Our first experience with Applesauce

Thank you to Camilla who gave me all the knowledge I needed today to use 80lbs apples. AND for her loaning me her juicer/steamer and food mill. It was a steamy day in the kitchen indeed. Our family all worked together for many hours processing applesauce and apple juice. It was a great experience. I am so glad that Alyssa gets to learn how to do this at an early age.

Alyssa washed and cut.
First batch in the steamer.

The whole set upMashing and cranking
Troy did a whole batch on his own.

The finished product.

All stored for winter.

So pretty, I don't want it to be eaten and my feet/back ache from standing so much today.

Boot Camp

In August and September, I did 2x a week Boot Camp at the Proclub.

Here are my before and after testing results. I improved.

Now, I am onto Winter Sports Conditioning and eyeballing some K2 Tough Luv skis!!

Panoramic pics of SLC

WOW..

http://www.utah3d.net/GalleryTempleSquare.html

Alyssa's sewing lessons this summer

Alyssa took sewing lessons this summer and her final project was this jumper. She had never known what a jumper was until I told her I made one in the 8th grade. Wish I had a picture of it. Anyhow, after $40 in materials and over 10 hours of instruction, here is the final result. We had it cut for a size 12, even though she is a 10, so it is a little big for now. THANK YOU WENDY!!!!

Mt St Helens trip 8/31/09

The night before, Andy(brother) eating my blackberry cobbler. Breakfast at 5am
Lys' messy hair

The Fam! (2 brothers, Uncle, daughter, hubby and me)

Still smiling..

It's getting hawt in here.. so take off all your clothes....

We are just feet from the top, the Schuring family

The first glance.

Quick pose, we can relax.

The boyz in wonder

The view

More gazing into the hole

My hunky hub

here comes the Unc...

He surrenders

Relax and soak in the accomplishment

The boyz are pooped.

The amazing 10 yr old...youngest on the mountain.

My Unc

My bro...

All in a day's work!

How to can peaches

This is what I do for canning peaches.

I bought a boxof 20# for $14.95 and took them out of the box to sit for a few days and ripen. Do not leave them in the box or they ethanol gasses from the top peaches will cook the bottom peaches and you get uneven riped peaches. I had 30 peaches in this batch and they were so big, I got mostly 2 peaches (4 halves) per jar = 15 jars from this batch. Wash your jars.

Blanche them in hot water to make the skins removable.

ice bath them after the blanching process so you can touch the peaches to peal them.

My peels came right off, easy as butter.

Slice in half

pull pit out

I keep my jars warm in the oven at 200 degrees if I don't time the dishwasher drying setting in time. Jars must be hot when you are working with them.

compost your peach skins.

prepare your syrup with 4 cups artesian water and 1 cup sugar - for a light light recipe. If you like more sugar, add it! Use bottled water to keep the cholorine out and for a pretty perfect syrup.

Heat up the syrup. At this point, you have the lids heating, syrup heating and you are preparing the stock pot for the jars. It feels like a lot to manage.

pull your jars from the oven/dishwasher hot, place peaches in a pretty format, pour in your hot syrup.

Use a stainless steel knife to carefully go down the sides of the jars to release air bubbles. I broke a few jars being too rough at this point, so be gentle and know that the heat is already causing pressure in the jars.

Take a sterile rag, dip in hot water, and clean off all the rims and areas that will be important for sealing.

if you own a canning utility kit, this great little magnet tools helps retrieve hot lids.

Place lid on, place ring on, just to finger tightness, don't go as hard as you can. Carefully, place hot jar into hot boiling water and cover by an inch of water above the top. Set for 30 minutes. I broke 7 jars in my 2 days of canning and learned lessons. I angle my jars in so the bottom of the jar doesn't hit flat against the water as I go in, due to pressure. I also learned that you have to be careful when you set the jar on the bottom of the pan as there are air bubbles at the bottom, creating pressure. Just treat the jar very delicately is my strategy.

After 30 minutes, let stand for several hours on towel on the counter. Use a dry rag to dry off top of jar, don't jostle the jar as you remove it, there is pressure escaping still and you need to keep the jar level as you lift it and set it in it's resting place. Test seal by tapping on the lid after it has rested for several minutes. You should hear no popping on the lid.

Prepare next batch.

Later when cool, you can store in your cupboard for winter.