Cranberry Apple Butter- with pics!

People look at me like I'm crazy when I say that canning apple butter is easy.

Seriously, it is.

The single hardest, most annoying part, is peeling the apples.

And ever since I got my handy-dandy apple peeler:

that's gone much faster.

I do rather miss peeling them by hand, though. There is an old superstition that if you peel an apple in a single long strip (hard,but do-able, trust me!) and throw it over your left shoulder, the peel will fall into the first initial of your true love's name.

I've never done it. Maybe you will.

Meanwhile:

1/2 peck peeled, chopped apples (the finer the better, and I used Honeycrisp in this batch)

1/2 cup brown sugar or honey (I prefer the flavor of darker sweeteners, but white sugar is fine)

1/2 can of cranberry sauce (I use whole cranberry sauce, but it's irrelevant)

1 tsp apple pie seasoning

Combine in a saucepan, set on simmer, and go about your business... trying desperately to resist the lure of the yummy smells coming from your stove.

The sugar will caramelize and turn brown- this is good and normal!

There's almost no maximum time to leave it- I've cooked my apples down anywhere from3 hours (on medium, stirring regularly) to in a crockpot for nearly 36 hours.

You'll probably want to run it through a food processor or blender to get out any remaining lumps and ensure a creamy texture.

Pre-processing, after about 20 hours in a crockpot:

Post-processing, shortly after:

Once the butter clings to the spoon rather than all running off, it's ready. be sure to taste it at regular intervals to, you know, ensure proper amounts of sugar, spices, etc.... I keep extra buttermilk biscuits handy for this purpose ;-)

I won't tell you how to can it- that's gone into in far more detail in many other blogs, and I don't want to steer you wrong.

But your finished product will likely look something like this:

Now give it away, and/or serve at home with pancakes, biscuits, or my favorite pumpkin spice scones :)

Best Winter Soup EVER

Jack's mother taught me this recipe, and it's a hugehugehuge hit in my house. I make it by the stockpot, freeze it, and we eat it all winter :)

Best Black Bean Soup

1 med onion, finely chopped
3 carrots, thinly sliced (we used less, and chopped them)
2 celery stakls, thinly sliced (I diced them)
4-6 cloves garlic (we used the equivalent of 6, minced from a jar)
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 1/2 tsp basil (dried)
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp tabasco sauce (we omitted this)
2 16oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed (we drained one and not the other)
1 14.5oz can crushed tomatoes (we used 2, plus 1/2 can water)
2 14.5oz cans chicken (or veggie) broth

1/2 cup cooked rice

Put all ingredients (except rice) in crock pot. Cook on high 4-6 hours or Low 8-10 hours. Add cooked rice 10-15 mins before serving.

Try tortilla chips, sour cream, and/or cheese on top- I used all 3, and it was WONDERFUL.

Rum Cake

This is a FANTASTIC cake. It also lasts forever because the rum has a preservative effect. While the original recipe called for Bacardi, I like to use Sailor Jerry's because it has a lovely spiced flavor with a hint of cherry.

---Cake---
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 box yellow cake mix
1 (4-serving size) box instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup dark rum

• 
  
• ---Glaze---
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup sugar (I prefer brown sugar)
• 1/2 cup dark rum

Drop the nuts into the bottom of a greased bundt pan.

Combine all of the cake ingredients, beat it very well, and then pour it into the bundt pan, over the nuts. Bake at 350F for an hour.

While that's cooling, make the glaze:

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the sugar and water once it's all melted. Stir constantly while the sugar crystallizes into the glaze. This will take about 5 minutes on low/low-med heat. Once the sugar is crystallized (aka gotten pretty smooth) , remove from heat and add the rum- be careful, it will steam. Let that set for a few minutes but it will be runny and very liquidy. This isn't a pretty frosting glaze, JSYK.

My preferred glazing method: Upend the cake out of the bundt pan until the cake is sitting upright and out of the pan. Pour some of the glaze over the cake. Pour more into the now-empty bundt pan. Upend the cake back into the pan and let it soak. Pour more glaze into the now-visible bottom of the pan/cake, let it soak in, then upend the cake out of the pan again and pour any remaining glaze back over the cake.

This cake freezes well, ships well, and is totally awesome.... it was used for my 25th birthday :)

Ladies Afternoon Tea

My tea went off without a hitch. My darling Actaeon served us all, and we had a total of 5 ladies and 1 gentleman who popped in and out (my roommate).

