Apple butter

 

 

I have been trying to go to sleep for two hours.

The house is dark and quiet. I have tossed and turned and got up to go to the bathroom and taken a rolaids and done just about everything I know to do.

So I threw up my little white flag and decided to get on here and share some pictures from yesterday.

Still no Ally :) She would be one week early if she came today, so we are still waiting.

My heart is still excited to meet her, and I am thankful my attitude and patience is still going strong.

My body however is really feeling nine months pregnant.

My feet, knees and hips ache.

This is the second night this week I have had a hard time falling asleep.

I have contractions each day, but nothing worth jotting down :)

They are tiresome, and not only are they painful they are a lot of work for this momma's body.

I remember feeling this exact way the night before Weston was born.

So we will see. Ally wants her own day and I am pretty excited to see what day she and God have in store.

With that being said I kept my hands busy yesterday by making apple butter.

This was my first time and I really enjoyed it.

I made it in my crock pot and decided this is the only way to go because you get a double blessing of potpurri :)

My grandma reccomended a recipe similar to this one. I will try it for sure next time and if you are a busy momma wanting to cut corners you should try it. I however needed to use up some apples so I used this recipe.

And because my body thinks it is not tired I will give you a little tutorial on how I did it...well kind of :)

I gathered up my jars that I had left over from my jam making last year and washed them.

I waited to sterilize them (by boiling them and their lids in water) until right before I put the apple butter in so the jars would be good and hot because the apple butter would be.

After chopping your apples you pretty much dump everything in. Cover and cook on low.



(dont poke fun at my apple peeling skills...or my kit kat wrappers :)

It said to cook it ten hours, but my crockpot REALLY cooks things so I did it for about half that.

My favorite part was after we went out to dinner coming home and the smell.

Oh it just smelled like fall. Better than any candle you can buy for sure!

Eventually the apples dissolve when you stir it. Rule of thumb, you want your wooden spoon to be able to stand in the butter and that is how you  know it is ready.

After putting it into the jars. You want to do a bath to seal them. Boil for 5-10 minutes depending on the jars size, remove, let sit over night and when you wake up they should all be sealed.

Obviously there are more in depth directions if you follow the recipe I linked to above :)

Most of my apple butter is going to be given as gifts so of course I had probably the most fun out of all this decorating the jars!

I raided my scrap material and ribbon jar. Printed out some labels and made a few out of burlap and dolled these babies up!

I think they would be so cute paired with one of Diana's bread boards, but those things sell out so fast I cant get my hands on a set!

 They are ready to give out, but until then they are sitting on my counter just being cute.

So there you have it! A perfect little gift to give someone this fall and a perfect way to keep my hands busy while waiting on baby girl.

Either way she will be here within a week and that makes me excited, and tired so I think I can go to sleep now!