An apple a day...

I've had a hard time finding apples this year--the 2 normal places my mom gets them didn't have any, so I've been asking around and this 85 year old man in my new ward took it upon himself to find me some. Brother Baker is so sweet. He took me to a neighbors house and helped me pick 3 boxes of apples. He had a rake in the tree while standing on a ladder, shaking all the apples down. Not the most conventional way of getting them down--most were bruised or punctured, but still very useable as long as I did it that day. My mom and I were planning on waiting a day or two, but we ended up pulling a mid-nighter, and made 14 quarts of apple pie filling and 11 quarts of apple sauce to share.

Brother Baker showed up at my door a few days later with 4 grocery bags stuffed completely full of apples. "I found more--do want them?" I did, but mom was out of town, so I did 7 more quarts of pie filling and 5 more of applesauce by myself (well, actually the kids helped me).

Mom went visiting teaching last week and the lady she visits, sister Kent, said, "My sister is trying to find someome to take the rest of her apples--do you know of anyone who wants them?" We had to wait for the snow to melt, but we got 4 big boxes and cranked out 30 more quarts to share. Our tradition every time is to eat the freshly cranked, steaming hot applesause with vanilla ice cream melting on top. YUM.

The apple-saucer is quite the cool contraption. First you cut the apples in half, cut out worm spots or bad spots, remove the stem and blossom. Then you cook them in a little water, till they're good and soft. you put them in the top white funnel, and you push them down with a wooden plunger while turning the handle. the applesauce runs down the tray, while the skin and seeds spiral out the end. Then you bottle it and process it.

Apple pie filling is soooo good. It's good for more than just pies, too. You can put it in the bottom for apple cobbler, apple crisp, or dump cake. You can eat it on waffles, pancakes, or crepes with whipped cream. Or, you can do pie. All very delish. For the pie filling, you turn the apples on a different machine--it peels, cores, and slices them. You make the sauce with sugar, water, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon juice. You pack the sliced apples in the hot sauce and process them in the canner.

I absolutely love the way the house smells when doing apples. The downside is your fingers and fingernails turn that yucky brown color (you know, that apples turn if you leave them out after they're peeled). It doesn't wash off; it has to wear off. I've been scrubbing them, and I did something I haven't done for a while--paint my nails. It hides the bulk of it. Also, one more tip: Oil and shortening go rancid after not very long in food storage, so it's hard to store enough for a year. Applesauce is a great substitute for fat in baking (cookies, cakes, biscuits, etc.), and it has a lot longer shelf life.