Apples, Apples, All Over the Place!

We have the fabulous fortune to know someone who's family has both an apple orchard as well as cherries in Yakima. We have digressed back to the days of creative acquisition. Bartering. He brings us boxes of the yummy fresh fruits and in exchange we give him the more durable canned form. It is a win win for both of us.

After trading and getting my goods, the arduous task of preserving this 100+ pounds of Cameo apples begina. Sadly, they don't stay fresh longer because they tasted amazing. Anyway, we canned applesauce by the quarts. This is where Gavin comes in handy. He has been known to to make applesauce taste like dessert with little effort. We all love it. We made and canned apple pie filling. Have you ever tried dehydrated apple rings with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on them? Again, Gavin. Delicious! We did plain, healthy ones too. We had Carmel apple dip with our apples (so easy by the way and way better than the store bought stuff). French Apple Custard is to die for, apple crisp, apple crisp muffins, apple pie, apple cider.....

For applesauce: quarter and remove any soft spots or "friends" if your apples are from untreated trees. I also remove the cores. Put them in a big pot with several cups of water and let them simmer until they are tender.

If you happen to have one of these gadgets, scoop mounds of your apples, peels and all into the sieve and press it through to get the sauce.
Return the hot sauce to the stove and season. Here he used a combination of honey and brown sugar and a generous helping of cinnamon.

Ladle the boiling applesauce into hot prepared jars. Wipe the rims down and add hot lids and rings. Flip the jars upside down and they will seal. You can also hot bath process them for 10 mins. for a heavyier seal.

The apple pie filling has to be canned.

So, is anyone else ready for Pumpkin Pie about now?

Carmel Dip

1 Pkg cream cheese

1 cup brown sugar

1 T. vanilla