Making Apple Butter

Every year in the fall when the leaves start to turn we head to North Carolina to get Apples! Its been a family tradition for many years. For the past couple of years we
have bought our apples from "The Orchard At Altapass". Its in Spruce Pine,North
Carolina. The orchard is terraced on the side of a mountain.

You can pick your own apples or pick from many varieties of apples already picked.
We always pick a soft apple for making "apple butter"! Rome apples are a great choice because they are soft and sweet!

APPLE BUTTER

1 PECK OF ROME APPLES

4 CUPS OF SUGAR

2 CUPS OF WATER

2 TABLESPOONS OF CINNAMON

3 TEASPOONS OF NUTMEG

2 TEASPOONS OF ALLSPICE

1 TEASPOON OF GROUND CLOVES

24  FOUR OZ CANNING JARS

STEP ONE: Peel, slice, core all the apples and place in a large stock pot. Add water then all the other ingredients. Place on stove and cook for about 45 minutes over medium heat. Stirring frequently.



Cook mixture until soft enough to mash. Just like mashed potatoes!

SECOND STEP: When apples have cooked down use a hand held blender to blend mixture until smooth. You can also use a hand held mixer but it takes longer to make smooth. You want to blend until it has a very creamy texture!

Cook the mixture for another 2 hours. Make sure to stir about every 10 minutes! This is very important! Stir! Stir! Stir!

My Dad was a great help with the stirring!

THIRD STEP: While the apples are cooking for 2 hours its a good time to prepare your canning jars. Make sure you wash the jars and lids thoroughly in Hot water!
Use a large canning pot to boil the jars. Boil for about 10 minutes. You can dip the rings and seals in the hot water after you remove the jars. Place the clean jars on a
towel so they will be ready to fill. I purchased a Ball canning utensil set that had all
everything I needed. Its was a little over $5 at Wal-mart.

FOURTH STEP: When mixture is dark and thick it is ready to put in the jars.
You may have to blend again if the mixture is not smooth and creamy. There should be no liquid left in the mixture! My Dad stirred my so much I didn't have to blend again!
When you dip your spoon in the mixture it should be thick not watery!

Spoon the apple butter in the jars leaving a 1/2 inch from the top. Wipe any excess apples butter from the rim and place the flat lid on jar. Then place the ring on jar and
tighten just enough to keep water from getting the while processing.

FIFTH STEP: Place jars on rack in canning pot. The water should come to about 1/2 to 1 inch over the top of the jars. Boil  for about 10 minutes.

LAST STEP:  Remove jars from pot using tongs or Jar lifter. Place jars on a towel to cool. You will hear the jars starting to seal when you remove from the water. Let jars cool. Check to see if lids have sealed. Tighten the rings on the jars again.

SHARE AND ENJOY!!!



EASTER SURPRISE'S 2012

Easter is a very important Holiday for our Family. We always celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour "Jesus Christ".

We also celebrate by having the Children over for a BIG dinner! Everyone brings a special dish. The little ones had "Chocolate Bunnys' for dessert! Maddie decided to take the Bunny from Sammy's basket(don't know why because she had one in hers). Of course Sammy was a little upset when he went to get his and it was gone. I got the Bunny from Maddie's basket and gave it to Sam! Problem Solved! NOT!
 Bunny from Maddie's basket wasn't solid CHOCOLATE! It had Peanut Butter in it! They looked exactly the same!! How could this be! Then I remembered I bought a "White Chocolate Bunny" for myself. It was my Birthday! Why Not! I could almost taste that White Chocolate too! I figured he wouldn't eat it all anyway so I would still get to eat some of it later:) NaNa Saved the Day!

My only regret is we didn't have a picture of Maddie eating her "Solid Chocolate Bunny"! She had it all over her hands! She came running in the kitchen and stopped when she dropped the "Chocolate Bunny" on the floor! Everyone froze and you could have heard a Pin Drop! She just looked at everyone and said "IT's NOT POOP! Ha! I guess the last time everyone looked at her like THAT it was!

After dinner we always enjoy hiding eggs for the younger ones to find. I love seeing the excitement in their eyes when they find an egg. They always have plenty of help from the adults!
I filled the eggs with Jelly Beans. I also put money in a few of the eggs. After the egg hunt they took the eggs in the house to look inside them for the surprise! Sammy came running outside and said "NaNa some of my eggs have Jelly beans and some have Money in them"! I said "Yes that's right"! He then said "But I don't want the Jelly beans"!
It didn't take him long the figure out Maddie would trade the Money for the Jelly Beans! Ha!

I hope and pray that we always have "Little One's" around to enjoy!

LETTER FROM SAMMY

Sometimes its the little things you do for your Grand kids that mean the most to them. I got a letter the other day my Grandson Sammy wrote at School. He's just learning to write so it was very special. It says "Thank you NaNa for the castle you maked for me."
We were playing about a week ago with his sister Maddie. They love to look for "Treasures". I find random items for them and they put them in treasure bags(old purses). The more treasures the better. And you have to make it equal. Which makes it really hard!! Sometime it means two of everything you find!
After we found all the "Treasures" we had to have a place to hid from "TaTa" aka Don! I made hiding places in one of the bedrooms with blankets. I thought they were good hiding places until they wanted me to get in with them!! Ha! I am so claustrophobic I cant even get under the bed!  Needless to say they convinced me to get in! I did talk them in to letting me be the lookout so I could stick my head out! Thank goodness Don came home early that day! We weren't hard to find either with all the snickering.
I didn't realize until I got the letter how much it meant to Sammy and that he thought it was a "Castle"!
These are precious times and I wouldn't take anything for them!
Sure was hard getting out of that "Castle"! Next time I will make it bigger!

