Making Apple Sauce and Apple Butter

Well, I've gone off the deep end. Today, I made another batch of homemade salsa, but also made some apple sauce which will eventually be made into apple butter. Yes, that's right. Just call me a domestic diva. Ha. I know my wife is convinced that someone has kidnapped her husband and replaced me with a clone, as I hardly ever cook. Actually, it wasn't that bad. A lot of work mind you, but it was kind of fun. I took some pictures along the way, and posted it to my webpage. Enjoy!

My First Canning Experience

Well, I took the plunge today and made some salsa. After obtaining a bucket of tomatoes from my boss, I decided today was the day. Although he didn’t have any peppers, I purchased bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, carrots, and onions from the Wild Oats natural store, i.e. they’re the organic vegetables. Yum!

Wow, I only have to say that canning is a lot of hard work! LOL, I never realized how much was involved. And, I never really understood how long it takes for a 21 quart pot of water to start boiling. Geesh, that’s a lot of water. Needless to say, I hope the end result is worth the effort and expense. I can see now why canning has fallen out of favor, when it’s so easy to just go to the store and buy what you want. But, the homemade salsa that my boss’ wife makes is absolutely awesome, better than any store bought salsa I’ve ever had. She's given me several jars of salsa over the last couple of years. Heck, give a man a jar of salsa, and you feed him for a day, but teach a man how to make salsa, and you feed him for a lifetime.

I started off by blanching 20 small to medium size tomatoes. I’ve never blanched anything before, but that actually was pretty easy. You just drop the tomatoes (minus the stem) into a pot of boiling water for about 30 seconds, then dip them in ice cold water. The skins pell right off. Then, I chopped up 2 carrots, a bell pepper, 10 jalapeno peppers, and an onion. I added all of this to the blender (in various batches) and chopped to the consistency I felt comfortable with. Then, I added some pickling salt, pepper, and garlic salt, and cooked it all for about 30 minutes at a low boil. The house smelled yummy.

While the salsa mixture was cooking, I prepared 5 pint size jars by boiling them in the canning pot. I also boiled the lids and rings. Afterward, I ladled the salsa into the pint jars, attached the lids and rings, and canned the jars for 15 minutes in a boiling bath. Now, the jars are cooling, and tomorrow, I’m going to open one and try it.

All of the jars look great, as you can see above. I think it’s really going to taste great too. So, while I realized that there is a lot more involved in canning than I originally thought, actually, it’s not too bad, especially if you can assembly-line a lot of the work.

Hmm, what’s next? I've got some apples from the orchard that I need to make apple sauce out of, and eventually into apple butter. My wife has plans for canning spaghetti sauce too. Otherwise, that's about it. Salsa, apple sauce, and spaghetti sauce.

Where Have I Been?

OK, so I haven't updated this site in a couple of weeks. Actually, I lost access for awhile. I think someone may have hacked in, and was able to get the password reset. I've got nothing to hide, so I'm sure they were quite disappointed. Oh well. At least it's fixed now.

Let's see, here's an update. We went to Nebraska City today to buy some apple juice and apples. I wanted to make some apple wine, and we also wanted to make some apple butter. Yes, we've gotten the canning bug. My mother used to make the best-ever apple butter that I've ever had, and my sister Jeanne has been keeping up the tradition ever since. Last year, Jeanne gave me the recipe, and this year, I wanted to try to make some apple butter for myself. And, my boss' wife makes homemade salsa, which was absolutely yummy. So, I got the recipe for that too, thus we intend to try to make some fresh salsa also. After an exhausting search for a Ball basic canning set, I finally found one today on clearance for $40 at Walmart. I guess the canning gods are watching over us. Ha. I also bought a food mill so we can grind up the cooked apples to make the apple sauce, which will be made into apple butter. Yum!

Fall is definitely in the air now. Football has begun, the days are getting shorter, the nights are really cooling down, and my allergies have been driving me nuts. Yup. That's fall alright. The leaves have just started to turn, barely. I'm looking forward to the colors over the next few weeks. The changing leaves are one of my favorite things about fall. I could do without the allergies though.

