The Good:
Top of the list is the 55 pounds of apples my dh picked for us this weekend so we could make applesauce. It really only took us 3 hours, although it did feel a bit longer than that at times. For the record, we did not peel, core and slice all 55 pounds, only about 1/2 of that, but we ended up with 4 quarts of regular applesauce and 5 quarts of cinnamon applesauce.
Ms 21 yo also used some apples to make us an apple cake. It was very good.
We also used some apples to make some apple stuff (we cooked about 8 cups down and mashed them up so I'm not really sure what I should call it) that we added cinnamon and brown sugar to. We plan on heating that up and mixing it in with our oatmeal. If you're interested, you can see it in the canning picture front row, left side :)
Another entry in our "Good" category is the fact that my son won this absolutely incredible backpack in a raffle on Saturday night. As he put it, "A $300 backpack for 2 bucks".
He is absolutely enthralled with it, as you can see by his smile here. This has pretty much been his "look" since he won it. Now he can't wait to go somewhere to use it.
The Bad:
The first entry into this category happened Sunday morning right before we were leaving for Mass when I went to put the 5 pound pork roast in the crock pot. I cut open the package and wrinkled my nose...not something you should be doing just after opening a package of meat. Just to confirm my suspicions, I called my husband over. "Yep, that's bad meat". Well, run out the door to church and figure it out later. All day long the question kept coming, "What's for dinner?" Turns out those coupons to Culvers came in handy. Just so happens that Culvers was right across the street from the store I bought the meat at so we went and got our money back and promptly spent it on some Wisconsin butter burgers (although this part of the story really should be up there under the "Good" category!).
Fortunately our next "Bad" contestant had good timing. A few weeks ago we had ordered a new container for our blender because it had gotten knocked out of the cabinet and broke. We were using it to puree the apples into sauce and it had been doing a great job, that is until it got knocked off the counter and broken. Wow, who goes through two blender containers in 1 month? Like I said, the timing was at least good because we had just finished pureeing our last batch of apples. Thank you, God, for that small favor!
The Ugly:
I have to say that making the applesauce really wasn't that bad, except for the way that it kept popping out of the pot while it was heating up. I cannot tell you how many times that boiling stuff hit me. On my arms, my face, my hands. It wasn't until a big blob of boiling applesauce flew out and landed on the inside of my wrist that I really got mad. Two big blisters later, I am not a happy camper. My husband said he'd like to do more canning and I burst into tears. Okay, so not quite that extreme, but I sure felt like it. I was quite traumatized by being spit at and wounded by boiling liquid. Not sure I can go down that path again.
So there you have it. My weekend in a nut shell. In looking back over it, there was definitely more good than anything else, and for that I am grateful. Have a great beginning of the week!
God Bless!
