling it down or bagging it.

And it just wouldn’t end.  (I am not my mother, who stayed up until after midnight two nights in a row to get all of theirs put up, then got up super-early in the morning to drive an hour to work.  Nope, not my mother.)

But finally it was finished.  Or so I thought.  Until I found a bag I’d missed in the bottom of our refrigerator drawer.  That one went to some of Chris’ family.   I’d already given up by that point.

But now we have about 15 quart bags of corn in the freezer, which is a nice feeling, and plenty for us for the coming year.  I’m thinking about corn chowder.  Lots and lots of corn chowder …

In addition to that I have some really bad zucchini and corn salsa that I spent HOURS cutting up vegetables for.  Well, I guess it’s not awful, but it tastes more like a relish than salsa, and I really don’t like relish.  I should have thought about that before I made 12 pints of the stuff.  Anybody want some?

And, in spite of all that, I still had to do something with the remaining green beans.  I mean the ones that I didn’t let mold in the bag.  Because I was too busy putting up corn to worry about beans.  I blanched some and froze them in bags, only getting about 4 or 5 of those.  But the rest I made into 8 pints of dilly beans.  I haven’t opened any yet, but I think those will be good.

I hope. 

Because it sucks to work so long and hard on something and not like the outcome.

Stupid corn relish.

Anybody want to drop off a couple of gallons of strawberries on my front porch?

This was supposed to be a blog post about taking the kids to pick strawberries.  However, we didn’t get to go because right before we were supposed to start preparing to leave, a certain almost-3-year-old refused to clean up his cars that he’d thrown all over the floor.

One trip to time out, three trips to bed, a loss of TV privileges, countless threats and an hour and a half later the cars were picked up.

Someone needed that nap he didn’t get.

Someone’s Mama needed that nap she didn’t get.

And so we didn’t make it to pick strawberries, at least not yet.  But the season is rapidly coming to a close and if we don’t get there soon it’s just not going to happen.  

I really wanted to be more proactive this year about canning and preserving.  I like the idea of having stuff stored away for the winter.  And I was going to start with strawberries.  We go through strawberry jam so fast since Sebastian eats peanut butter and jelly almost every day.  (Is that bad for him?)  And instead of paying more money for the better quality stuff, I thought I’d just make a bunch of freezer jam. Or maybe preserves.

I’m not off to a good start.

I may have to give up.

First it took me forever to find a place to go around here.

Then my friend and I were going to go to Huber’s and get some wine to go with our strawberries, but I had a schedule conflict the only day she was available. 

So I finally found a place close by and the family was going to go last night.  I wanted someone to go with me since Adele’s not too fond of the heat and I wasn’t sure I could keep Sebastian from picking all the green berries or eating his weight in the ripe ones while also making sure the baby stayed out of the sun.  In other words, I needed Chris.  We planned on packing a picnic to eat in the car on the way there so we could make it back home by bedtime.

But that plan was foiled by a cranky Babash.

So.  No strawberries.  Though I still have hope for the wine.