Homemade Apple Pie Filling

This last weekend went by so fast. We had a nice Thanksgiving with friends and family. I got to cook more than I thought I would, which was a good thing. We also got a start on our holiday shopping, though we are going to be mostly giving away homemade gifts and goodies this year. Most of the weekend was spent canning. We made one last final attempt to use up the rest of our apples and were quite successful.

Saturday we picked up a water bath canner. Up to this point I had been using the pressure canner for everything. The pressure canner is faster and smaller, however most of the recipes for fruit are written for water bath processing. This meant that every time I found a recipe I wanted to try I would have to go into my Mirro manual and check all of the ingredients to see which had the longest processing time. It still worked quite well though. The only reason we realy needed the water bath canner was for its size. We wanted to try canning apple pie filling in quart jars, and maybe only one or two would have fit in our pressure cooker.

Apple Pie Filling

This was a really fun recipe that I found it in an old Better Homes and Gardens canning book. This was my first time using the raw packing method. Rather than cooking everything together, the apple slices are packed into the jar raw and then covered in hot syrup.

Here's the new water bath canner. It barely fits on one burner. However it does fit six quart jars without any problem.

This would have taken us a very long time using the pressure cooker, But they all fit snugly into the water bath, with room for probably one more.

I can now see why people say its so handy to have the long handled jar lifters. That water bath canner gets really hot. This is the processed pie filling leaving the canner.

I'm not going to lie. I had my first non-sealing freakout with this batch. About 30 minutes into cooling I checked the seals (I know you're supposed to let them sit for much longer, but I was too excited). Only two of the jars had sealed properly. I could have cried. Long story short, larger jars take much longer to cool, and therefore much longer to seal. I checked again several hours later and they had all sealed just fine. Patience really is a virtue.

Besides the pie filling, I also did several quarts of apple sauce and some smaller jars of apple jelly. The best part is that we are now officially done with our apples. I will be trying out the pie filling this weekend. I've never made a pie from scratch so wish me luck.

A Mysterious Little Book

Last week this little book showed up at my door. No note or anything. It was just there when I got home.

Putting Food By

This book is awesome. Its all about the different methods of preserving food. It has instructions on canning, freezing, drying, and some other things I've never heard of (Root cellaring?), plus a bunch of recipes for pickling and making jam.


I'm really excited about this because 

1) The cover art is awesome. Enough said. 2) I've never been able to go small with food. I grew up with a lot of siblings and as such I never really learned how to cook in small quantities. This is a bit of a problem in a two person household. We always end up with a ton of ingredients that I can never figure how to use up or a refrigerator full of leftovers that no one really wants to eat. Learning to preserve some of the ingredients should help to reduce a bit of the waste. 3)  I've been wanting to try canning for a while now. Over the weekend I acquired a garage sale pressure cooker from my uncle, so... anyone up for a trip to Green Bluff to pick some raspberries?

Thank you to whoever left this on my porch. If you fess up you might even get some homemade jam out of it. 

Thrifty Thursdays

I've been so good lately. I've hardly spent a penny on anything besides groceries, and even with those I've been trying really hard to stick to my list. I had the day off today and was planning on staying home and catching up on cleaning, but I just couldn't. I had too much on my mind and was in need of a good distraction.

One of my favorite things in the world is thrifting. Its a perfect way to spend an afternoon when you just want to get away from everything. I get such a thrill from rummaging through other peoples unwanted junk. It brightens up my day completely when I find something special and really unique that someone else discarded as trash. I'd like to think I'd have a similar fondness of yard sales, but the space always seems a bit too intimate, and the prospect of intruding on someones lawn is just way too intimidating. So I'm a thrifter. 

Over the years I've learned a few things. Thrift stores can be wonderful, but if you're not careful its very easy to get carried away.  I try to stick to a couple of steadfast rules that keep me from getting into trouble.

1. Always thrift on weekdays. The middle of the week is always the best time to go. Items will be less picked over, and you won't have to fight a crowd. 

2. Know the value of an item before you buy it. Unfortunately, you can't expect to get a good price just because you're at Goodwill or Value Village. If you have a specific item in mind, do some research ahead of time.

3. Don't buy it unless you really love it. Sometimes it takes me a half an hour of wandering around the store, hanging onto that one item, deciding whether I love it or not. If all else fails, sleep on it. If the item is still there the next time you go, it was simply meant to be.

Thrifty Thursday Finds

(all for under $10)

Embroidery hoops, Napkin Set, and Floss

I don't have much experience with embroidery, but its been something I've wanted to try for a while now. Who could resist?

I tried to pick a bag that had a descent assortment of colors.

So Pretty!

Better Homes and Gardens Cookbooks

I've recently come to really appreciate older cookbooks. These recipes are simple classics, some of them are the same as my grandma makes. I love the photography as well. Something about the off colored photos just makes me happy.

A small section dedicated to Russian Cuisine including Chicken Kiev, Borsch, and Cucumber in Sour Cream (Meals with a Foreign Flair, 1963)

Cheese and Wine Pairings (How to Cook with Cheese, 1966)

Flapper Pudding- look at those colors! The recipe doesn't sound bad either. (Snacks and Refreshments, 1963)

Did I mention I have a thing for Dachshunds?

Too bizarre to pass up. The second one is missing his second half. The girl at the shop gave me the strangest look when I asked her if she had seen a dog butt in the back room. No luck, but for 25¢ I figured I would adopt him anyways. 

Much better. Glad to have gotten that out of my system. Now back to saving pennies.