One of the things the Hubs and I have started doing is "tag teaming" church. I get up and take Babycakes to Sunday School while I attend my adult class. Then Jeff comes to the worship service so I can leave at 11:00 and get started on the dissertation. Here is the set-up I had going on yesterday when I came home.
Cleo the cat is SUCH a big helper. She makes certain that she get some kitty love in while I work. I know it looks like I'm watching a video - I was but I promise it was dissertation related. ;-)
When the Hubs and Babycakes arrived home from church we made lunch and sat down together. In the process of making lunch, I noticed all of the apples we had accrued on the kitchen counter. Living in an area that had a large supply of apples during this time of year, I seem to have an abundance. Not wanting them to go bad I decided to go ahead and use them to make applesauce.
I decided I would share my stellar apple-sauce making skills with you all while I was at it! The first thing you need to do is peel and slice your apples. I had a variety but I like the sweeter ones for my sauce. Today I had about 8-10 apples. Once you have them peeled and sliced put them in a pot with some water in the bottom so they don't scorch. (I didn't measure this but it was probably 1/2 to 1 whole cup.)
I decided I would share my stellar apple-sauce making skills with you all while I was at it! The first thing you need to do is peel and slice your apples. I had a variety but I like the sweeter ones for my sauce. Today I had about 8-10 apples. Once you have them peeled and sliced put them in a pot with some water in the bottom so they don't scorch. (I didn't measure this but it was probably 1/2 to 1 whole cup.)
Then I covered them and cooked them on medium heat until they came to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and let them cook until soft. I cooked mine about 20-30 minutes. Next, you can mash them with a potato masher or blender if you want a less chunky sauce. I like a little texture to mine so I just stirred it.
Then I added sugar to taste - in this case it was between 1/4-1/2 of a cup. Again, it's to your taste and the amount of sugar you add will depend on your apples. I've made it before and added no sugar.
After it cooked down and I stirred it it looked like this:
Then I added sugar to taste - in this case it was between 1/4-1/2 of a cup. Again, it's to your taste and the amount of sugar you add will depend on your apples. I've made it before and added no sugar.
After it cooked down and I stirred it it looked like this:
The final step was to put it in a jar. We have this SUPER sweet lady who live on our street who no longer cans, so she gave us all of her canning jars. Some of them are antiques! While I didn't go through the canning process for this small amount of applesauce it can be done. (Not that I've done it with applesauce!) I have, however frozen it in individual portion sizes and just thawed it out under running water. This was particularly popular when Babycakes was a baby (that seems a little redundant).
Any who... here is the final applesauce step.
Seriously easy and not that expensive to do. This can be done with basic kitchen supplies. I do, however, happen to have a funnel especially for canning jars that I picked up at a yard sale for $0.50 a few years back. Our local Wal-Mart also sells a plastic version.
So that was my Sunday here at Wilted Acres. I'm sure you are all just about to pass out from the excitement. Until next time...
