Aaron's Awesome Apple Butter

The name of it says it all. This apple butter will blow your mind away, it is so good. And I made it up myself, experimenting over the years since I moved into Apple Country (aka Washington State.). Here is the recipe.

Apples
lemon juice
2-3 C sugar
2 T Cinnamon
2 t ginger
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t cloves

Peel, core and slice enough apples to fill your 6 quart crock pot to the line. throw in a few splashes of lemon juice and stir them up to keep them from browning too much. Let it cook a few hours, till the apple slices start to break down. Add 2 C sugar and the spices. Stir it up, and taste. Depending on how sweet the apples were, add more sugar, up to 1 cup. Let this cook down till the apples are super mushy, then blend it all together with a hand blender. You can also do this, in batches, in a food processor or blender. Or run it through a food mill. Just get it uber smooth. Taste and adjust the spices if necessary. Let it cook with the lid partially off until the butter reaches the right consistency; it should coat the back of a spoon. Can it in a hot water bath fifteen minutes for pints or half-pints, 20 minutes for quarts. (this is longer than what the USDA recommends, but butters are so thick I like to give it extra time, just to make sure the center of the jars get hot enough.) Naturally, if you live at a higher elevation, increase you canning time.

The secret is the Ginger. I've never run across a recipe with ginger in it. I've also made apple blackberry butter and plan to make plum-apple butter by replacing about a third of the apples with the other fruit.

Pickled Eggs

I made pickled eggs today from the five doz I bought just before the fast. The recipe was simple: just vinegar, pepper, allspice, and ginger boiled together, cooled and poured over hard boiled and peeled eggs. It is supposed to take a month to brine, but I doubt that they will last that long. They may start to slowly dissapear starting on the 15th of August, at about 7:30 PM.

I'll let you know how they are coming then.

Why can't I read an Orthodox Callander?

I went shopping the day before yesterday. I got ham, butter, 5 doz eggs, milk was on sale, so I bought two gallons. Polish sausages. Cheese. Then I was reminded about the Dormition Fast.

Sigh.

One would think I would know what pink days mean.

The best blueberry pie EVER. Heck, the best summertime desert ever!

The other day, I went blueberry picking. I found this great place in Lynden, about 12 miles from my house. I 40 minutes or so, a friend and I picked 14 pounds of berries. And you can't beat the price at 1.50 a pound (at least until my three blueberry plants grow up.) So, what did I do with this bounty? A bunch went with the friend (I kept most, cause I paid for it) and most went into the freezer to be turned into jam when the weather turns sane again (95+ for the last three days or so. Its 'only' supposed to get to 85 today.) A large bowl is in my fridge for fresh eating.

But I made two of Kathleen Jones' fantabulous fresh blueberry pies. They are easy as heck, light, nothing bad in them.

I put them in a store-bought Graham cracker crust, and topped with canned whipped cream instead of making the cream cheese-whipping cream topping.

So, in a pot, whip together 1 cup water, i packet unflavored gelatin, 2 tablespoons cornstarch and 1/2 cup sugar. heat until it turns from cloudy to clear. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and remove from heat. Do not let it boil. Add four cups fresh blueberries. Stir, put into the pie crust and refrigerate until it's set. It took me longer to type the directions than it took to make two of the pies!

Misadventures with Cherry Jam

OK, I will try this one last time without the pictures I took. I cannot get the pictures to go where I want them. This is one of those better late than never posts

A few weeks ago was the height of the cherry season, and I picked about 30 pounds of cherries off my tree. Most were pitted, bagged and frozen. They will be canned when the weather turns cool. A lot were eaten, or given away, and, as usual, I could not even reach the top half of the tree, so another 20 to 30 pounds of cherries were eaten by the birds or rotted on the tree.

But I did make two jams, Spiced Orange Cherry Jam, and a variation I made up called Citrus Cherry Raisin Jam

For the original jam, I ran out of sugar, and had to substitute brown sugar. I still came up about 2 cups short, so it didn't jell like it was supposed to. So I added a bag of powdered pectin and it came out really good. It was not overly sweet like so many jams are.

The next night, after I bought regular and light sugar, I tried it again. This time, I substituted a half pound of the cherries for a half pound of raisins. I put in three cups each of regular and brown sugar. It came out tasting real good. The only problem is, I spaced on checking the temperature (jams jell at 224 F) and I let it get to 236 F, which is closer to CANDY temperatures. So now, I have seven jars of tasty stuff that is too hard to use as a jam, and too soft to call a candy.