Apples, apples, apples - a day spent canning

I was so lucky this month to receive a very large tub of apples from a friends apple tree!    Last year, I made regular apple jelly and it was quite an undertaking, so this year I decided to try something a bit easier.    I chose two recipes that I hadn't tried yet from my Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving:  Maple Apple Jam and Cranapple Butter.   I must admit that they both turned out really yummy!  And, after spending the morning making the jam, I went ahead and made the apple butter that afternoon.  It was a crazy idea and I sure did regret it by that evening, but it takes a good 3 hours for my canning pot to come to a boil and I figured that since I had had that pot all ready to go, I might as well can up all of the apples that I had.  Wow.  What a day.  I stood and peeled, cored and chopped over 12 pounds of apples!  My hands and feet were killing me, but I'm still glad that I went ahead and made everything in one day.  I also had my little 3-year old helper, so it took me longer than normal.  She was helping me put the cut up pieces of apple in the bowl and I came to the conclusion that she puts apples in a bowl the same way I put blueberries in my bucket when I'm at the blueberry patch....one piece in the bowl...3 pieces in her mouth.....lol

Like I said, both of these recipes were really yummy and I hope you enjoy them!  Oh, and just as a quick disclaimer.....I am not a pro at canning. lol  I definitely don't know it all, so please go to the Ball Canning website for all information about canning and help with any questions you might have.  I only know what I know from standing in our tiny, hot kitchen every summer watching my parents can tomatoes, pickles and beets.....lol

Maple-Apple Jam-

makes about 8 half-pints

3 quarts chopped, peeled, cored apples (about 6 pounds)

6 cups sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1 cup maple syrup

Combine all ingredients in a large sauce pot.  Bring slowly to a boil.  Cook rapidly to gelling point.  (I had to add one package of pectin to my pot because I couldn't get mine to gel.  I think this is because I don't have a big enough pot to cook jelly in and couldn't bring the heat up high enough w/o it boiling over.)  As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking.   Remove from heat.  Skim foam if necessary.  Ladle hot jam into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.  Adjust two-piece caps.  Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner.

Cranapple Butter-

makes about 6 pints

6 pounds apples (about 24 medium)

2 quarts cranberry juice cocktail

4 cups sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

To prepare pulp:  Wash apples.  core, peel and quarter apples.  Combine apples and cranberry juice cocktail in a large sauce pot.  Simmer until apples are soft.  Puree using a food processor or food mill, being careful not to liquefy.

To make butter:  Combine apple pulp, sugar and spices in a large sauce pot.  Cook until thick enough to round up on a spoon.  As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking.  Ladle hot butter into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace.  Remove air bubbles.  Adjust two-piece caps.  Process 10 minutes in a boiling-wtaer canner.

I hope you enjoy and God Bless!

di

Covered Jelly Jar

Here is a fun and easy project for jazzing up your homemade jars of jam and jelly for Christmas gift-giving! At Practical Scrappers, they will be sharing a new Christmas project EVERY DAY, so be sure to visit often so that you don't miss all of the amazing things that will be shared there until Christmas!

We went to a local apple orchard in August and came home with a huge bag of Gala apples. I made apple butter and cinnamon-apple jelly and I thought that they would make super gifts for my neighbors this year. So, I decided to make some fabric jar covers to turn them in to festive gifts!
For this project I used a piece of fabric from my fabric stash basket and some ball-edge trim. I bought a yard of the trim, because it was only $.45 a yard.
I used a saucer to trace a circle onto the fabric. I just used an ink pen to trace with. Then, I cut the circle out and sewed on the trim. I did not turn the edges down on the fabric. I guess it would have made the back side look cleaner if I did that, but I am hoping that no one will turn this over and inspect it and say, "Wow. She should have finished this side by turning the edges under!" lol It honestly looks just fine with the edges raw and the trim covers it up anyway on the front side, and that's what's most important!
I did use one of my special feet for my sewing machine to sew the trim on. It is open on one side so that the balls on the trim had room to go by as I sewed. I didn't use any pins or anything.....I just sewed a long very slowly and adjusted the trim on top of the fabric as I sewed a long. I think that this kind of trim was the easiest, because it was easy to make the sharp curve of the circle with out bunching up or anything like that. So, I would pick out a trim that is very flexible for this project.
Here's the finished fabric piece! You can see a bit of the red fabric showing through the top in this photo. I took some sharp scissors to trim that off as close to the stitching as I could.
Now for the fun part! The circle that fits in the lid....... ;-) I traced around the outside of the metal lid onto red card stock and then used my circle cutter to cut a circle just a little bit smaller than what I had traced. This way I know it will fit inside of the lid. Then, I made another circle but out of white, watercolor paper. I made this circle so that it is about 1/8-1/4 inch smaller than the inside circle of the metal lid. I stamped the image in a chocolate-brown and colored it in with a blender pen and my Stampin' Up! markers and then I sponged red ink around the edges of the circle. I then centered the fabric circle on top of the jar, placed the red circle of card stock inside the lid and then screwed the lid ontop of the jar. Next I adhered the white circle in the center of the jar lid. I wrapped some green, gross-grain ribbon around the lid and adhered it together with some glue. I folded the ribbon over so that I was able to create a small loop of ribbon to hang the tag off of.
For the tag, I cut a rectangle from red card stock and wrote "Apple Butter - made with Honey" on one side of the card stock. Next I cut a piece of green, gross-grain ribbon, attached one end to the tag, slipped the other end through the loop on the lid and then adhered that end to the tag, so that the tag is now attached to the jar. I punched out a big snowflake and added it to the side. Then I punched a small circle, stamped the stocking on it and colored it in and then went around the edge with red ink on a sponge and placed it on top of the snowflake.

And there you have it! A cute and festive jar of preserves! I hope that all of my directions made sense. If you have any questions, please ask! And also please share if you make some of these, because I sure would love to see you're creations!