Monday, November 05, 2007

The Domestic Streak Continues

The part of my personality that I affectionately refer to as focused, others have been known to call “Obsessive” (We’ll leave compulsive component for another post) . Just like with the scrapbooking, I get on kicks and need to keep doing stuff, usually along the same vein, until it kind of works out of my system.

A few months ago it was scrapbooking. I work it all out of my system, then I need another “project.” Lately it’s been cooking. Spurred on by the massive influx of information on organic eating, and inspired by Emily’s canning experiences I have felt the need to take cooking at home to a new level.

So, in order to save you the anguishing experience of reading a drawn out post on my past week’s experience, I have put it in bullet points, the things that I have been up too over the past several days.
• Bought a bushel of apples
• Borrowed my mom’s corer/slicer/peeler (LOVE IT!)
• Bought canning jars
• Cored/Sliced/Peeled half a bushel of apples
• Make applesauce
• Made pie filling
• Made apple butter
• Made nifty labels to go on my jars
• Made homemade cinnamon raisin wheat bread
• Made spreadsheet of future canning projects and when the prospective fruit/vegitable will be harvested and where said fruit/vegitable can be obtained.
• Talked my dad into planting a huge garden next summer so I can can everything and save…ahhhh what $30??
• Googled great recipes for canning things that every family needs tons of, like Carmel Spice Pear Butter.
•Am currently letting juice drain from cheesecloth full of reduced blackberries to make my grandmother’s famous Seedless Blackberry jelly (hated by some and beloved by others!)
•Came up with an amazing recipe for deep fried apple rings for potential side business at local fairs and festivals.
Churned homemade butter to go with homemade bread and apple butter

Yes, I spent my entire weekend doing this. But no, it didn’t take the time you would think. On that note, I would like to thank some handy dandy kitchen gadgets that just don’t get the appreciation or attention that they really deserve. So thank you:
• Crockpot for that wonderful apple butter
• Food processer for taking the hours and hours out of churning butter
• Hand held blender for making pureeing stuff so easy, and
• Breadmaker for doing all the work for me!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish I had a hand blender, that is one of the things I want for Christmas, when I was trying to puree the pumpkin that I cooked for the pumpkin pies I wanted to make, my blender did not do as good of a job (and took longer) than the hand blender. So next time I make Pumpkin from scratch pies, I am hoping to be able to use the hand blender. Did my apple butter recipe turn out well for you? I love that recipe it always turns out well for me. I can;t wait to see you all soon at Thanksgiving. We miss Isabelle! ( and you too of course:)

Angie said...

Loved the pictures. So did you plan Isabelle's orange coat to match the pumpkins so you can make an awesome, coordinated scrapbook page? I sometimes catch myself dressing my kids according to the scrapbook page I am going to make on this event. Weird, I know.

Angie said...

Now that was strange...My original post disappeared and an old one appeared. Couldn't do that again if I tried.

Anyway, what I said before was... Pretty soon I'm gonna mistake you for an Amish lady! :) Don't get too carried away!

Unknown said...

I'm so proud of you. I'm glad it turned out so well for you. Was it hard to can? I didn't even think of the obvious....applesauce. Way to go Danielle!

Emily Jade said...

Trust me...the garden will save you WAY more than $30. Get the canning book and come up with ideas now. It'll help you with planning in the long run.
You will LOVE the apple butter and applesauce. Watch how much faster these items get eaten as opposed to store bought. I'll warn you ahead of time - this can be alarming :O)

Great Job Danielle!!

FYI - Crock Pots are nice, but I have to put up enough to feed an army. My electric roasting pan is a 22 quart big boy that will also roast up to a 24 pound turkey. For just under $40 at Sam's Club - you can't go wrong! Rival makes it, and it is AWESOME!! I can actually get the roast AND all of the veggies in the same location to cook at the same time. Small wonders...

Anonymous said...

I am so proud of my girls - you take right after meeee--well, maybe it skipped a generation!! :-)
But none the less, I am really proud! Your dad and I even went to the store and bought organic milk and eggs. Now, we're getting fresh eggs from a local -so that will help - but we're still looking for the non-hormone meat. Norwalk is limited and you know we don't go to the big city of Sandusky for groceries - it's too scary!! I'll see you all this weekend. Love, Oma

Anonymous said...

YOU GO GIRL!!!! I am so impressed and envious at the same time. See I am a lazy mom and wife and rely on the grocery store for things. I have never attempted to make jelly, apple butter or canned anything!
Just an FYI for you mom and dad -- local co-ops are a good place to start looking for organically grown beef, pigs and chickens!

Anonymous said...

Hello friend from the past...you make me tired reading your blog! I am lucky to get anything done anymore w/my 2 kiddos...cooking is the last thing I even think of unless it is pre-packaged ;)

You have a lovely family & I am so happy for you!

Would love to keep in touch!

Mollie (Unruh) Eichman

JaydensJourney said...

http://www.noggin.com/shows/luis.php Thought I would share one of my favorite cooking shows. They now have video demonstrations on line.

I had to chuckle at your post since I've been trying to better about cooking healthy things too. We miss living in apple country, unless you live in apple country, it's so hard to understand the apple deprivation of other areas...shipping them in just isn't the same.