Mmmm applesauce...

'Tis that time of year! Fall is in full swing here in Michigan, and after today where temps might touch 80* one more time, it's back to sweatshirt weather. Yay!

Yesterday I had a real desire (I'm NOT calling it a craving because it might start some pregnancy rumors...) for some homemade applesauce. I actually love it frozen -- I grew up getting a container from the freezer, microwaving it for a few seconds, then scraping the chunk of apple-ice with a spoon. Yum!

I saw a few blogs and a few people on Facebook mention crockpot applesauce, and I really wanted to give it a try. Problem? No apples in this house. So I put out a plea on Facebook:


But had no takers. So in the evening after Rocky got home I had to go grocery shopping anyway, and I picked up two bags of apples (3 lb bags for $2 each). This morning after breakfast I took my apple slicer and a knife and got to work. I only did one of the bags, I wanted to see how long it would take and how much it would make and how it would taste. Put the slow cooker on low, added a 1/4 cup of water, a dash of cinnamon, and a little brown sugar, and 3 hours later my house smelled AMAZING. I mashed it up, took some out to cool for Abby's lunch, and took a bite myself. Wowsers! I don't think I'm ever going to eat store-bought again... As soon as it's cooled to room temperature I'm putting most of it in freezer containers!

Then I gave some to Abby... and she promptly spit it out. It wasn't too hot, I'd just tried it. Maybe too tart? Too chunky? I don't know. What a punk. Way to hurt my feelings.

Do you make your own applesauce?

 

 

Go green!

...beans that is.

Although the title could be referring to my alma mater...

Not today. Today it's about beans.

The one vegetable that I've consistently had success with in my garden is green beans. I've ordered "Provider" bush beans from seed companies the last few years, and they sure do well. This year I planted them in stages, doing a few rows one day then another few rows a couple weeks later. Then at the end of July, when I knew my peas were done and my carrots hadn't filled in their space, I planted the rest of my bean seeds -- including those from a 2-year-old packet. They ALL came up! And they ALL got blossoms! Then one day last week I went out to water them and realized they ALL had tons of beans on them already!! My biggest problem with green beans is not harvesting them quickly enough, and letting them get too big and over-ripe. I was NOT going to let that happen this time.

So I took my bowl and my daughter outside and started picking.


Then we came in and I started snipping. I just used my hands (if I'd had a bigger batch I probably would have used a knife), and snipped off the two ends of each bean and then broke the bean into 2-3 pieces. Pretty soon Abby decided she wanted to sit on the couch with me. Then she decided she wanted to "help" me.

 

I'm glad she likes them. :) Although with only 4 teeth it took her awhile to eat...

Then I prepped the beans for freezing. I "blanched" them -- put in boiling water for 3 minutes, then put them in ice water in the sink for 3 minutes.




This process essentially starts the beans cooking, but then the cold water shocks the enzymes or whatever to stop cooking, so they will stay fresh in the freezer.


And voila! A bag of frozen green beans to cook and eat sometime this winter. I don't have much room in our little freezer above the fridge to do much of any true "freezer cooking", but this is something that will fit! :)

Do you can or freeze things from your summer garden to eat throughout the winter?

"Why didn't I start doing this sooner?!"

In the last few months I've started getting into the habit of buying large packages of on-sale meat and separating it out into smaller chunks before freezing it. It started with ground beef, when the store I frequently shop at would have sales on "family packs" but smaller packages would be regular price. It's super easy to open the whole package, take out what I need for that evening's dinner, then put the rest in containers in one-pound chunks for the freezer.

Then I started doing it with steaks. Same thing -- family packs would be the only ones on sale. So we eat 2 steaks that night, save 2 steaks for later. Then I wanted *cheaper* steaks for fajitas or stroganoff. Well if I'm cutting up some meat into small chunks for dinner that night, why not cut up the whole family pack since my cutting board and knife are already dirty?! So now I have bags of meat in the freezer ready to thaw and use! The time-consuming part is already done!

Which brings me to today's shopping trip, and the reason I thought of writing this post. It's "Wild & Wacky Wednesday" at our local store, which features really good deals on a few items for that day. I wanted something to grill for dinner tonight, and found some boneless pork loin chops on sale for $2.49 a pound. I almost picked up a package, when I saw a featured W&WW item. Half a pork loin for $1.89 a pound. I brought it home, cut it up into chops (during which I looked at my husband and asked why didn't I start doing this sooner in our marriage?!), grilled up a few for dinner, and now have a bag of individually wrapped chops for 2-3 more meals.

Now I just need more than my little freezer above the refrigerator for when I come across more great deals like this one... :)


This post is linked to the No Ordinary Blog Hop: July.