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An unusually productive Saturday
Sep. 6th, 2015 07:23 amWith tons of apples onhand, I started looking for recipes to use them up. Specifically, I was hoping for vegan muffins or bread for my weekday breakfasts. There were plenty, but each called for about 1.5 apples per dozen muffins. Nothing that would make a big dent. I settled on apple butter in the crock pot.
This was a nice excuse for us to finally get a kitchen scale, which Garrett ordered for us and we had the next day. Several people suggested an apple peeler/corer, but I didn't jump on that since I figured it'd probably be a once-yearly need. We have one of those corer/slicers that you push down onto the apple, which helped a bit. Peeling the apples, coring them, and chopping them up took quite a while. Good practice, though. I wish I'd chopped them up finer, as they never really broke down in the crock pot. Immersion blender to the rescue.
I got apple bits and sugar everywhere, so it ended up being the perfect time to clean the kitchen. Since I was sweaty and feeling gross after that, I finally pulled all the pots, pans, and lids out of their cabinet and organized them. They're on slide-out shelves, which we've never had before, so maybe it'll be easier to keep them this way, longer.
It was a sunny day out, and I joked that I'd be outside pulling weeds if it was a cloudy day. Naturally, it got cloudy, so I did it. There's still a lot more work to do in the flower bed, but the garden's nice and clear.
I should have planned the timing on the apple butter a little better. The recipe calls for an hour on high, then another 9-11 hours on low. You're supposed to let it go overnight. I didn't do that, so 10 hours in the crock pot was right at bed time. I set a timer for three hours so it could cool before I put it in containers. Glad I thought about it again, because the timer alarm is pretty disturbing to wake up to. Just changed it to cello music.
These are the containers I got because I've never done any real canning and yesterday wasn't the time to buy a bunch of new stuff and try it for the first time. I've had my eye on them for a while, and they happened to be on sale yesterday when I was shopping. I see at that link that they aren't getting good reviews on their own site, but Amazon shoppers seem to like them. I like that they match our other kitchen stuff.
It rained like crazy all night, so I decided not to go for my walk this morning and just drove over to my inlaws' to leave a container of apple butter on their porch as I'd said I would. Of course, as soon as I got home and settled in with some coffee and a piece of toast with apple butter, everything cleared up nicely. Too late to set out now, though, as I have a brunch date this morning with my friend Nancy. Tomorrow's a holiday anyway, I can do a long walk then.
This was a nice excuse for us to finally get a kitchen scale, which Garrett ordered for us and we had the next day. Several people suggested an apple peeler/corer, but I didn't jump on that since I figured it'd probably be a once-yearly need. We have one of those corer/slicers that you push down onto the apple, which helped a bit. Peeling the apples, coring them, and chopping them up took quite a while. Good practice, though. I wish I'd chopped them up finer, as they never really broke down in the crock pot. Immersion blender to the rescue.
I got apple bits and sugar everywhere, so it ended up being the perfect time to clean the kitchen. Since I was sweaty and feeling gross after that, I finally pulled all the pots, pans, and lids out of their cabinet and organized them. They're on slide-out shelves, which we've never had before, so maybe it'll be easier to keep them this way, longer.
It was a sunny day out, and I joked that I'd be outside pulling weeds if it was a cloudy day. Naturally, it got cloudy, so I did it. There's still a lot more work to do in the flower bed, but the garden's nice and clear.
I should have planned the timing on the apple butter a little better. The recipe calls for an hour on high, then another 9-11 hours on low. You're supposed to let it go overnight. I didn't do that, so 10 hours in the crock pot was right at bed time. I set a timer for three hours so it could cool before I put it in containers. Glad I thought about it again, because the timer alarm is pretty disturbing to wake up to. Just changed it to cello music.
These are the containers I got because I've never done any real canning and yesterday wasn't the time to buy a bunch of new stuff and try it for the first time. I've had my eye on them for a while, and they happened to be on sale yesterday when I was shopping. I see at that link that they aren't getting good reviews on their own site, but Amazon shoppers seem to like them. I like that they match our other kitchen stuff.
It rained like crazy all night, so I decided not to go for my walk this morning and just drove over to my inlaws' to leave a container of apple butter on their porch as I'd said I would. Of course, as soon as I got home and settled in with some coffee and a piece of toast with apple butter, everything cleared up nicely. Too late to set out now, though, as I have a brunch date this morning with my friend Nancy. Tomorrow's a holiday anyway, I can do a long walk then.
