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. 

A Gardening Post From Someone Who Does Not Garden

I've never been terribly good with plants. I suppose that's a bit of an understatement. I've killed cactus. Though I have been trying really hard this last year, and I think I've finally figured it out. Turns out plants need water and sun.

So far the windowsill garden is going really well. After getting the drainage figured out, the cilantro and dill have really started growing like weeds. I love checking on my plants everyday when I get home. I'm so pleased with the success I think I will have to fill another windowsill and possibly some larger containers outside.

I've been absolutely loving the mild weather we've had so far this year, and just want to spend as much time as I can outside. To be honest, my husband and I haven't done much with the yard since we moved in. We mow the lawn and enjoy the rose bushes that were already planted. We've added a few perennials and some small lilac bushes, but neither of us have much experience with gardening. I'm not sure how that happened because we both have relatives that are pretty much experts. Go figure.

Anyhow, I'm really excited about this book that I found at 2nd Look Books

 (One of my favorite book stores in Spokane)

1951 First Edition Better Homes and Gardens Garden book. Very practical and simple advice for everything garden. I'm sure I could find most of this information online, but sometimes reading print helps things to stay in my mind much better. Plus the illustrations and photos are so much fun!

This book has sections on lawn care, lot planning, pests, soil and all kinds of plants. It doesn't seem to be terribly outdated either, besides a few things I can laugh about while reading. What a find! Hopefully by summers end I will have some things to show off. For now its just fortunate that roses need so little work. These beautiful blooms come back every year regardless of how I abuse them.