Ok. What do you do with 40lbs of apples?
I have two things I do when I get stressed or upset. I either clean or bake. Not that I am great at either, but this time I decided to go the baking route with 40lbs of apples which Mr. P and I picked up at the local orchard. They were getting kicked around the kitchen by "Not Me," so I knew I had to use them soon. Cleaning would have been a waste of my time with the 7 kids around ( 8 when "Not Me" comes for a visit), so I set my goal on some apple pies, homemade crust, and maybe some applesauce.
I found an awesome crust recipe (I would share but I think this one I am going to keep to myself for awhile). It made the best, most flakiest crust that I have ever had. I really amazed myself on how great it was. Even Mr. P said it was the best he's ever had. I got Giggles & Klutz on the apple peeling craze with me. Klutz is recovering from a broken arm (a foot, too... hence Klutz), so this was just another great cheap therapy session for her. I would say those two 9 year old girls peeled at least 70% of my apples, and took a lot of pride in making sure there was as little skin & core as possible.
We did manage to make three huge batches of applesauce and canned 24 jars of it. A very loooonnnnggggg time ago, I got it through my head that I was going to learn how to can. (I watched my mom do it for years every summer, couldn't be that hard right?) I bought so many jars at garage sales, and only attempted to do it once. It didn't turn out very well, and I have not tried in almost 5 years, during which time the jars just seemed to multiply like rabbits. I am quite attached to my jars, and very rarely gave one up for ANY REASON. Now that I have them back in my possession, I just had to give it another try.
With some encouragement and tons of knowledge by a friend at work, I was on a mission. I did it! The best home-made applesauce EVER. The kids were amazed that they didn't have to go into the fridge, and that they were going to sit on a shelf in the basement. I even had Mr. P amazed at my Martha Stewart-like ability in kitchen.
Since things were going so well, and the walls were already sweating (and all of us too), I was going to finally dye that 1lb of Alpaca that I got on my 33rd birthday (Yes, over a year ago). Well, lets just say that didn't go so well. I just made a HUGE tangled ball. I am not sure how I am ever going to dye this yarn, or even be able to use it. I guess after another few years, I might figure it out.
Books of 2008