My First Try...

Remember me telling you about the apples that our neighbor gave us from their tree???  Well, I decided to try my hand at home made apple butter!  But since I'm not one to stand outside over a hot fire and kettle in the August heat...or anytime, really...I did what I always do these days and consulted the internet!  I found some crock pot recipes for both apple sauce and apple butter.  I decided to try my hand at the apple butter!!!

I started by washing the apples...I used about 20 in all...

These apples are not the "beauties" that you see in your produce aisle because these have never been sprayed with chemicals so they look like REAL apples!  Spots and all!  But you know what???  Those spots are just surface blemishes.  There was no damage underneath. 

After washing the apples, I did this to them...

...and threw them in the crock pot...peelings and all!!!

I added two 3" sticks of cinnamon, a teaspoon of cloves, 3/4 c. white sugar, 1 c. of brown sugar (packed), and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

I let it cook on low for about 10 hours, then turned it down to "warm" setting for overnight.  This morning it looked like this...

I used my thrift-shopped, $2.00 Braun immersion blender....

...and then it looked like this...

...nice and smooth...even though the peelings are in there, too!  (Forgive the orange color...it's my cheapo camera.)

This made 3.5 pints of the BEST-TASTING APPLE BUTTER ever!!!  I water-bath canned 3 of the pints for later use, and put the 1/2 pint in the fridge for use now!!!  

I'm thinking I'm going to take my dear neighbor up on their offer of more apples and make some applesauce, too!  :)

In other news, I want to give a shout-out to the West Virginia University MOUNTAINEERS football team for pulling it off against William and Mary College, 24-17!!!  GO 'EERS!!!

Loretta