I mentioned previously that our daughter was doing really well in her new school. Well, that was then, this is now. It turns out, she's struggling just a bit. She's making silly mistakes, and not really applying herself to her abilities. Sigh. Oh well. I think she's still adjusting to her new school, her new teacher, and a new way of doing things. She's a very bright girl, but just seems to be struggling. Not so much on her homework, but definitely on the tests unfortunately. Grades aren't everything, in fact, I'm not too concerned about grades at all. I just want to make sure she's learning the concepts, and building a good foundation. If it takes a few D and C grades, and a few retests along the way, I'm OK with that. As long as she's trying her best, I'm OK with that too. But, I think she can do a lot better, and I think she knows that too. We'll see.

I haven't mentioned our dog, Ginger, in quite awhile. She's doing pretty good, although, in mid August, we did have a potty setback. I think she got used to having people around her all of the time during the summer, and when my wife and daughter went back to school, she rebelled. She had quite a few accidents, and I'm beginning to think it was her way of holding a grudge against being alone more. So, we started over with the potty training, and made sure that she was tethered on a leash, or inside her kennel at all times. We also implemented a treat system, in which she gets a special treat each time she goes outside. For what it's worth, everything seems to be OK now. She did have an accident a couple of days ago, but I don't think it was something she did on purpose. So, after a brief setback, I think we're back on the right track. She's only 8 lbs, but is all dog. She loves to hear herself bark, and loves to cuddle. She's tough on toys though. Being a Rat Terrier, she has a very strong killer instinct. She can literally tear a whole in a stuffed animal in a few minutes. My wife bought her a new elephant. I think it was $5. On the first day, she had torn inside, and pulled most of the stuffing out. Ugh. She's an honry dog at times, but very lovable too, and a good companion. We're concerned about winter though, and her ability to handle the cold. She's an extremely sturdy dog, so maybe it will be OK. We're thinking about getting her a heating pad for her kennel to keep her warm at night. I'm thinking she might enjoy that very much.

The wine continues to age. I've got 3 batches bulk aging now. The Blackberry Cabernet should be ready to bottle in another couple of weeks. It should be drinkable nearly immediately, and actually, it's quite tasty and very pleasant. I think it may be the wine that I enjoy the most. The Port is also really, really good. A little hot yet, and it definitely needs a lot of time to age. I'd like to keep some of this for several years, to compare the differences. For example, I'd like to hold back a bottle for Christmas for each of the next 5 years, just for fun. The White Zin is OK, nothing special, although White Zin usually never is. The apple wine will be my next step.

Life is Rough

Hurricane Katrina struck with a vengeance on the Gulf Coast Sunday night and Monday morning. In fact, it will likely be the worst natural disaster in US history. Watching the news reports makes me quite sad. Knowing that New Orleans has essentially been wiped off the map is sad. Seeing all of those poor people is sad. It’s a tragedy really. Here I sit in my nice, dry home in the Central US, and hundreds of thousands of folks have lost everything they own. It’s just so unbelievable. With each new story, it’s amazing. I feel so helpless. About the only thing we can do is give some money, and hopefully, if everyone can give just a little, things will get better for these folks. It’s pretty scary actually. People are desperate. However, disasters bring out the best and worst in people.

Otherwise, life moves on for us. My daughter is coping well with her new school. Although, last night, Hannah woke up at 1:45 am, worried about her math homework. She had a nightmare, and couldn’t sleep. She was dreaming she was doing problems, wasn’t done with all of her work sheets, and just had to get up to double check her work. She did OK, but missed a couple of items. She’s studying geometry. She’s in the fourth grade, and overall is doing well, but it was hard to see her struggle. She’s at a new school, doesn’t know many of the kids, and is starting over, again. I know that’s tough, but she’ll be OK. She’s making new friends, and in the long run, this was the right choice.

My allergies have returned. I have seasonal, fall allergies, with ragweed being my primary aggravator. Well, ragweed pollen is at its peak now, so it should be a miserable September. I take a daily allergy pill, although, some days, it doesn’t seem to do much. Oh well, I’ll live. I often take OTC allergy medication too, and this makes me really drowsy. The last couple of days, I’ve done nothing but sleep. It’s a drag really, but hopefully, I’ll get used to it.

My wine continues to age. The White Zinfandel actually tasted a lot better last week, and the Port tasted really good. My blackberry cabernet is just about done too. That’s about it for my wine making for now. I’ll let this wine age, and by Christmas, some of it should be ready to drink. It’s still an awful lot of wine. I intend to give some away as gifts, but will drinking a fair amount of it. Ha. Just call me a wino.