Getting in the Mood for Fall

Crock Pot Apple Butter

Apparently the process of making apple butter was once a tedious and boring act. But since I found this crock pot recipe, I'll never have to go through what my mother remembers with an adverse shudder, something about stoking fires and cast iron pots...who knows. But to say this apple butter was easy would be an understatement. To say it was "good" would also be an understatement. Enjoy!

Step 1. Peel, slice, toss into crock pot. One of the recipes I adapted from suggested using Gala and Granny Smith, which is what I used for this run. Apparently, the more tart the better the flavor of the butter. My downfall here already: I don't have an apple corer. Next time I pass a Pampered Chef booth at a craft show or someone has a book party, I must snag an apple corer. It would make the first step of peeling/coring/slicing the apples go a LOT quicker.

Once they were peeled and sliced, I cut them up a little more into smaller chunks, just to help along the cooking process. 

Step 2. Mix the sugar and spices. 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 T cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cloves

Step 3. Sprinkle. Combine the apples in the crock pot with the sugar and spice mixture.

Step 4. Cooking Phase 1. Turn crock pot on HIGH, cover and cook apples for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. After an hour, they'll start to get mushy all on their own, and some people leave them to their own devices to cook fully down, but I wanted to make sure my apple butter wasn't lumpy so I went ahead and mashed them up right there in the pot.  

Phase 1 (cont.) After they were good and mashed, this is when I added vanilla. 1 tablespoon's worth. I figured it would bring out the flavor more if the vanilla simmered with the apples all night instead of being burned off on the high setting during that first hour. 

Step 5. Cooking Phase 2. Having turned down the heat to LOW setting, cover the apples and let cook 8-10 hrs. I let mine go overnight, stirring every hour until I went to bed. I will admit, I got up once during the night to stir it but that's just because I'm a bit of a paranoid OCD freak so I had to check to make sure I wasn't messing anything up....

...and to my delight, it turned out perfectly! I woke up to an inundation of Fall smells and now have an abundance of apple butter to get me through the season. See the final product and full recipe below!

Full Recipe

12-15 apples, different kinds

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 T cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 T vanilla

Peel, core, and slice apples into smaller size chunks. Toss in crock pot.

In med size mixing bowl, combine sugars, cinnamon, and cloves. Add to apples in crock pot.

Cook covered on HIGH for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. 

After 1 hr, remove lid and mash the cooked apples if you desire. Add 1 T of vanilla.

Cover and cook on LOW overnight, or 8-10 hrs, stirring occasionally. 

Can/store finished apple butter product!

Fitting: My First Pot Roast for My First Post!

The idea of starting a food blog has always danced in the back of my brain, but my lack of blog/html savvy has kept me from it...until now! I mean why not, considering I almost always end up taking pictures of the dishes I cook (and sending them to a certain boyfriend to make him jealous, since he's on the starving grad student diet)?  :) I think my decision to finally get this thing going stemmed from having received my first CROCK POT for my 25th birthday. I've already used it a number times to make a variety of dishes but today I wanted to start accounting for them all...

Starting with my very first attempt at cooking a pot roast! This recipe was adapted from another blogger who calls it a Mississippi Roast and is possibly the easiest thing ever to prepare. Also, judging by the seasonings added, I can tell that my house is going to smell glorious when I get home.

Preparation

Buy a chuck roast (the one pictured is a little over 4.2 lbs), place it in a good size crock pot

Sprinkle 1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix

Sprinkle 1 packet McCormick Au Jus gravy mix

Place 1 stick of butter (in an attempt to be at least somewhat healthy, I used margarine) on top of the sprinkled roast

Arrange (at least--more if you love them like we do) 5 pepperoncini's on/around the roast as well

Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hrs.


Before picture: This is what mine looked like when I put it in this morning...

After pictures: and this is how it turned out... 





Moist beyond words and literally falling apart with tenderness. Plenty of drippings to make a gravy but just as good as a plain Au jus over the meat. I was afraid the peppers would over power the meat and wouldn't appeal to everyone but it was sopped up in a heart beat! The peppers were a light light after taste, I definitely would not add more than what the recipe calls for. Overall this was an awesome success and I'm so glad I took the opportunity for these 2 firsts! 

More to come, don't you worry! Sunday Funday isn't too far away ;)