Apples - Apple Pie Filling

One of the best things you can do when you have a bunch of extra apples is to freeze them for later as apple pie filling! I just pulled a bag of frozen apple pie filling out of my freezer yesterday, defrosted, and now tonight I have an apple crumble or apple crisp, whichever you want to call it, cooking in the oven! Prep time today was less than ten minutes! When I froze the apple pie filling months ago, this is what I did: To prep the apple pie filling I cut the apples into the slices. You can dip them into lemon juice and water to preserve color if you want, I usually don't since I immediately prep and freeze.. Next, throw the apples in a bag with about 1 cup of sugar and 1 tblsp of cinnamon or the ratio you like best of sugar to cinnamon. Mix the sugar/cinnamon & apples together well. Last, label the bag, date it, and throw in the freezer! That's it! You can freeze it either flat or upright. When you pull it out later you can either make a pie crust or just add some crumble topping and bake as an apple crisp!

After I have defrosted my apple pie filling, I throw it juice and all into a sprayed glass baking tray (pie plate or casserole dish).

ready to bake! (see above) Apple Crisp Crumble: 1-2 cups slow cooking oatmeal, 2/3 cups brown sugar, 3/4 cup flour and 4 tblsps. OR half a cup(8 tblsps. of butter). Combine the oatmeal, sugar, and flour in a plastic bag and mix until completely combined. Melt the butter and mix with other ingredients in bowl or the bag(if not too hot) last sprinkle over the top of your apple pie filling and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes until bubbly and brown. Cool, add vanilla ice cream as a topping, and enjoy! :)

Peaches - Canned Peaches

I always forget how messy Peaches are! I let the peaches I picked ripen on the counter for about three days (I picked them hard) and they were soft to the touch when I decided to can them - I probably could have done them a day or so earlier so the fruit would be firmer in the jars but I was too busy and time slipped away.. So, I decided to can most of my peaches, about 6 pint jars worth. I also always forget how much of a process peaches are so it's good to do a bunch all at once. Oh yeah, and don't forget to put your cutting board and three bowls close together while you are removing the skins, dunking them in lemon juice so the color doesn't change in the peaches, and then dumping the pits in your compost bowl.. I had mine all in different places along the counter on both sides of my stove which resulted in a sticky floor and lots of mess! I will need to wash my floor again tonight! This was a fun blog for getting ideas about different uses for peaches: http://shannandesh.blogspot.com/2010/09/peaches-peach-sauce-peach-butter.html The ideas for vanilla peach sauce and freezing peaches make me want to go back and pick more peaches real soon! Basically the process I went through with my peaches was as follows: Blanch the peaches: Dunk them in boiling water for a minute, throw them in ice water immediately afterward, then remove the skins, they should slide off easily. Cut the peaches up and put in jars. Pour boiling sugar water (6 cups water, 2 cups sugar, I did a "light" syrup) over the fruit in the jars, put lids on and water bath can for 25 minutes.

Cherries from Detering's Orchard - Dried Cherries

Today was a fun day with friends at Detering's Orchard in Harrisburg, Oregon. We picked Cherries & Peaches (the other girls picked raspberries but I didn't want any). Some of the Cherries I've kept to eat fresh. For the rest, I put some cherries and some blueberries from an earlier trip to Bear's Berries in my dehydrator. I picked about 4 pounds of cherries which means I will probably do two rounds of dried cherries. I love eating dried cherries, cranberries, or blueberries on my breakfast cereal. The peaches I picked aren't ripe yet so I will wait until they are ripe to decide what to do with them.

This picture (see below) is of my dried cherries the next day. I left them in the dehydrator for about 15 hours on 115 degrees. I will have a pint sized bag worth when they are all done. The secret to good dried cherries is knowing they are done when they are no longer sticky and feel completely dried out through the middle. Otherwise, they can mold or not hold together well if in the bag for longer than a couple weeks.