The menu:

• Cornish Pasties (recipe to follow)
• Ham-apple chutney sandwiches (recipe to follow)
• Avocado Bacon sandwiches (recipe another post)

• Pumpkin Spice scones (see this recipe but remove the chocolate and fruit and add 1/2 TB of pumpkin pie spice)

-with Devon/clotted cream and homemade apple butter (recipe another post)

• Pecan and Pumpkin Pie Tartlets (bought from Costco, gimme a break)
• Assorted cookies (also bought, again gimme a break)

The tea was Teavana's Thai Tea Blend which has a strong enough flavor to complement the foodstuffs.

I chose the menu based on the season: it's late fall, and much pork is being put ont he market because, well, it's slaughtering season. Apples, pumpkins, and various spicy things are also in season, hence the theme.

I wish I'd taken a picture of the table. The Ladies all chose their own teacups (I have a rather large collection of antique teacups and saucers) and the table was set with a cream-colored linen tablecloth, china dessert plates with hand-painted roses, and short water glasses.

Tea was served from my Denby Regency Green Collection, a wonderful housewarming gift from a dear friend , and courses were served in the order listed.

Recipes:

Cornish Pasties

These are incredibly simple. I browned ground sausage (specifically, cut up brats) with a few TB of queso cheese, and then mixed them with garlic mashed potatoes until I liked the flavor and consistency.

I used prepared pie crust and placed small rounds of it in an empanada maker, a small spoonful of the sausage mixture, closed the pastries, and baked them at 350F for about 10 minutes until the pie crust was golden. They had to be turned over about 6 minutes in.

Tips: Keep the pie dough cool or it will tear, making your pasties open in the oven

Don't use too much filling or the pasties will break open and/or not close properly

These would also be good with, well anything, but specifically any ground meat or meat substitute and starch/veggie.

Ham-Apple Chutney Sandwiches

These were an experiment that was incredibly successful. I chopped 1/4lb of ham fairly finely, and most of one Granny Smith Apple. Added about a teaspoon of dijon mustard and about a tablespoon of honey mustard, and mixed. This was a super-simple, wildly successful experiment :)

I will post the Apple-Cranberry Butter in a separate post, promise :)

Late Fall Afternoon Tea

On November 15th, I will be hosting a tea for 5 women whom I adore. I don't have a menu yet, but I am currently thinking of a spicy tea, apple and walnut sandwiches on some homemade bread, perhaps little apple or pumpkin tarts... we will see :)

I haven't written in this blog in a very long time, despite experimenting, mostly successfully, with several yummy bread recipes. My first successful from-scratch bread was from King Arthur flour (it's the recipe on the flour bag LOL!)

Oatmeal Bread

This tender, high-rising bread makes wonderful sandwiches and great toast.

Ingredients

• 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
• 1 cup rolled oats (old-fashioned oats)
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar or honey
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast OR 1 packet active dry yeast*
• 1 1/4 cups lukewarm milk
• 3/4 cup raisins or currants (optional)
• *If you use active dry yeast, dissolve it in the warm milk before combining with the remaining ingredients.

Directions

1) In a large mixing bowl, or in the bowl of an electric mixer, combine all of the ingredients, mixing to form a shaggy dough. Knead dough, by hand (10 minutes) or by machine (5 minutes) till it's smooth.

2) Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and allow it to rest for 1 hour; it'll become quite puffy, though it may not double in bulk. Shape as directed below.

3) Bread machine method: Place all of the ingredients (except the fruit) into the pan of your machine, program machine for manual or dough, and press Start. About 10 minutes before the end of the second kneading cycle, check dough and adjust its consistency as necessary with additional flour or water; finished dough should be soft and supple. Add the raisins or currants about 3 minutes before the end of the final kneading cycle. Shape as directed below.

4) Shaping: Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled surface, and shape it into a log. Place the log in a lightly greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan, cover the pan (with an acrylic proof cover, or with lightly greased plastic wrap), and allow the dough to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, till it's crested 1" to 2" over the rim of the pan.

5) Baking: Bake the bread in a preheated 350°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers 190°F. If the bread appears to be browning too quickly, tent it with aluminum foil for the final 10 minutes of baking.

Yield: 1 loaf. I particularly like to toss some oats on it right before the first rising, then brush it with a hint of milk before baking. The milk gives the baked crust a beautiful sheen.