Hard

This move is going to be hard beyond belief I think.  I just got an email from a gal in Singapore asking the ages and birthdates of my kids so they can place them in the right classes at church.  I got all choked up over it.  I'm going to miss this life so much.  Let's just be honest. There is no replacing Lucinda and Anthony.  It's gonna be lonely and rotten.   It always is.  The first 6 months can suck, then we'll find our groove.  Or maybe by then we will have convinced the Mazza's to move over with us!

Maddie-isms

Walking out of church today with Maddie in the waning late afternoon sun she exclaimed exuberantly, "MOM!!  My shadow is showing me that I am a teenager!!"

 

Brian got a new shipment of some seriously impressive stage magic tricks for his upcoming gigs.  After he performed/practiced a trick for the kids, Maddie says to Ben, "I'm giving him a thumbs up for that one."

Some Things Are Hot, Others Are Not

Listing things on Craigslist is a bit of a crap shoot if you ask me.  I listed our piano a week ago. I have only had one interested party and they wanted me to drop the price in half. I sort of figured it was a good deal to start with.  Then I listed a treadmill for what I thought was high but gave myself room to negotiate down and it fold for full price, picked up and paid within 2.5 hours of listing.  A crap shoot for sure. 

 

Now, what else can I get rid of today????

Cinnamon Applesauce

I was missing my annual applesauce production at the house since we can't take it with us when we move.   So I found someone to help.  Agatha and I went to the orchard, got our apples and we made applesauce together.  Okay, I poked around the kitchen while she made it.  I taught her last year and she wanted to make sure she had it down perfectly before I left.  It tasted AMAZING right off of the stove all warm and my house smelled fantastic.

 

And because people are always asking me for my recipe I thought I'd post it as well as the "How To" so I can find it easy next time I'm asked.

 

Cinnamon Applesauce

(with a food strainer/sauce maker)

 

1. Wash apples.
2. Quarter apples.  If you are using a strainer which automatically removes the seeds, stems, and peels, then you can leave them on the fruit. Otherwise you should remove them at this point.
3. In your largest pot put ½" to 1" water in bottom of pan.  Fill with apples up to the top and put the lid on.  Since the apples will soften and squish down I often fill past full so the lid rests on the apples.
4. Cook the apples on high until a fork will easily go through the top middle apples.
5. Remove apples from heat.
6. Scoop into the food strainer and process.  All trash will be expelled out the back side.  Collect the applesauce from the spout.  If you are not using the strainer you can process by hand with a potato masher.  Depending on desired thickness of applesauce, you may want to include or reserve the liquid from the pot.
7. Use this recipe as a general guide.  Every apple has a different amount of natural juice and varying degrees of sweetness.  Do this to taste, realizing after the sugar and cinnamon get fully dissolved and cooked in it will sweeten slightly.
• 8 quarts of applesauce
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 Tbsp cinnamon

 

If you choose to can the applesauce for long term storage follow these directions:

1. Clean and sterilize bottles. 
2. Boil lids.
3. Using a wide mouth funnel, fill jars with applesauce to the bottom of the neck (about ½ inch from top).
4. Wipe top rim of each jar to remove any sticky residue that would prevent sealing.
5. Put on a sterilized lid and tighten ring around the neck of the jar.
6. Place in the water bath canner.
7. Once all the jars are in the canner, fill with water so that it is about 1 inch above the tops of the bottles.
8. Bring to a full rolling boil.
9. Reduce heat and process the jars at a steady gentle rolling boil for 20 minutes.
10. Place a bath towel on the countertop to protect from heat.
11. After the jars have boiled 20 minutes, remove the jars from the canner and place on towel.  Leave on towel while they cool.
12. If you are going to process more bottles, dump out about half of the hot water from the water bath and refill with cold water before adding the new jars to the canner.  If the water is too hot the jars will crack from the quick temperature change and applesauce will leak into the water making a sticky mess.
13. Lids will suck down as the jars cool causing them to seal.  You will often hear a popping noise when this happens.
14. Lids should seal within 24 hours on the countertop.  Once they are completely cool, check for a seal by pressing down on the lid. If it pops up and down it has not sealed.  If it is firmly down the seal was successful.  If they do not seal, they will need to be reprocessed by boiling again. Before reprocessing, check the lid to make sure the surface is smooth with no defects before reprocessing.
15. After the bottle seals, unscrew the ring and let it dry to prevent rusting of the ring.  Rinse the bottles to prevent ants from finding the bottles with any amount of sticky sugar residue.
16. Once everything is dry replace the rings and store.  If you are short on rings, they are not necessary for storage, simply useful once the jar is opened for use.

