Making Apples Sauce

Making Apples Sauce -- For Rebekah

Buy or find access to a Food Strainer

(here is a link to one on Amazon)

http://www.amazon.com/Victorio-VKP250-Strainer-Sauce-Maker/dp/B001I7FP54/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410961698&sr=8-1&keywords=food+strainer

This is SOOOOOOO worth it.  I’ve never made apple sauce without it.  If you don’t have one then you will have to Core and Peel all of the apples yourself. YIKES!!!

 

Step 1:  Go Pick Apples from your local Apples Orchard

Step 2:
Wash them and quarter them.  When you quarter them take the stem out.  Don't use apples with worms.  Make sure you discard those ones or at least the part of the apple the worm was in.

 

Step 3:  Then boil them in a BIG pot.  I have actually borrowed my friend's hot water bath and used it to boil the apples so I could get a lot of apples boiled at once.  If your friends don't have one for you to borrow then just grab your BIGGEST pot and boil the apples for about 10 minutes.  You want the apples soft but not falling apart.

 

 

 



 

 

 

Step 4:  After they are soft put them in your food strainer and get all of the pulp you possible can.  My kids love doing this part.  They love to watch the apples' "poop" or "guts" come out one end and the yummy pulp coming out the other.  My husband will take the apple "guts" and put it through again to get all the apple pulp he possible can.  You would be surprised at how much pulp we still get from the apples guts.

 



 

 I don't know why I didn't take any pictures beyond this point but I don't have them.  When I make the apple sauce this year I will up date :) 

 

 

Step 6:  Return apple pulp to saucepot.  Add sugar to taste.  Bring applesauce to a boil, stirring to prevent sticking.  Maintain temperature at a boil while you fill the jars.  Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles.  Adjust two-piece caps.  Process pint size and quart size jars for 20 minutes  in a boiling-water canner.

 

 

There You have it.  You very own apple sauce.  Trust me, you will never like store bought apple sauce again.

 

 

Huckelberry Picking

Gardening

Tomatoes and Peppers . . . looks like I'm going to be making salsa.

First Day of School

Peas

Peas . . . one of my favorite plants to grow in the garden.  I planted a huge crop at the end of May and hardly any of them came up.  We plants close to 700 seeds and maybe 10 grew.  Because we waited so long for them to come up I finally replanted some more seeds at the end of June and finally this week they are ready.  We keep picking and picking but because everyone loves them so much they are gone with in minutes.  Ashlynn is my little gardener in training.  She loves to the work in the garden with me, especially harvesting food.

Softball 2014

Kaylie had so much fun playing softball this summer.  Their team, Pee Wee Power, was pretty good.  This year Kaylie mostly played on third base.  At the beginning of the season Kaylie said she didn't care to play pitcher because all the other girls wanted to BUT half way through the season she got the itch more and more to pitch.  She wanted her dad to practice with her every night and when he couldn't work with her, she asked me.  She finally had her chance but after the first two pitches the other coach complained that she was taking an extra step so she was taken out.  She still practiced every single day and at the start of the last game of the championships her coach put her in.  Kaylie pitched the WHOLE entire game and almost every pitch was perfect.  It was amazing.  All the parents were raving about how well she was doing.  They lost in double over time by one run.  Kaylie was sooooo disappointed.  She really loves softball.  I loved how the girls had so many cheers they would sing through out the whole game.  So fun.

Meet RUBY

Meet RUBY the newest member to our Family.

Ruby is our cute orange baby kitten that we adopted from our neighbor. 

My kids have fallen in love . . . especially Cameron.  He loves to

grab Ruby, carry here around like a rag doll, chase her, and

then cuddle with her in front of the TV.  Ruby is so

patient and lets him do this most of the time.

It's amazing how a little ball of fur

can change people.

June Happenings

Zoo for a Birthday Party

All of Tashia's kids birthdays are close to each other so this year she had one big celebration at the zoo and it turned out to be a fun day.  It was fun going with everyone.

Look at this AMAZING cake table.  All the details.

The decorations were so fun.

Baseball

Photo Sessions

For a while I was thinking about having a small studio in my house to take new born and child photography.  A few months ago someone asked me to take their infants photos and I decided that this was not for me.  I do like to take family photography and action photography but NOT infant photography.  There are certain poses for infants  that every mother wants and they are extremely hard to produce.  I've decided that the photographers who charge $200 plus for those sessions deserve $200 plus.  Sessions can take between 2-4 hours long.  Plus what was I thinking . . . I don't have time with the twins to do something like that.  Here are a few pictures from that session. I honestly couldn't tell if the mom even liked them.



Then I had a friend recently ask if I would take her 6th month old photos.  I was anxious about doing it because I have no backdrops and props but she said it was fine.  I had A LOT more fun taking Porter's photos.  Here are a few from that session.





I think that for now I'm happy to take my own children's photos.  Photography is a lot of work!!!

May Happenings

Color Vibe Run

I SOLD one of my pictures, does that make me an artist?

I have this picture hanging up in Brandon's office at work



And this week a very wealthy man asked if I would sell him one of my prints!!  How exciting is that!!!!  Made my day so much brighter.  I took this photograph in Yellowstone a few years ago.  We were driving down the road in the morning when I saw this view and asked Brandon to pull over.  He gave me all but two minutes to hurry and snap this shot.  I was so excited when I pulled it up and saw how gorgeous it turned out. 

May

Food: Broccoli, Grape, and Pasta Salad

I love Salads and I have a handful of salad recipes that have been past down from my mom that I just love, but I want more.  Pintrest is flooded with salad recipes and so I thought it would be fun to try a new one every week.  My experience with Pintrest recipes has been a good one.  Most of the recipes I have tried are really good, so good my children and picky husband like them.  I'm hoping that the salad recipes are just as good.

Today I tried a recipe claimed as the "Best Salad Ever".  You can find it through this link http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/broccoli-grape-pasta-salad-50400000115388/

Three of my children and I really liked the recipe.  In fact, I put leftovers in their lunches.  If you have ever had the broccoli slaw salad sold at local groceries stores the dressing made in this recipe has the same taste which is yummy.  I was a little worried because I usually don't like grapes in salads, but I thought the grapes added a wonderful taste; though cranberries would be a great substitute.

I did not have bacon on hand and bacon would add a yummy touch to the salad but not necessary.

 

 It Makes about 11 cups of salad and has:
356 calories per cup
54 carbs per cup
(this does not include bacon)

 

INGREDIENTS

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 (16-oz.) package farfalle (bow-tie) pasta                
1 pound fresh broccoli                

1 cup mayonnaise                               

1/3 cup sugar                

1/3 cup diced red onion                

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

 

Click to see savings

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups seedless red grapes, halved                

8 cooked bacon slices, crumbled                

 

Click to see savings

 

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Bake pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 5 to 7 minutes or until lightly toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through.

2. Prepare pasta according to package directions.

3. Meanwhile, cut broccoli florets from stems, and separate florets into small pieces using tip of a paring knife. Peel away tough outer layer of stems, and finely chop stems.

4. Whisk together mayonnaise and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl; add broccoli, hot cooked pasta, and grapes, and stir to coat. Cover and chill 3 hours. Stir bacon and pecans into salad just before serving.

April