Happy National Homemade Bread Day!!! {apple butter recipe included}

At the beginning of the month, a little birdie at school came into the office and printed a calendar with all of those fun little holidays -- you know, like Talk Like a Pirate Day. And I discovered that November 17th is National Homemade Bread Day!

Since I already wrote a post about my love for my breadmaker, I thought I would tell you about what I worked on in my kitchen the other day -- what I would even dare to call "bread's perfect companion" (although I'll probably say that about another recipe I have planned too... :)

**Spoiler alert!!** Mom, Dad, Grandmas, other family members -- this post is going to detail your Christmas gifts. If it serves to make you hungry in anticipation of the day you receive my gift, great. If you don't want to know what I'm making, stop reading. Although the title of this post pretty much gives it all away anyway.**

This year for Christmas things are a little tight. As I'm sure they are for a lot of you. And since I always wonder what to get for those parents and grandparents in our lives who already have "everything" -- other than updated pictures of Abby of course -- I started thinking about cheap, consumable things I could get/make/give them. After seeing this pin on Pinterest (which you may remember seeing mentioned in my Pin the halls with boughs of holly post), I had my idea!

Apples were buy one bag get one free last week. So on Tuesday morning I visited my favorite recipe website in search of the perfect apple butter recipe. I'd heard it can be made in the crockpot, and since I was going to be home all day I figured I'd give it a try!

I peeled and chopped my apples, and put them in the crockpot. I think I had about 14 apples total, a mix of one bag sweet and one bag tart. Then I mixed together the sugar and spices and dumped them on the apples, stirring to coat.

I covered it and turned the cooker on high for an hour, then low/warm for about 7 hours. Very similar to making applesauce. Once the apples were really really soft and brown, I mashed them with a potato masher, then decided to make things a little messy in the kitchen... :) I scooped the mixture into my blender and made it super smooth (it took 2+ batches in my blender). Then I dumped it all back in my crockpot and left the lid off for a couple of hours, stirring every 1/2 hour or so. I'm sure I've said it before, but my crockpot likes to cook HOT. So the entire process didn't take as long as most recipes say, and I needed to be extra careful I didn't burn the fruit.

At this point, the longer it cooks, the better! The difference between applesauce and apple butter is that apple butter has cooked longer and therefore more water has evaporated (plus there's more sugar and spices in the butter). I read about a trick to know if your butter is done: Take a spoonful and put it on a plate, let it cool and see if 1) it holds it's shape and 2) there is no liquid (water) around the outside of the puddle.

You can still see some liquid in this photo. I think I let my butter go another hour or two after this.

And that's all there is to it! At this point you can process your containers of butter however you choose -- it both freezes well and cans well. I'd gotten some cute, small jelly jars (4 oz) and decided to can them.

Then I realized I don't have proper canning equipment. Oops.

It was nearly 8:00 at night, and I didn't have a car (the hubby was at his master's class), so I wasn't about to walk down to the store. So I searched my cupboards and here's what I came up with:

Not ideal, but it worked. Each jar only had to boil for 5 minutes. Yes I had to do them one at a time, so it took me an hour. But it got done. :)

This batch ended up making a dozen 4 oz jars, plus one 8 oz freezer container (which I brought to school yesterday with some homemade bread... :)

So my plan for Christmas? A basket with a jar of apple butter, a jar of cinnamon honey butter, and a small loaf of homemade bread. Yum!

How will you celebrate National Homemade Bread Day today?? :)

Slow Cooker Apple Butter 5 1/2 pounds apples - peeled, cored, and chopped 4 cups white sugar (you REALLY do need a lot of sugar -- don't cut it down too much or the butter won't solidify) 1 Tb ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground cloves 1/2 tsp allspice 1/2 tsp salt Place the apples in a slow cooker. In a medium bowl, mix the sugar and spices. Pour the mixture over the apples in the slow cooker and mix well. Cover and cook on high 1 hour. Reduce heat to low and cook 7 to 11 hours, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thickened and dark brown. [After this point I took the time to put the butter through my blender for a smoother consistency] Uncover and continue cooking on low 1-3 hours. Stir occasionally. Spoon the mixture into sterile containers, cover and refrigerate, freeze, or process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.

