Apple-icious

This weekend, I made apple butter, and applesauce. I don't own one of those sweet doohickeys that strain and mash up the apples for you. I own a potato masher, so my apple butter is a little less buttery than I wanted, but no less delicious. The recipe I used is this:

• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed
• 1/2 cup apple cider
• 4 pounds Macintosh apples - peeled, cored and chopped
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 cup apple brandy
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

I didn't have apple brandy, and it's super expensive, so I just put in some more apple cider, which worked fine. I also added a tiny bit of nutmeg, and a little bit more cinnamon. It took about 3 hours. The first hour is just the apples and the liquid, cooking until the apples are mashable. Then you add everything else, and cook for another 2 hours. My house smelled really good.

Today, I made applesauce.

I basically just chopped up half a million apples, and added the left over apple cider and water. I put in 2 cups of each, and let it boil down. Mashed it up and canned it. I didn't need to add any sugar, it was sweet enough, and I like my apples tart anyway.

I got 4 pints of sauce and 7 half pints of butter.

The rest of the evening will be spent planning out my week, which will include children who wonder why we have to listen to jazz aka "black people music", tantrums, children who put foreign objects in their instruments, and high schoolers who feel like knowing the Star Spangled Banner is unimportant.