Canning Apple Pie Filling

This year, since moving, I have been able to home can several different things. Not all of those experiences haven’t been fantastic, but some have been really great! So far I've made strawberry jam, blueberry syrup (it was supposed to be jam, but it didn't set...read about the explosion incident here), homemade salsa, and now I'm canning apple pie filling!

One batch of pie filling cooking on the stove!

Because I'm super partial to my own apple pie recipe I went with that vs. one of the recipes which came with the apple pie canning recipes I looked up. This only allowed me to make enough to fill 2 quart size jars or 4 pint size jars at one time though so that was kind of a pain…but I think it’ll be worth it. I processed each jar of apple pie filling for 30 minutes in boiling water, set them on the counter to cool & seal, and then labeled them with the date before storing them in my pantry. I’m really excited about having the pie filling on my shelves!

One really big thing you’ll want to note before canning apple pie filling is that you do want to leave a good bit of space at the top of the jars you fill so that once the hot water bath process is completed and the jars are out on the counter they will seal. If you fill them too full the liquid mixture will overflow and cause the jars to not seal. If/when this happens you have to re-clean off the edges of the jars, wash the lids and re-process in a hot water bath...all of which can be quite a pain!

First Apple Pie of 2013!

I did end up baking an Apple Pie earlier this apple season and it was to die for! I've started using all brown sugar in my recipe instead of white sugar. This gives a caramel like taste to the pies and I LOVE it! Last year I shared the Grandma Karon's Apple Pie recipe...it's basically the same thing as in the photo above except now I like to use 1/2 cup of brown sugar instead of the 1/2 cup of white sugar on the ingredients list.

I gave away two jars of the pie filling. One went to my grandparents. My Papa asked me where I learned how to make such yummy pie filling and my Great Mary told me the apples tasted great on homemade biscuits too! This is definitely something I will be doing again next year as I am a huge fan of apple pie filling!

I've added this post to my Real Food Journey label since the apples came off the tree in my back yard and I used regular ingredients to make the pie filling. Home canning is a great way to preserve real foods.

FAIL | Exploding Blueberry Syrup

Recently I've been very into making jams and jellies. It’s really not too hard to do and the end results have been well worth it! Well, my second attempt in making ‘jelly’ was going pretty well until I decided to involve the blender. I figured that since I was using the whole fruit of the blueberries I could run them through the blender to make sure the skins wouldn't be a problem.

This was a completely STUPID idea as you can see by the photo…the lid exploded off the blender, the contents that flew out, I burned about four inches of my hand/arm area, and everything else landed on the cabinets above and below the blender, all over the floor, all over the counter, all over my jars of baking items (flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, etc.) and on the few dishes that were waiting for me to wash up when I got done making the jam.

Needless to say this is NOT a process I will ever attempt again in the future. I would not suggest it as it created a mess that took almost a full hour to clean up, not to mention the burning I’m currently (as I write this) experiencing in my arm. I did wash off my arm in cold water right away and left it under the water for quite a bit to help with the burning. I also put aloe vera on my arm to help cut the heat. I think those two things for sure helped and probably kept my arm from being worse off. It still hurts though and trying to finish out the jelly making process was really hard, even with a full oven mitt over the burned area.

All I have to say is don’t try to process hot foods in a blender. Food processor? Perhaps, but even I wouldn't want to attempt that after this painful & messy experience!

In case you’re wondering how the blueberry jam turned out….I was so distracted by the mess everywhere and my burning arm that I accidently added only 4 cups of sugar instead of 6 so the pectin didn't jell right and I ended up with blueberry syrup. It was/is really good over waffles though so the whole experience wasn't completely bad!

Country Home, Here We Come!

The view out our back yard. Isn't it gorgeous?!

Well, we finally made it to our new home!! I thought it would never happen. I packed boxes for almost a full week. When we finally got all moved in I looked over everything we had and thought, “wow, I have no clue how I got all this in that tiny two bedroom apartment!” Every room of this three bedroom house has furniture in it with a few pieces to spare. We’re not lacking in the furniture department at all! I’m grateful to have so much. It’s been a steady gathering process over the past year but when we moved in here we didn't have any room needing furniture so it was worth it.

One day we had all these tomatoes & greenbeans ready to pick and the apples were off the ground under the trees.

I've been out in the garden almost every day since the big move. We have had tons of tomatoes ripening. I plan to can most of them because there are just too many to use up right away. I've made several BLT sandwiches with the garden tomatoes and they are better than anything you could buy from a store!

We have 4 different garden sections (which I explain more in another post coming soon). In them we have tomato bushes, sweet potato plants, green beans, red beans, and several rows of onions! The grape vines are loaded and are close to being ready to pick. The blackberry bushes haven’t had much on them. I've decided that next year I will pick the berries as they are ready and then put them in the freezer until I have enough to actually make something worthwhile. The apples have been doing wonderful. I made the first apple pie of the season a few weeks after we moved in.  It was DELICIOUS! Instead of using white sugar I used brown sugar and it had a caramel like flavor to it which was amazing!

My first attempt at jelly making. I made Strawberry Preserves.

I made my first batch of jelly. It was strawberry and tastes heavenly! I have a recipe & directions for it coming soon. For as long as I can help it I won’t be buying jelly from the store! This homemade stuff is just too good to not make my own! I have plans to make blueberry jam, more strawberry preserves, and hopefully some grape jelly as well! Making jelly is one of my new favorite things!

We are very excited about our new house. I love being out away from everything. The lack of internet has caused me some stress a few times when I wanted to look something up right away but couldn't. I’ve learned to keep a running list that I bring with me when I do go to a place that has internet. That way I can look up those things and save the info to my computer to read up on later. This little system has been working quite well for me so far.

I have a few posts lined up and scheduled about different things hubby & I are working on around here. We are considering chickens...probably in the spring. I have a whole post on that coming up next week. Then there is a post with more details about our gardens scheduled for later next week as well. There is so much to them that I thought it would be easier if they had their own post. I love living out here and I really like that we have our own place. There's nothing quite like this feeling!

A few related posts from the blog:

• Our New Gardens
• Chickens, Chickens

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• Waste Not Want Not Wednesday #46

Peeling Tomatoes for Canning or Freezing

Last week my mom showed me this lovely way to easily peel tomatoes. I was very impressed and thought I should share this technique with you all. This is a great way to easily peel a large amount of tomatoes for canning or freezing for later use. I know summer is pretty much over, but some of you may still have tomatoes.

Here goes...

1. Rinse the tomatoes.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
3. Have a bowl of cold, cold tap water and pour a ton of ice in it.

4. Drop the tomatoes in the hot water and let them sit for 2-3 minutes.

5. Using something to scoop them out, take the tomatoes from the hot water and drop them immediately into the ice cold water.

6. Remove the tomatoes from the cold water.

7. Peel the tomatoes. You might want to use a knife to get it started, but the rest of the peel will come right off.

8. Cut out the middle piece at the top.

9. Now you have a tomato ready to be cooked, or diced, or canned, or frozen!

Notes
~You can do as many tomatoes at a time as long as they fit nicely in the pot for hot water and the ice water.
~This system also works well for peaches. Post coming with exact directions as there are a few things you do different when peeling peaches.

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• Homeacre Hop #27
• Common Sense Preparedness Link Up #8
• Clever Chicks Blog Hop #43
• Waste Not Want Not Wednesday #36