Criss Cross Applesauce

When I first toured my home, I fell in love with the yard. One of my favorite parts of the yard is the apple tree, right in front of the house. Growing up, apples were a big part of my life. Initially, I was allergic to apples. I always felt a little left out when I watched my siblings bite into a fresh, crisp apple, while I snacked on a harmless banana. Eventually, I out-grew my allergy and was able to enjoy them, too! My father grew apple trees as a hobby and the kitchen in my childhood home has an apple themed decor. There are numerous orchards in the sounds towns and throughout the state. No fall is complete without a trip to an orchard for an afternoon of apple picking.

I was excited to tell my Dad about the apple tree in front of my new house. He was very pleased to see the tree and the variety of apple, a Northern Spy. Apparently, it's a nice sturdy apple, late to ripen and it has a long life in proper storage. Late, one warm October morning, my father came to pick the apples off of the tree for me. I helped him and we divided the pickings between us. We both decided to make apple sauce. He used a very different technique than I, but mine comes from how I was taught years before. One day, when I was in the third grade, my teacher brought in homemade applesauce. Up until then, I thought it was something that you could only get in the store. She told us how she did it, and I went home, that day, and made my own apple sauce.

Not the prettiest apples, but perfect for cooking!

I gathered an armful of apples from my stash and peeled them. Then, I cut out any bad parts. I used a handy tool that cores and slices the apples, all at once!

After all of the apples were peeled, cored and sliced I placed them in a saucepan and added enough water to cover the apples. Basically, I cooked them like I do potatoes, when I want to make mashed potatoes. However, it takes far less time to boil apples than it does to boil potatoes. When the apples were fork tender, I removed them from heat. It only took about 5 minutes.

Peeled, cored, sliced and ready to boil.

After draining the water from the apples, I added cinnamon (a few shakes) and a pinch of nutmeg. Then, I added a tablespoon of honey and I added a tablespoon of butter, after which, I whipped the apples with a hand mixer. It's best to use a hand masher, first, before you use the mixer. You could also use a food processor to really blend the sauce. The apples can be blended as long as you prefer, depending on how smooth you like your sauce. The end result was smooth, thick, applesauce with a few random chunks of apple. So tasty! The recipe that was taught to me when I was 8 years old, still holds as a great lesson. It was a wonderful way to learn a tradition and to enjoy the fruits of my labor. I really need to make some more. 

Until next time~ Toodahloo!

Post Thanksgiving Tidy

I am turkeyed out. As much as I love turkey, I just need a break. I bought a 16 pound turkey, hoping to feed the family for the holiday and yield plenty of leftovers. I certain accomplished that goal! After Thanksgiving, I continued to enjoy a few turkey sandwiches and turkey with gravy over mashed potatoes. Today, I decided to freeze the rest. I divided the remains of the turkey and I split the poultry between two freezer bags. This will come in handy when I want to make something for dinner throughout the next few weeks.
I also needed to figure out what to do with all of the leftover cranberry sauce that I made. My husband has always consumed canned cranberry sauce on the holidays, but that was not my tradition. Since we were combining our traditions, I made the cranberry sauce. This is a task that I have done the night before Thanksgiving since I was a teenager. As such, I am accustomed to having to make a lot. In my family, growing up, everyone piled on the cranberry sauce and they still do. On Thanksgiving, only my husband and I ate the sauce. So, after snacking on the cranberry sauce as much as I could, I decided to re-use it for a treat. I modified a recipe that would typically be used for raspberry bars, and substituted the raspberry jam with the cranberry sauce. I can't wait to eat a bar with some tea!

I also baked a batch biscuits to have for supper, tonight. I decided to make biscuits and gravy, and my husband was happy to go along with that. Today, I spent the day cleaning and preparing for tomorrow, as I intend to break out the Christmas decorations. While I was baking, I listened to my Spotify Christmas playlist and it put me in such a delightful mood! It felt good to get work done after taking a breather over the weekend. The holiday weekend really wore me out, so I took it easy yesterday. I just didn't feel inspired to do much, especially with such gloomy weather outside. Today was perfectly sunny and just right for being industrious.
So, I have been eagerly waiting to watch the new Anne Of Green Gables movie, which I will do tomorrow. I have also been anxious to watch the new Gilmore Girls episodes. Most people, ahem (women/girls), that I know who watched the show binged the entire day after Thanksgiving. I only watched one episode. I prefer to enjoy them a bit at a time, savor them, really. So, I think I will go sip some tea, eat a cranberry bar and watch another episode of Gilmore Girls. Until next time~ Toodahloo!

Daylight Savings Time?

Daylight savings time is upon us, the tradition of falling back and getting an "extra hour." However, it always takes a couple of days for my body to adjust to the new time shift. Lately, the sun hasn't been rising until after 7 am, so it will rise after 6 am, giving me more daylight hours. It just seems like there is never enough time in the day to do all that I want to do. Being a homemaker, people assume that you have all the time in the world to watch Judge Judy and play online games. If I had a maid, I could possibly do those things, if those things were at all interesting to me. This supposed "extra hour" evades me.
As I began writing this very post, I had to save it and set aside for the night so that I could make supper. Now, it is late afternoon, the following day. I have a chicken roasting in the oven and the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice is playing on the DVD. There just never seems to be enough time to get everything done in a day. Perhaps, I make too long of a list for myself. I suppose I care cut things back a bit. With the holidays fast approaching and a house that still needs to be finished, the list remains long. The bathroom is nearly finished. I should have my washer and dryer installed in the bathroom by the end of the week' which will be very nice as I've been doing my laundry at my parents' house for the past month.

Over the course of the past week, I've been working on smaller projects around the house, which I will share once I can figure out why my phone refuses to load photos onto my laptop. I was happy to go to the old thrift shop in my hometown, on Thursday. There, you can fill a bag full of clothes for $3.00. I gathered sweaters, plaid shirts and plaid skirts to repurpose into stockings and pillow covers for Christmas. It is likely that I will share the details of that in December. I am thinking of blogging each day in December, leading to Christmas, as I did a few years back. I rather enjoyed doing that. The Hallmark channel is already airing their Christmas movie marathon. I admit, I have been scanning the pins on Pinterest in search of more Christmas ideas and it is making me very excited for the holiday.
In other news, I discovered that my kitten is a boy an not a girl, as was told to my husband when he fetched her/him. So, we had to change. His official name is Paddy Murphy, but we call him "Murr" for short. The kids are very pleased that he is a boy and not a girl, as they believe male cats have better personalities. I've never had a girl cat, and my old cat Merin was delightful. Murr is a very loving and social cat and I have no doubt that he will remain so.
Halloween came and went. I didn't get at chance to decorate the yard, but I will next year. If you saw my picture on Instagram, you know that I dressed as a cat. It was a very last minute costume. My husband passed out candy while wearing a rainbow clown wig. I listened to my Halloween song list on Spotify and kept the dogs from getting too irritable. I was surprised by the number of trick-or-treaters who came to my door, as our neighborhood is so quiet. The next day, I went to the store and stocked up on half-off candy. It should keep my sweet tooth content until Christmas.
As soon as I can resolve my technical difficulties with m phone, I will be able to share my latest projects. Hopefully, everything will mend itself, soon. Until then~ Toodahloo!