Apple Butter, part one

I have wanted to make my own apple butter for a long time. My daughter loves the stuff. I occasionally like it. My husband is not real fond of it. So if I buy it, it often goes moldy.

We have awesome apple orchards locally so the idea of canning our own apple butter makes sense.

We can preserve the butter in smaller jars that won't spoil before we use it.

I found a recipe online using the crock pot, from Simply Canning, a canner I also follow on Facebook: http://www.simplycanning.com/canning-apple-butter.html

My Better Homes and Gardens canning book also has a standard on the stove recipe, but that one requires lots of liquid. The crock pot version has no liquid.

We overfilled the crock pot with chunks of fresh apples. 6 pounds seems to be the estimate provided on the recipes. I added a few splashes of local apple cider, a few splashes lemon juice, some local raw honey (about 1/4 cup) and spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and just a pinch of ginger.

The Simply Canning web site says to cook on high one hour, stirring, and leave on low overnight. By morning you should be able to whisk instead of stir.

We've almost done loading the crock pot.

Crockpot oatmeal II

Today we started talking about oats and got hungry for crockpot oatmeal. Crockpot oatmeal can be a super hot breakfast, but it requires some forethought. And while you're supposed to cook on low overnight, it probably would only take a couple hours if you turned the heat up. The trick seems to be to make sure there's enough liquid to keep it from drying up since the oats absorb over time.

This can be a very hearty vegan breakfast if you use alternative milks and a margarine product for the butter. I'm trying mine tonight with almond milk for the first time. Silk's new vanilla almond milk is a favorite of my daughter.

Grease the crockpot.

Mix:
- one cup oats, rolled oats NOT instant ( I used one and a half)
- 2 cups milk ( I used about 1.5 cups vanilla almond milk, 3/4 cup soy milk and 1/4 cup whole cow's milk)
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 chopped apple (I used two)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup walnuts ( I used pecans)
My other add-ins:
- 1/4 cup chopped prunes
- 2 tablespoons vanilla white chocolate chips
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 3/4 teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon 
- a few chopped dates

Catch up/ grocery shopping

Wow. I knew it had been a day or two since I posted, but Tuesday? Really?

Wednesday for dinner I made a broccoli and black olive pizza in the Le Creuset skillet.

Last night I was going to make sausage with rice and greenbeans, but I didn't have sausage. So I used black beans instead.

Today, I had the worst shopping experience of my life.

I spent close to $90 and got next to nothing. Let's blame the iron-deficient anemia and associated health problems. $25 of that was for two bottle of beaujolais. For the iron. Of course.

I prepared a shopping list on my iPhone and headed to Giant. My original plan was to get the things I can only get a Giant there, using a couple store register-generated coupons, then head to the liquor store and to Aldi. The list of things I needed, from all THREE stores, was about 15 items.

I lost my keys and had to use the spare car key. Strike one.

I checked the bank balance ($85) and tossed my wallet in my pocket. Took husband to work and realized I forgot the MAC card. Had to disturb hubby at work and borrow his.

Went to store. Forgot half the items on the list, despite making THREE passes through the damn store. After the second pass, I opted to skip Aldi and get everything at Giant. Even if I could have saved $5 at Aldi, because at this point I've been in the store an hour. Forgot the coupons in the car. Didn't have a "bonus" card because it's on my keychain, which, remember I lost. Used the store card.

Went way over budget (I was thinking $40, spent $63.01) so used the visa instead of the mac card.

Good news is the liquor store is next to the Giant so I managed to do that right.

So, the purchases:
- 3.15 pounds of Purina Kitten Chow, $3.89 (for the older cat who's vomiting a lot, cheaper than a cheap to the vet, I figure.)
- 10 juice boxes of minute maid 100% juice fruit punch, $2.79
- 8 juice pouches of organic Honest Kids berry lemonade (no high fructose corn syrup) $3
- 5 liters of Giant seltzer, $2
- Nature's Promise Organic Ranch Dressing, (no MSG) $2.50
- cinnamon, $1.79
- 6-pack of Giant Mac and Cheese, $2.79
- Giant 100% cranberry juice, no sugar added, 2 @ $2.69
- grated cheese, $2.49
- Giant coffee, 11.5 ounces, one French roast, one breakfast blend, $2.49 each (I can't remember what we like)
- one box of penne regate, 16 ounces, and one box rotini, 89 cents each
- Country Acres apple butter (good stuff!) 19 ounces, $2.73
- almost 2.5 pounds of bananas, $1.43
- one cucumber, 99 cents
- 2 packaged salads, $5
- 2 boxes of Morningstar vegetarian sausages, $3.29 each
- the big container of Light and Lively cottage cheese, $3.24
- 64 ounces of vanilla almond milk, $2.69 minus 55 cent manufacturer coupon (really? should have bought MORE)
- dozen jumbo eggs, $1.65
- 64 ounces of Nature's Promise soy milk, $2.39
- 8 ounces of extra sharp cheddar cheese, $1.99
- Barbasol shaving cream, 89 cents

Apple Butter

As soon as I dropped my husband off at his office, my daughter and I went to Wegmans. I hope to do an entry about our trip once I recuperate... But my daughter saw me throw cottage cheese in the cart and asked me if she could have cottage cheese and apple butter for breakfast. At the end cap at the end of the tea row, they had Little Barn specialty jams and among them was a jar of "no granular sugar added" apple butter. The jar was $2.99, when I'm fairly certain traditional apple butter is more in the $1.99 range. But I looked at the ingredients: apples, apple cider & cinnamon. That's it.

Neither she nor I tasted a difference, though I want to say that the apple flavor was more intense. It irks me that so many products made with fruit have no much sugar added to them. Like popsicles. Because fruit is naturally sweet, why all the sugar? And canned fruit packed in heavy syrup. I find that gross.

(Though sometimes I use that kind of fruit for my tarte tartin, and I simply use the syrup to make the sugar syrup without adding sugar.)

Okay, end of rant.

Fish sticks and squash

Nothing gourmet on the menu tonight... For breakfast my daughter had cereal and an early lunch of leftover chicken and mac and cheese with peas. I had cottage cheese and a banana for breakfast and the same lunch.

For dinner, we're having fish sticks because I unexpected had to work late tonight, but we're serving with frozen cooked squash that I will flavor with butter and brown sugar.

Tomorrow, we'll have some sort of leftover baked potato for lunch and I'm thinking some sort of pasta for dinner with the leftover sauce from the chicken. I was thinking pasta with that sauce and tuna, but my husband made a face at the idea.

Morning snacks: Cottage cheese with apple butter

In this house, breakfast usually comes around two or three times a day. My daughter starts her day with about 4 ounces of chocolate soy milk (more if it's one of those Horizon organic milk boxes) and a small meal, today a New York gala apple. (Which while leaving me relieved that it wasn't shipped from outside the country, I still had to ponder the relativity of shopping local.)

Then, at 8 a.m. she made "blueberry muffins" in her Easy Bake oven (which did not include blueberry just imitation blueberry). Around 9 a.m., I needed to eat and I didn't feel like it so I had a couple fig newtons. Yeah, bad Mommy. But then it became apparent that I needed real food and at 10 a.m., I had apple butter and cottage cheese.

Now, apple butter is a very Pennsylvania Dutch condiment. I've only seen it used for two things, even in my Pennsylvania Dutch in-law's house: cottage cheese and scrapple. I find scrapple unappealing. But apple butter and cottage cheese is a nice mix of carbs and protein to keep me stable from a food perspective. And the calcium benefits me too.

My daughter and I both had a serving (hers with more apple butter than mine). Then, my inlaws showed up with watermelon. She ate that too.