Back before there were all these ridiculous (in my own, English-geek opinion) acronyms and abbreviations that these kids these days use for their "texting" and whatnot*, there was J.K. It stands for "just kidding" and was what my friends and I used in the many notes we wrote to each other when we were supposed to be working on our research papers in Writing Lab.
Remember notes? Ah, the good old days.
ANYWAY.
So what am I J.K.ing about? Canning. Here I made this big deal about being done with canning! And tallying up the finalfinal total! And look at MEEE! DONEDONEDONEDONEDONE!!!
Ummm . . . J.K.!
See, my friend Alyssa (who you're probably thinking must be my ONLY friend, since she's the only one I ever mention, and . . . well, that's pretty much right) told me that there were several huge crates of apples on her dad's property that were drops donated by the local orchard for cider-making. Except all the cider-making that's going to happen has happened and there are STILL hundreds and hundreds--I would go so far as to say thousands--of pounds of apples in those crates, just there for the taking.
WELL. Am I the woman to pass up free fruit? No. Except I maybe didn't need to take quite as many as I did, because now I am faced with about 75 pounds (possibly more--I am terrible at estimating weight) of apples to use in the next few days before they go bad.
Last night I made a large batch of applesauce, apple juice for jelly-making, and some sauteed apples for dessert. Today I will make another large batch of applesauce which will be combined with the batch I made last night to form a full canner-load of seven quarts, and I'll use the juice to make jelly. At which time I will have disposed of MAYBE a tenth of what I brought home.
Check back with me this weekend and maybe I'll have an updated, NO REALLY I MEAN IT THIS TIME, final tally for you. Or maybe I'll have my hand in a brace because of the damage incurred by peeling and coring a thousand apples. Probably that.
* If I'm not careful, you'll all guess that I'm not REALLY a 30-year-old mother living in a big old house in the country, but a bitter 80-year-old woman holed up in an apartment with 15 cats and my computer, at which I sit for 12 hours a day trolling message boards and spewing vitriol about the degeneracy of today's youth and the general lack of moral fiber these days. Or something.
10 comments:
Ooooh! I would actually love to have your predicament. My kids eat applesauce by the gallon! One of the best decisions I ever made was to invest in a really good quality food mill. I just wash, quarter and core my apples, dump into a huge stock pot add a tiny amount of water and cook away. Once the apples are soft, I rope my husband into turning the food mill while I spoon in the apples. Applesauce in no time (and the skins give it a wonderful pink blush color!)
Two ideas. First, you can do like Barb and attach a drill to the food mill.
Second, do a big ol' pot of apple butter. You'll still have to peel and core -- well, you don't have to peel -- but you'll have much less canning to do because it'll reduce in volume.
Word verification: perentr -- one who uses perentheses.
But what about apple butter, which is wrong because it references butter without actually containing any butter, but still manages to be lovely?
(I totally have 3 shoeboxes full of notes from junior high. They are PAINFUL to read.)
Not to worry, Drew and J.T. Apple butter is on the agenda. Along with several other apple things because I can make ANY APPLE THING I WANT. No shortage of apples.
Can some pie filling too.
Apple juice slippery slopes? Or bourbon/apple juice cocktails.
If the 'pit of despair' stays the right temperature you could try keeping some down there.
I'm with jive turkey....why no butter in apple butter? :)Beth
word verification - omeappet
okay there is an 'app' for everything...this is a small 'app' for gangs and there buds
I love apples and I am so jealous! I love making apple butter. I canned some a few years ago but haven't made it in a while.
Did you use a juicing machine to make the apple juice? I am curious how to do it without one. The only fruits I know how to juice without one are citrus, but I know people juiced other fruits without juicing machines at one point.
Haley: Muslin. Cheap at a fabric store. You cut off a length of the muslin, wet it a little (so it doesn't absorb your juice), put it in a bowl, then pour in your mashed and slightly simmered fruit, gather the top of the muslin together, tie it off with a long length of kitchen string, then hoist your newly-made muslin juicing bag up over the bowl, tie it to a cupboard handle and let the juice drip.
That's how I juice things, anyway, because I don't have a juicer. Several layers of cheesecloth will work too.
For godssake woman, get The Apple Machine. Or borrow it from someone. It's been around for hundreds of years (no really, since like 1886 or something) and can peel, slice and core an apple in five hot seconds. No pain at all.
COME ON.
Cubby's a baby. Babies eat applesauce. You'll be fine.
word verification: drotylli -- one of those drill thingies attached to a food mill
Kristen, get to baking... I'm on my way over for a piece of apple pie. (J.K!!!)
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