 

For planning:

• ½ bushel makes approximately 9 qt jars, will vary a little depending on type of apple

 

Tips and Tricks:

• When processing multiple batches in a row, dump out about half of the hot water and refill with cold water before placing the next set of jars into the water.  If the water is too hot the jars will crack from the quick temperature change.
• Bring a bath towel to place under applesauce collection pan.  Because the apples are boiling from the stove, the heat can discolor your table if the pan sits directly on the wood.
• If you are mass producing, you can have 4 pots of apples cooking at a time.  If your apples are particularly juicy, instead of adding water to the next pot just recycle the juice from the apples left at the bottom of the pot after you scoop it all out into the sauce maker.
• Sometimes if you have filled the jar just a little too high it will leak out during processing putting a little bit of apple into the water.  This is not a big problem but you will want to wash the jars to keep the ants away.
• To keep your jars pretty and free of water spots on the exterior, you can add 1 Tbsp vinegar per 1 gallon of water in the water bath canner.
• A water bath canner is not required—you can use other types of pots as long as the water covers the top of the jar.
• To measure and mix the ingredients I use one of those old see thru Tupperware cake covers as a bowl.  I measure 8 qt of water and mark it with masking tape on the outside.  Then I can quickly just fill the "bowl" to the 8 qt mark and stir in the sugar and cinnamon for batch after batch.

 

Recommended Equipment:

• Apples
• Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Sink
• Cutting board
• Large knives
• Large bowls
• Large pots with lids
• Bath towels
• Hot pads
• Sauce maker/food strainer
• 4 cup Pyrex measure to scoop into strainer
• Spatulas
• 1 cup measure
• 1 Tbsp measure
• Long spoon to stir
• 9x13 pan to catch applesauce from strainer
• Pan to boil lids
• Jar lifter to remove processed jars from water bath

I'm Blaming Stephanie

I got a fantastic email this morning.  Our pictures from the photo shoot we did with Stephanie this weekend are ready!!  Of course I logged in and started checking them out right away.  I'll post some soon for you, but I was totally happy and excited and focused on my laptop, keeping just a vague eye on my children playing in plain sight.  Maddie was going back and forth making a project for her preschool friends.

 

Each friend was to receive a small picture she colored and cut out.  She would come from the kitchen to the living room and put them one at a time on the wall as she finished, explaining the ins and outs of the process and who got each one to me as she came and went.  In the corner of my mind I kept thinking that I needed to nip this taping to the living room wall thing in the butt before it got out of control but didn't act quickly. After all, on Monday when we were on our date she had taped that one thing she wrote on the wall and I let it stay.  Then Tuesday she added something else and I hadn't reacted.  Finally we had six beautiful creations on the wall and I finally pryed myself from the pictures to have a talk with her.

 

"Maddie, did you remember that we shouldn't tape things to the wall?  That's our rule."

"Why?"

"Because tape can pull off the paint.  Remember?"

"No.  You never told me that before." (Likely true, I've probably only had the conversation with Ben.)

"Okay.  Let's look for a place that it IS okay to tape." I show her a delux spot for taping on the side of the piano.

"How about here?"

"No.  I want to put them over there."

 

I go over to the wall to begin moving the creations but don't see any tape.  I'm impressed.  I didn't know she could do a tape ring!  Cool.  Wait. There is no tape ring...the papers are sticky!  Oh dang it.  I see residual purple glue stick both on the paper and the wall.  She glued the papers to the wall.  At least they are still wet so we can take it off without too much trouble.

 

I announce that the next project is to wash the glue off the walls.  As I remove the last paper, it's stuck.  Oh bother, the Tuesday creation was glued on too.  We spend a while scrubbing the walls which she isn't too happy about.  The bright side of the story?  Because we had to wash the wall I did the whole thing and now there are zero wipings from childrens' noses along the wall.  So while I may be blaming Stephanie for the glue on the walls because her amazing photography skills had me locked in my seat, I suppose I should also give credit for the clean, booger free walls.  Thanks, Steph!

Jake the professional shopper.

Irresistable Maddie Mae

Last night Grandma and Grandpa Zufelt let Brian and I go out on a date. While we were gone Maddie made a project to display on the wall. She always takes great pride in the letters she writes. After she finished she took it to Grandpa and asked him, "What does this say?"

Grandpa told her he didn't know and asked her what she wrote. She told him that of course she couldn't tell him what it said because she couldn't read!! Obviously, Grandpa had to figure it out. Duh. He's the one who can read.

Today Maddie was totally upset about wearing her patch. It was the first day she had to wear a new one, meaning the sticky was going to be fresh and strong again so it might hurt a bit more when we took it off after her four hour sentence. Our current deal is that after she finishes eating lunch it goes on. Attempting to make the best of a rough situation I spread the patches she spent lots of time decorating all out so she could pick her favorite. She could think and decide over lunch and then let me know when she finished which one she chose for today.

She was adamant that she didn't need the patch, that it would hurt too bad and various other logical reasons that she was unable to wear the patch. When it came right down to it in the end, Maddie couldn't decide which one. She put her hands on her cheeks and with all the exuberance of a four year old said "Oh!! Well ALL of them are the most beautifulest and I love them all but I don't want to wear them, just give them to my friends (fwends) to share them." When I insisted it was time to choose one or I would do it for her, she chose one stating, "Well, actually, this one is the most beautifulest one. I'll wear this one today."

Take Home Message #1

".... (in a family) love is spelled T-I-M-E...."

Pres Uchdorf

Here is what happened today at our house. Maddie got a flower eye!