Cinnamon-Apple Syrup

Posted on October 2, 2008 by Momzoo

One of the things I like about apples is that you can use every part.

With a little work nothing goes to waste.

Remember this picture from Tuesday?

I took about half of my apple peals and cores and boiled them for a while, until everything was soft and all the color was gone from the peel.
I then poured everything into a colander lined with light weight fabric and let it drip for several hours into a big bowl.

I got about 3 gallons of juice

filled this jug and put it in the refrigerator until I was ready to use it.

I decided to make Apple-Cinnamon Syrup,
(you can also make jelly with the juice, it is a really pretty pink color)

I measured out the juice

and prepared the syrup

I actually had to boil the sugar and water until it reached a soft syrup.

I have never made candy, or used a candy thermometer.

It made me feel like a grown up.
(do you ever have those moments?)

Once the syrup was ready I added it to 6 cups juice, three cups corn syrup (I know, bad) and 1/4 cup lemon juice along with 4 cinnamon sticks and brought it all to a boil.

I let it boil hard for 5 minuets.

It came out a beautiful golden color.

The processed for 20 minutes.

Tomorrow we are going to have Apple Pancakes (which is my new favorite breakfast) drizzled with Apple-Cinnamon Syrup.

(if anyone would like a more detailed recipe please e-mail me at aimee@prosphotos.com, or you can find them in “Ball Complete Book of Preserving“

Apple Budda

Posted on October 1, 2008 by Momzoo

Budda

budda

Apple Budda!

Last year I made my first batch of Apple Butter,

and I was HOOKED!

so this year I knew I had to make some more.

First I cut up enough apple to fill my crock-pot

Then I dumped about 3 cups of sugar on top

and I sprinkled it with generous amounts of cinnamon and cloves
I would have use nutmeg too, but I was out

Then I stirred it all up and added a couple of cups of water.
I turned my crock-pot on low
and went to bed.

I had yummy cinnamon apple dreams…the house smelled wonderful!

In the morning this is what it looked like.

Brown and bubbly and cooked nice and soft.

At this point you could run it through a food mill

but I like it chunky, and I just bottle it like it is here.

Once I got my first batch processing I started on the second one.
I cut up enough apples to fill my big pot,
adding the same amount of sugar and spices.

I don’t follow a recipe when it comes to the sugar and spices,
I just do what tastes good to me
and I like my budda sweet!

I brought it to a boil and let it cook for about an hour
it cooks down quite a bit.

The apples need to be nice and soft and spreadable.

Now, that is where I ran into a problem with my second batch.
I am not patient enough.
I was wanting to get this done, so I took them off a little too soon and the apples didn’t get as soft as I really liked.

Oh well

It still tastes yummy, it is just a little chunkier.

I process them in a water bath for 20 minutes

(that time is adjusted for my altitude)

Here are the bottles from batch one and batch two.
It is easy to tell the difference.

YUMMY!

APPLE BUDDA!

Today (Wednesday) I made spiced apple syrup with the apple juice I made the day before…..stay tuned!

BTW
You should smell my house!

The Season

Posted on September 30, 2008 by Momzoo

Nothing says Autumn to me like fresh picked apples.

Dadzoo picked up 4 boxes for me to can. I have decided that I really, really like to can. When the economy collapses and Dadzoo loses his job and we camping out back on the mountain we are going to have apples! (and jam of coarse!) (oh, and about 400 pounds of wheat)

Yesterday I took two of the boxes and make apples in light syrup.

I spend hours and hours and hours peeling and coring and slicing those apples….

Oh fine, it took me about an hour to peel, core and slice two boxes of apples, and the reason it took that long was because I had helpers. One of the cores broke open and Punk #4 exclaimed “APPLE BEADS!” she then started to break open all the cores to collect the beads. I explained to her that they were seeds, and inside there will little baby apple trees. She wanted to know if I would let her tuck her beads into the dirt and grow apple trees! I love kids!

I put all the slices in a big fat bowls and stirred in a little lemon juice so they would keep their color better.

