While the kiddos were at school and Sam was in TX for a few days for a work meeting, Grandma Cathy and I decided we were going to use up some of the apples we got at our local farmers market (we have 2 huge boxes!) to make apple pie filling. Oh my, the house smelled sooooo lovely!
Makes about 7 quarts
Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup Clear Jel (If you can not find in grocery store, check out your local health food store or order online.)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (We put in a whole teaspoon of nutmeg and it tastes wonderful!)
1 pinch ground cloves
2 teaspoons salt
10 cups water
3 tablespoons lemon juice
6lbs apples
1. Core, peel, and slice your apples.
2. Make syrup: In a large pot over medium heat, mix 5 cups water, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt together. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves. In a bowl, wisk clear jel and remaining 5 cups water together. Add this mixture to your pot and continue cooking until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add lemon juice.
3. Fill jars half way full with apple slices. Pour syrup over the apples. Finish filling jar with more apples, leaving 1 inch space at the top. Add more syrup until the apples are covered.
4. Remove air bubbles, wipe rim, center lid on jar and screw on ring.
5. Place jars in canner, ensuring jars are covered with 1/2 inch of water. Bring to boil for 25 minutes.
We had a little bit of syrup left over, so I cut up a few apples and cooked it all on the stove. Yum yum! That sure was a tasty treat. I can't wait until we make our first apple pie! 1 quart mason jar equals 1 pie.
With love,
Mama Hauck
Anthony had his first soccer game of the season this past Saturday! It's always so fun when soccer season is here. We really look forward to spending our Saturday mornings on the field watching him play. As always, we've got another great group of kids!
We were in charge of snacks and drinks for his first game, so we made each kiddo a snack bag of chex mix with a cheese stick and a juice box.
I got some really great photos of Anthony playing. He was even goalie at one point and that made him super happy.
What a wonderful game! Good playing, Anthony!
With love,
Mama Hauck
Timothy has such an "I'll do it myself!" type of personality. Help him brush his teeth? I don't think so. (I do!) Open the front door for him? Oh hell no! Hahaha He's quite capable of doing everything himself, thank you very much. (Or so he thinks!)
He also gets mad if you ask him to do something and the older two jump in and try to do it instead. Or if you DO ask the older two to do something, he'll get upset that he doesn't get to! He's also as stubborn as a mule too, that boy!
But, you know, these are all good things. :)
His personality makes him such a GOOD little helper. He loves to feed the horse, he loves to help empty the dishwasher, and he loves to help you dump the dustpan into the garbage. He LOVES to bring you your phone when it rings, he loves to open doors for you, he loves to close the fridge for you, and he's not too shabby at wiping up his own messes.
What a sweetheart!
Being the great helper that he is, when it was time to help Mama collect all the fallen acorns off the ground so I could use them as decoration, that boy was all over that task! With bucket in hand, he set off to collect as many as he could. Which was a lot! I couldn't resist taking a few photos of him, he looked so darn cute. I've bought him two pairs of his own boots and he still insists on wearing his sister's pink boots, haha. Oh well, whatever makes him happy.
Together we collected enough to fill two of my old HUGE mason jars!
Thank you, big helper! We made such a pretty fall decoration for the front porch! You're so awesome!
With love,
Mama Hauck
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