Apples

We have a lot of apples right now. Why? Well, first off, we have a lot of apple trees. A lot is, in this case quite a lot! Also, a lot of our trees produced this year. ( In this last sentence, the word lot isn't as much as it was in the one before it.) To give you a clue what I mean here, We have 2 bushel baskets plus a tray full of apples all just waiting to get processed.

By processed I mean cooked up and turned into applesauce, apple pie filling, or apple butter. Apple butter is great on toast, biscuits, and pancakes, and it actually smells like fall. Seriously, it smells like apples and cinnamon and tastes even better. Homemade applesauce is great with just about everything and is much better than store bought, and apple pie filling is just amazingly yummy.

To process all of these apples we will need several things as listed below.

• Time; you shouldn't ever start a big job in the kitchen when in a time crunch.

• Helpers; doing this job (or any other big job) without helpers must be a disaster.

• A good attitude; it is better to let the apples sit and rot than it is to divvy 'em up with a bad attitude.

• A plan; you should always have a plan before you start, otherwise you'll end up in tears over what to do.

• Tools; first you will need something to cut the apples up with. If you have an apple peeler/corer/slicer, use that. If you don't, either get one or a knife and a peeler. You will also need a big container like a crock pot or large large pan depending on your cooking method.

• Apples; duh!

Once we have all the items necessary, we just start cutting, and are able to fill the giant crock pot (which holds about a bushel) and clean everything up in about an hour. Then we just let that cook with some water and spices for a day or however long it takes to get to desired mushiness. Then we mash it well and can it, and voila, homemade yummyness.