29.9.12

Two Bushels of Apples!

     Do you wonder what two bushels of apples looks like?
     That's 80 pounds of apples! Powpow's apple trees didn't produce many this year, so when we had an opportunity too good to pass up I ordered 2 bushels of apples. To me that is a lot of apples. Then a friend shared that last year they put up 12 bushels of apples! Our two were all handled in one day, the first day of fall. We made apple caramel bread, applesauce- smooth to eat and chunky for pie filling, apple butter, apple crisp, and apple dumplin's. And of course we ate a few.

Apple recipes:

     Lynn's Caramel Apple Oat Bread was modified just a bit since we no longer have a bread machine. We made three small loaves. My kids loved this with a combination of apple butter and peanut butter.


     Apple butter: One recipe said 12 hours in the crock pot. Our crockpot batch only started out about 1/3 full. I added sucanat and cinnamon to the applesauce recipe below. On high this batch took less than 6 hours. I did notice (since we had five slow cookers on at one time) that some cooked much faster than others. I also left the lid off the last 2 hours to help it thicken. My oldest daughter has especially enjoyed this and wants for us to make more.

    Applesauce
- Usually I make applesauce in a pot on the stove, but when I read that it was possible to prepare it in a slow cooker, I knew it would be perfect for our apple day. I filled each crock pot with sliced peeled apples and about 1 cup of water, then just cooked it down. After an hour or so I was able to mash it down with the potato masher, then added smaller pieces of cut and peeled apple to refill the crock pot. When cooked, we scooped this into freezer bags- 15 bags 3 cups each for future apple recipes all winter long. We used the water/apple juice left behind to make a small batch of Hot Spiced Cider.

    Apple peels- the kids kept eating these raw and we dried several batches in the oven. Em got a little artsy with this lion of peels:

      APPLE DUMPLIN'S

    Heather's favorite Apple crisp is so easy to prepare: sliced apples, 1/4C. sucanat, cinnamon, cover all with a handful of raw rolled oats and 1/2 bag of cake mix, top with dots of butter. Bake at 350 until bubbly. This never lasts very long at our house. 

A few more apple recipes for you:

     Granny's apple pie (I'll link to this once I find the notes we took last time we made this with her.)

     Food processor pie crust- I hope to try that when I find Granny's pie recipe.

     Homemade granola- one version has applesauce and dried bits of apple.

     Later the same week we enjoyed some apple inspired art. (We have some final touch ups to complete then I'll share pictures.) I remember as a child the cool factor of watching an apple cut a different way reveal a star. The Teaching Palette shared this lesson plan for imitating Matisse's Still Life With Apples with a link to the original at the Art Institute of Chicago. We also viewed this selection of apple art from the Google Art Project.

     Staying with the apple theme the kids enjoyed looking for the similarities in the movies Snow White and the modern but somewhat similar fairy tale Enchanted and how the apple was used for evil. I wonder if that stemmed from the frequent depiction of an apple as the fruit Eve ate in the Garden of Eden.

     Did you know that Wednesday was Johnny Appleseed Day?

     One final apple indulgence- My sister taught my kiddos to dip sliced apples into chocolate pudding. We also added this rich homemade caramel sauce. I didn't follow the recipe precisely and we almost ended up with one big praline in a bowl.

     What is your favorite way to eat apples?
Jennifer

4 comments:

  1. Yummy, yummy, yummy! You forgot to invite us over to help eat all those goodies! ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Come on over- we will make more!

      Delete
  2. That apple crisp looks so good. And with this being apple season, I really would love to try this!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is my oldest daughter's favorite dessert and is so easy to make. Enjoy it!

      Delete

comments from friends: