Applesauce!

A few weeks ago, I went apple picking with Jeremy and my sister, Amy.  We picked over 60 pounds of apples and our (well...Amy and I) goal was to make applesauce, can it, and give it as Christmas gifts.  We went to Pochuck Valley Farm in Glenwood, NJ and picked as many apples as we could stuff into the three bags we bought.  I'm not really sure what types of apples we picked, but we had a mixture of both green and red types.

After picking over 60 pounds of apples, we went back to my mom's house to start making the applesauce.  Amy has fruit and vegetable strainer for her KitchenAid mixer.  This is the best thing to have if you are making tons of applesauce!  All we had to do was cut up the apples and cook them down before sending them through the strainer.  The strainer does all the hard work.  It separates the seeds and stems from the sauce.  A bowl catches all the apple sauce (see the pictures at the beginning of this post).

Once we had enough applesacue to fill some canning jars, we put the sauce on the stove and let it boil for a few minutes.  Once it was boiling, we put the sauce in the jars and placed the jars in boiling water for 15 minutes.  You can find the instructions on canning applesauce here.

In case you were wondering...60 pounds of apples produces over 20 quarts of applesauce!  We canned most of the sauce, but froze two large batches to serve at Thanksgiving. 

Check out the large, silver stockpot behind us.  It's filled to the top with applesauce!

Cinnamon Swirl Quick Bread

Here is a simple recipe for a yummy cinnamon swirl bread.  I made this for breakfast the other weekend, and it was delicious!

Cinnamon Swirl:

1/3 c. sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

Bread:

2 c. flour

1 c. sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

1 c. milk

1/3 c. vegetable oil

Directions:

(1)  Preheat oven 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease and flour a 9x13 loaf pan.

(2)  Combine the cinnamon swirl ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

(3)  Prepare the bread - mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl.

(4)  In another bowl, beat together the egg, milk and oil.  Combine with the flour mixture until moistened.  It's okay if the batter is a little lumpy.

(5)  Pour half of the batter into the loaf pan and sprinkle with half of the cinnamon mixture.  Pour the remaining batter on top and sprinkle with the rest of the cinnamon mixture.  Using a knife, swirl the cinnamon mixture with the batter.

(6)  Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

(7)  Cool in pan for a few minutes.  Remove from pan and allow to cool on a cooling rack. 

(8)  Slice and enjoy!

Long time since last post...

And this is going to  be a quick post as well!

I just signed up for the Craftaholics Anonymous gift exchange!  I have never done one of these before...so I thought I would try it out.  Plus, it's an excuse to make something for someone!  If you are interested in joining the gift exchange, check out the info here!

I have been crafty quite a bit lately...I finished some Christmas gifts, made 20 quarts of applesauce with my sister, and did some baking!  I try to post some pictures and recipes soon. 

Faux Caramel Apples!

I saw these last year, but never got around to making them.  Then, a few weeks ago, I was going through Google Reader and spotted this tutorial.  I ran to the store, picked up some styrofoam apples (Walmart had nice ones for only $1).

I changed up the tutorial that I found since I didn't want to buy a massive amount of popsicle sticks or a huge bag of corn cob litter.  Instead, for the handle of the caramel apple, I used sticks that I found outside.  For the nuts, I used pieces of cork that I found at Michaels a while back.  The pieces came in a little bag, and I thought it would look just as nice as the corn cob litter.

To make the apples was super easy.  First, I put a stick in each of the apples.  Then, I mixed together some mod podge and caramel-colored paint.  After I got the right color, I poured the paint on top of the apples.  Once all the apples were covered with paint, I sprinkled the cork pieces to the wet glue/paint.  I set aside the apples overnight to dry and then sprayed them with glossy finish.  

I am quite pleased with how they turned out and they look so real!  I posted some in my etsy shop and will definitely need to make some more for myself!

Two years ago today....

We walked down the aisle!  Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband, Jeremy.  You are the best!

Photographed by Kurtis Wiersma