.Apple Palooza.

(Alternately titled: The Post in Which I Make up for not Blogging in a Week.)

Palooza: An exaggerated event.

Yup, that is what has been going on here - an exaggerated "event" of using all of my apples up! Jim has been away a lot this week, Cadi has been sick, and Scotty is a cute little ball of perpetual motion. So to keep myself sane, I pulled out my recipe cards and started peeling apples. That was my therapy for the week, and it worked!

I thought some of my readers might be looking to use up some apples or just wanting some new fall recipes, so I decided to share.

Roasted Applesauce
Last year I made applesauce for the first time. It was just a small batch that we ate right away. It was part of Cadi's preschool curriculum. A recipe was included in her curriculum, but I wanted something a bit more complex. I searched the internet until I found one, and it was delicious! After I made the applesauce a friend of mine, one of the GREATEST prayer warriors in our adoption (!), Kathy, asked if I had ever roasted my applesauce. She sent me a recipe, and I vowed to try it this year.

**If you enjoy trying new recipes, you will want to follow her new cooking/baking blog! I always know that anything Kathy makes will be excellent! I have used several of her recipes in the past, and I have never been disappointed!**

Somehow I lost last years roasted applesauce recipe, but I found this one. I decided to use his roasting method but my recipe from last year, and the results were perfect - not too sweet, perfectly spiced, caramelized apple goodness! I prefer my applesauce chunky. I am not a big fan of pudding and jellos because of their lack of substance. However, if you prefer a smooth applesauce simply put it through your Foley Food Mill after roasting it.



1.Gather your apples - you will need 4lbs (which is approximately 12 apples). As you can see I did not use the apples we picked. I used the "seconds" or "dropped apples" that we purchased. This is what my mom always did growing up. If there was a really rotten spot I just cut it out.

2.Wash, peel, core, and slice your apples. Place them in a deep roasting pan. Add 1/2 C. cider, a 1/2 C. water, 4 strips of lemon peel, 3-4 T. lemon juice, one cinnamon stick, 1/4 C. dark brown sugar, up to 1/4 C. white sugar (I used 1/8 C), 1/2 tsp. salt, and grated nutmeg to your taste.



Put the roasting pan in a 400 degree preheated oven uncovered. Roast for 1-2 hours depending on how dark and caramelized you prefer - stirring often. I roasted my first batch for about 1.5 hours and my second and third batch for about 2 hours.



This was the first batch.



I was surprised how little 3 batches made! I froze 5 Quart bags of sauce, and I will no doubt be making more again soon.



Click here for the printable recipe. (I do not remember which website I found the recipe on for this sauce, but it is NOT original to me.)


Apple Crisp
I also made apple crisp this week. I am picky about my apple crisp, and I really think this is the BEST apple crisp recipe ever. Yes, it is sweet and totally unhealthy, but you only have it one time of year! Right??? This recipe was originally a Taste of Home recipe. Click here for the printable recipe.




Mile High Apple Pie
The last apple recipe I made this week was apple pie. I LOVE apple pie especially when paired with some extra sharp cheese. I actually love fruit pie period. Although I am not really a pastry lover besides pie. I guess I just do not enjoy the taste of lard! Ha! And to that end I searched for a lot of years for the perfect crust recipe - using no crisco and only butter. I finally found it last Spring. Sometimes I use whole wheat flour with good results. This pie was made with all purpose, though. Here is the printable recipe for my crust. This also happens to be the easiest pie crust that I have ever worked with.

The secret to getting a mile high or deep dish apple pie is to cook your apples down before putting them in your crust to bake. If you do not they will cook down in your pie and your crust will end up caving in.


Here are my apples gently cooking. Be sure to watch them. You do not want them to turn into sauce!





And the final product! Can you smell it? MMMMM....


Click here for the printable recipe.

If you think the only thing I have been doing during my blogging break was baking, well you'd be wrong.



We had a very belated birthday party for Cadi in which my mom decorated and made this awesome Arthur cake! My daughter's first crush is on an aardvark - hmmm.



My children have been fascinated with the new gold fish that my parents gave her for her birthday. The fish has had several name changes from Dorthy, to Annie, to Julianna. I am not sure what the name is today. {grin}



I have been taking care of a sick little girl. She is on the mend, but she still in not 100%. We did take her to the doctor's as I feared she may have an ear infection that I just was not curing with my homeopathic remedies. She doesn't, but she was put on allergy meds. for a bit. We will see what happens.

We took Friday and Monday off from school because of Cadi, but then jumped right back into our unit on apples! Scotty has loved joining in, too. We are actually having so much fun with How to Bake an Apple Pie and See the World that I am going to "row" it for a third week. There are just so many activities and learning opportunities that can be pulled from this book. If you have not read it with your children I highly recommend it!



And for the first time I let Scotty use paint. I am probably crazy, but it was a really fun memory. And the clean up is done now. {wink}



We also received a very exciting email packet from our agency titled "Welcome to Travel!".



No, this was not our court date, but it was filled with our itinerary and packing instructions and all kinds of exciting things! This hopefully means our court date is in the very near future!!

Oh, and I did bake yummy Starbucks-like pumpkin scones for our Sunday school class. I found the recipe here (it was the 3rd post down).

Phew... were you able to stick with me?! Well, that should do it for a bit. Hope you are all well.

Oh wait!! Thank you so much to all of you who have recently donated to our adoption fund. You are such an incredible blessing. We now only lack $5000 TOTAL for our adoption expenses!!! Can you believe it?! God is GREAT!

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