{attempt} = success!!!

Yesterday's post found me trying something I haven't done in a super-long time: roasting chicken in the slow cooker. The hubby got home, sniffed the air, found the crockpot and said "looks like chicken!" I honestly couldn't tell if he was pleased or not. :-P

Fortunately, this chicken I'd bought came with one of those pop-up things already stuck in it. So I just had to watch until it told me the bird was done. And my slow cooker definitely cooks hot. The juices in the bottom were simmering, and the timer thingy popped up after being on low for only 4 hours (all the recipes I found said it would take 4-6 hours on high, 6-10 hours on low). But that was ok! I'd planned on that and made sure I didn't start it until after lunch. So we had an early (for us) dinner at 5.

The meat was so tender -- I was able to get the two drumsticks off then the rest just fell apart. I was really glad I'd skinned it before cooking -- the salt & pepper were then on/in the meat itself instead of on the skin. Even my 17-month-old daughter had some, and said "mmmmmmm!" :)

I could definitely see myself cooking this again. Maybe trying other spices too.

After we'd eaten our fill, I cut off the rest of the breast meat and put it in the fridge. Then I left all of the bones and leftover dark meat in the crockpot, along with the onion and garlic that had stuffed the cavity, and the juices that were in the bottom. And I added about 4-5 cups of hot water, enough to cover everything. Then I set it on "warm" (which still seems to cook pretty hot in my cooker...) and let it go overnight!

This morning I had one giant, nasty-looking soup. I took the dish out of the heating unit and set it on the stove to cool for an hour or so. Then I started picking out the bones with my bare hands. For about 2 minutes. 'Cause that's what a recipe I'd found told me to do. But I gave up quickly. It was too yucky for me.

Instead, I took a large bowl, placed my pasta strainer over it, and dumped the whole stuff in. Then I sorted through the "big pieces" for chunks of meat, which I added back into the broth. Then I took the white meat that I'd saved from the fridge and cubed it up and put it in the broth too. And voila! The beginnings of soup that I'll make for Thursday night. Not sure yet if that will be some type of chicken noodle, or a white chili/chicken tortilla...

I love it when a $7 chicken can last many meals. :)

{attempting} Slow cooker roast chicken

Happy Monday!

Yesterday I picked up a few things from the grocery store, and noticed whole chickens were on sale. It's been a long time since I last tried to roast a whole chicken, so I thought sure! Let's give it a try. I got just a 6-lb roaster, which I discovered fits perfectly in my crockpot.

I scoured the web for how to do this! After looking at multiple recipes, here's what I did:

1. Balled up 4 pieces of aluminum foil, placed in slow cooker.


2. Cleaned out the disposal side of my sink, unwrapped the chicken in it.


3. Removed and disposed of the bag of giblets.


4. Rinsed the chicken under cold running water.


5. Removed the skin. This was a pain, but I think it will be well worth it in the end.


6. Rinsed under cold running water.


7. Patted dry with paper towels.


8. Stuffed inside cavity with 1 chopped onion and a spoonful of minced garlic (I love those jars!)


9. Sprayed entire chicken with butter-flavored cooking spray.


10. Seasoned with seasoning-salt and pepper.


11. Sprayed one more time with cooking spray.


12. Placed chicken breast-side-up in slow cooker, on top of aluminum foil balls.


13. Turned on low.

We'll see what happens! The aluminum foil balls are supposed to help keep the chicken off the bottom of the pot, so it will roast better. Removing the skin before seasoning will allow the spices to soak into the chicken itself, rather than just the skin.

I'll be making soup for a fundraiser dinner later this week, so I'll be able to put whatever we don't eat tonight to good use!

Cross your fingers that this recipe works out... This is the only night this week we'll be able to eat dinner together as a family!

Do you have any secrets for roasting/baking a whole chicken?

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?