This is my big pile of cores and peels (at least half of it, I had another big pile on the counter top.)

I put the apples in a big pot and poured boiling sugar syrup over the top (I added a little cinnamon to the syrup). I brought the whole pot to a rolling boil and let it cook for about 5 minutes.

I then packed the apples into quart jars and poured the syrup over the top. I processed them for 40 minutes in a water bath.

Once I was done with the apple slices I put as many of the peelings and cores into my big stock pot as I could fit. I covered it all with water and brought it to a boil. I let it simmer on the stove for 2 hours, until everything was soft and all the color was boiled out of the peels.

I once used a jelly bag, and found it messy and awkward, so I came up with this little contraption to extract my juice.

I poured the juice and the cooked apples into the colander on top and let it sit for at least 2 hours, over night is even better, but I am not patient enough for that! Once it was finished dripping I poured the juice into a big picture and put it into the fridge, I am going to make spiced apple syrup on Wednesday. I threw the peels and cores in the compost pit.

Here are all my jars, done and pretty.

I got 18 quart from two boxes of apples and I am figuring I will get about 24 pints of apple syrup. Not too bad.

Today (Tuesday) I made two batches of apple butter…..stay tuned!

Because Homemade tastes so much better!!

Posted on September 25, 2008 by Momzoo

Preserving The Harvest

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Momzoo

About a year ago I started to change the way I thought about life. I wanted to live more self sustaining. I wanted to be able to be more self sufficient, and not have to always be so dependent on the grocery store. Over the year this has changed and grown. The biggest change I have noticed is the way I view food. Before I bought most of my food pre-made, pre-prepackaged full of chemical additives, food dyes and preservatives. Now most of the food that is eaten at this house is home made from scratch. I know exactly what is going into my kiddos tummies, the few convience (sp??) foods I do buy are mostly organic and the label is well read by me!

This summer I planted a big garden (not as big as some, but big for me, I would love to have more land and do even more) and we have mostly eaten out of it for the last few months. Sunday I had my in-laws over for dinner, the only thing that didn’t come out of my garden was the pot-roast, potatoes and rolls (I did bake the rolls from wheat I ground myself). It was a wonderful meal and it felt so good to be able to provide so well for my family.

I find myself thinking about food preservation. My great-grandmothers spent a lot of time preserving food for the winter. I am hoping to be more like that. As I was contemplating my garden and trying to reduce waste, my thoughts turned to Zucchini. Any one who has ever grown a zucchini plants knows that they produce like crazy! Typically my family would eat a little zucchini here and there, maybe I would make some zucchini bread and the rest would go to waste. It occurred to me that I wasn’t being a very thankful daughter to waste all the wonderful, good food I was being blessed with. So this year I stared freezing and preserving my harvest.

The easiest way to preserve Zucchini and Summer Squash is to grate it all up and freeze it in baggies.

I freeze two cups at a time in the baggies, that is how much my recipe of Zucchini bread calls for.

(Isn’t this a cute Summer Squash, there are so many varieties.)

To freeze Summer Squash I cut it all up. I try to make them all the same size so it will cook evenly.

evenly…is that a word???

I put it in my steaming pan (I know there is a “real word” for this pan, I just can think of it) and I steam the Zucchini for 3 minutes. It doesn’t need to be cooked all the way, just give it a quick steam bath. You can boil it in water for about 2 minutes. I like the steam method best, the veggies don’t get as wet.

When it is done steaming plunge the veggies into ice water to stop the cooking (that is if you are going to do this properly, I get a little lazy and just run in under cold water). Then I dump them all out on a clean towel to dry for about 5-10 minuets.

After they have dried a little I spread them all out on a cookies sheet lined with wax paper and slide the whole thing in the freezer.

This is called flash freezing, this is so the individual pieces freeze and don’t clump together in a big ice block, it helps keep freezer burn at bay.

Once they are frozen, after about a few hours, I take them out and put them in old Tupperware containers, anything will work, even zip-lock baggies. I just like the Tupperware (these are old freezer jam containers I had laying around) I think they stack better.