Apple Pickin' Good Times

What with the rampant agriculture in this area of the world, it only made sense that there should be some place to harvest a slice of this bounty and take it for ourselves. I was not one of those who went a-lookin', but thanks to the hard work and dedication of Mrs Megan and every-one's favorite, Kari B, we found plenty of feral apples to gather for applesauce, and for the yummy canned and preserved Cinnamon apple goodness shown below.

Look anywhere you can think for a fruit tree that is no longer maintained, or one in someones yard that you can help maintain for a payment in fruit. Megan was lucky enough to hiking on a hillside overlooking... oh, one of these little German towns, and stumble across just that: a tree or two outside the fence, unkempt, unmaintained as their brethren, and left to drop apples to the ground.

Well, we can't have that now can we?

It took 2 trips and several buckets to gather enough apples, and then about 6 solid hours of peeling and cutting to end up with enough apple meat for two recipes. If nothing else, you can figure that too much is way better than not enough... and you'd be surprised at how much the little buggers shrink in the cooker.

The first thing we made was Cinnamon Apples, or canned apple pie filling, though I'm not sure we have any immediate plans to make a pie. I'm thinking this could be marketed as a revolutionary topping for everything.

We found a simple recipe on allrecipes.com, and modified it as follows:

4 1/2 cups white sugar* (We used 3 cups white sugar, 1.5 cups light brown sugar)
1 cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon* (Okay, we might have doubled or tripled that... we like spice!)
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons salt
10 cups water
3 tablespoons lemon juice* (Omitted)
2 drops yellow food coloring * (Omitted)
6 pounds apples

We doubled the quantities and used 12 lbs of apples for a total yield of 12 quarts of apples in cinnamon sauce. The sauce is prepared by combining all ingredients except the apples, and cooking over a constant heat until thick and bubbly. I learned the hard way that it is best to dissolve the cornstarch in a liquid before combining with the mix, just like making gravy. Yes, that is "cooking common sense" (come to find out), but I have never denied my lack of stealth before the stove.

At the same time the sauce is bubbling, your jars should be getting sterilized in boiling water and filled to the top with apple chunks. It is important to fill the jars while they are still hot, and this really takes a couple of people, so I'm sure even my fumbling hands were appreciated by Megan and Kari. Once the sauce and jars were ready, each was filled with hot bubbly sauce and capped.

I cannot go into preserving detail, as I was not present for this step, but the general process can easily be found online or in your kitchen cookbook.

And that is that. I am looking forward to winter and the un-capping of our little jars of delight. I might have to crack one to sample before then :) Maybe I will make a pie!

Go make a pie!

Burda Style Dress Contest!

Today marks the ending of the Burda Style Sewalong Mini-Challenge, featuring the Anda pattern. Kari and I worked together on our entry, which can be seen by going to http://www.burdastyle.com/ and clicking on "vote now" on the mini-challenge banner. There you can scroll down to the "official Corn Trade entry" (har!) under the title "Anda Remake" by SquareKari. All of the submissions stem from a single pattern that was modified by each entrant.

It is fun and humbling to see the other beautiful dresses listed aside our own. Thank you to Burda Style for staging the game, and to everyone who looked at and appreciated the contest entries. And of course thanks to Kari, who makes me feel like a mad scientist... in a good way.

Still Standing

However feeble, I offer an excuse for our prolonged absence: Summertime. Although making / finding / re-using stuff is my primary means of existence, there isn’t always time to sit and write about it. In fact, I believe the inability to sit and plug-in means that I am finally living up to some sort of higher expectation. And I find that very ironic. The only type of internet institution I am capable of maintaining is one that I feel good about myself for ignoring.

And to the loyal fans (hi Grandma!), fear not. There are quite a few things I have been itching to share, so hold on for an inundation of information and inspiration… and alliteration. But not really, that will probably be the only time I do that. And although, as always, these projects have been completed using the minds and hands of many people, I will be the one describing the majority of our exploits for a time. Our Lucky Lady, Miss Kari B, has left us to embark on a multi-country post-card collecting tour. I’m sure she’ll tell you all about it one of these days.

So, here I am not actually telling about the beautiful cinnamon apples we canned, or the blanket created using gorgeous vintage fabrics, and trim handmade by friend-of-the-Corn-Trade, Kimmie! I am also not mentioning the HUGE tomato plants in the Corn Trade community garden, or the dress contest we entered on Burdastyle.com! (Nope, I’m even going to mention it.)

I will however, start filling you on these things one at a time, as we should have been doing all along. Until then (it will be soon…promise :) …

k