Apples and more Apples

Remember a month ago when we picked apples with a couple in our ward? Well Dixie helped get 2 batches of applesauce canned while she was here, but we still had 1/2 of the apples left to work with. We bobbed for apples, played with apples, made apple crisp and planned on canning some apple butter.
The boys have been BEGGING to bob for apples for a long time and we finally did it. It took them a while to get it and I had to switch to a shallower/wider container to make it easier for them. It was a fairly nice day and the kids just played out back bobbing all the apples from one bowl to the other. Not very sanitary but lots of fun.

My first batch of apple butter, I forgot about on the stove when we were downstairs having our Friday night pizza and a movie party with the kids. It burned....bad. After a few days I finally got the pot cleaned well enough to try again. The second try turned out pretty good! I don't think I simmered it quite long enough so its not super thick, it seems more like spicy and smooth applesauce. but for my first experience canning by myself, it sort of worked! I don't have a proper canning pot and with the apple butter not really boiling or hot before you put it in jars, I was thinking I needed to boil/process them. After a few mishaps I finally figured out a way to invert my steamer in the pot to set the jars on and use some big spoons like chopsticks (since we don't have any tongs) to get the apple butter processed. WHEW. I still have about 2 batches more of apples to do but having done it once, I think it'll go faster and be cleaner.