Having True Joy

When picking up my 3yr old granddaughter Maddie from Preschool the other day, I was informed by the teacher that she had just returned from a Trip to the "Office"! Maddie looked at me and said "NaNa It was a BIG Problem"! Evidently she was not nice to a classmate on the playground. We went back to the playground before leaving school and she apologized to the other child and he replied "That's OK Maddie"! I thought how quick children are to forgive one another! In the car on the way home we had a discussion about what happened and what she should have done. Maddie quickly replied "Even when I do something wrong God still Loves Me"! I coulnt help but think how she didn't even have to think about it. She just knows that God loves her! That is JOY!
Have you ever wondered why we have not been able to find the miraculous, fulfilling JOY the Bible talks about? Maybe we are looking for JOY in all the wrong places.
If you believe JOY comes from a college education, a spotless home,or well-behaved children you have it all wrong. If you think that losing 27.5 pounds or marrying the person of your dreams, or having a passport with far-away places will give you a money back guarantee to a perfect JOY.... then again you are wrong!
There is only ONE PLACE and one place only......"In His Presence is Fullness of JOY!"
How can you do this?? Well it's not difficult. You choose to make it a priority to spend time reading your Bible everyday. You can listen to a Worship CD in your car or at home to start the day. If you are very BOLD you can lift your hands in the air as an act of surrender while you worship(Just not while driving:)! Spend time in prayer just you and Jesus. You have the best friend ever to walk through the day with you. What is the name of your new BFF? You can simply call this friend JOY!
Today read Psalms 16

Devotion from Youversion Bible app.

Favorite Food List

As a parent I remember how hard it was to get my son Matt to try different foods! He was a very picky eater. Most of the time if we didn't have something he liked for dinner he would just ask for a "Peanut Butter Sandwich". Rather than go through the Drama every nite of Forcing him to eat green veggies I gave in(by the way I don't like those little green mushy peas! To this day I gag when I look at them).
Now that Matt is a father of two he is faced with the same problem. All though he does eat better now! How can you make your children eat food you will not eat?
When My Daughter-in-law Crystal showed me Sammy's list today I started thinking how many times we tried to trick him to get him to try new things. We would put a Big Gob of green baby food on a spoon, smile and say "Ummm this is good"!  Have you ever tasted baby food? It is NOT good!
He was only fooled into trying it once!! It came right back out! After that his little mouth was sealed! We couldn't get him to try anything else.
Sammy is 6 now and his list of Favorite food has 7 foods on it! Wow that's good! He is adding a food every year! I love that "Carrots made the Number 5 spot! That's right in case you couldn't tell that it Carr-etts! It was confirmed by Mom! The C is silent!
I can't wait to see Maddie's list! I'm sure her list will have at least 5 different fruit on it :)

Disappearing Socks

It's always been a mystery to me how you can put 5 "pairs" of socks in the Dryer and only get 4 1/2 back!
Where do the socks go? And why is it only "New" socks that get lost! Like the special pair that you got for Christmas and Love to wear because they are soft and warm!
Put them in the Dryer and only one comes back!!
A friend told me once to put all the socks in a mesh bag and dry them together! What? A bag of Socks! Do you wash them all together too?  I can't imagine saying " I have to go home to wash a "load" of  socks!  How many socks would you have to wash to make a load? And you would have to wash Whites in one load and Colored in another!  That's a lot of work for SOCKS!! I do know that the other half of the lost sock usually ends up tucked in a corner of the sock drawer hoping for the return of the lost one! When the sock doesn't return, eventually, the odd socks are finally retired and thrown out! Just another one of "Life's Unsolved  Mysteries"!
Please share your thoughts and suggestions on this important topic! Have a Good one? :)

Maddie Can Count

When I woke up this morning I planned my entire day! Only problem was everything took longer than I planned! I was running late for everything. One of the things I had planned on doing today was grocery shopping.
I love my Grandchildren very much but I try not to take them grocery shopping if at all possible. Today I broke that rule! I had planned to pick up Sammy from School and take him to Publix and then pick up Maddie from Preschool.
Well Sam had other plans. He was really hungry and thirsty when I picked him up so we went home first. Then He wanted to have some "alone time" for just 5 minutes! Well, long story short, we ended up picking up Maddie and then going Grocery shopping.
I thought "I can do this"! I have a list! I will move quickly and we will be in and out!
OK first we had to find a "Big Green" shopping cart that has two seats. The cart is so big you can't turn it around when going down the isle!!  Next we have to stop by the bakery and get a them a free cookie to eat! The kids know right where to go so don't even try to go to another part of the store first!
We are moving fast through the store trying to get everything on my list while they are eating and getting along with each other. Things are going really well until I get to the check out! Why is it that kids will be "Angels" until you get to the check out! Things started going down hill fast! All of a sudden the "Big Green Buggy" isn't big enough for both of them! I get to the car and put both kids in their seat and strap them in. While I'm loading the grocery's in the back it sounds like "World War III" in the back seat! As soon as I get in the car I ask "What is going on in here"? Sammy immediately says "Number one: Sissy tried to HIT me! Number two: Sissy tried to SCRATCH me! Number three: Sissy Tried to SQUEEZE my neck!
I looked back and Said "Maddie what do you have to say about all of this"?  She looked at Sammy and said "Sammy you forgot to say NUMBER FOUR"!