Apple Core!

Apple core! Baltimore! Who's your friend? Him!!!

What happened to good cartoons like these ones?! 

My dad, good ol' Donald Duck, and Chip & Dale taught me this game when I was just a kid, and I loved it when i remembered to use it!

My friend recently scored on a killer price for Washington Gala Apples, only 0.50$ a pound!

So I bought 115 pounds!

Let's just say that's A LOT of apple cores!

And the game doesn't work very well when I'm the one saying "apple core" and my hubby gets to be the "Baltimore" because he naturally chooses me as his friend.... 

And I don't like to pelt myself with half eaten fruit!

But I digress...

What do you do with 115 pounds of apples??

Apple pies! Applesauce! Caramel Apples! Apple Cider! Dried Apples! Apple Leather! 

The list is endless!

It wouldn't be fall if there weren't apples around!

My house has  been overtaken with a heavenly apple cinnamon aroma for the last week or two.

It's a fantastic fall smell :)

Whether applesaucing, applepieing, appleleathering, or applecidering, you must start in the same place - wash, core, peel and slice your apples.

And when you have 115 pounds to cook, this do-dad comes in handy!!!

It slices! it dices! Ok, so it doesn't dice, but it does core, peel and slice your apples, all in a few turns of the crank!

If you don't have one of these, I suggest splurging for one... They make cooking apples an easy task!

AND... They make apple SLINKIES!

Who doesn't love an apple slinky?!

It also is great for freezing your apples for later baking!

Just add your slinky apples to a ziplock with a tad of lemon juice and you'll be able to have "fresh" applesauce or apple pie all throughout the year!

Matt was highly impressed with his apple slinkies! 

Ok, so on to the recipes...

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-Apple Pie-

My favorite apple pie to bake is a crumb top apple pie.
It's not too sweet, that way you can add caramel topping to each slice as desired :)

Ingredients:
Apple Filling:
5-7 apples, depending on the size of your pan (I use gala because that's what I like)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp clove

1 pie crust

Crumb Topping:
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup quick oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
7 tbs unsalted butter, cold

Directions:
Combine your slinky apples with brown sugar, lemon juice and spices.
Stir to coat evenly - allow to sit while preparing crumb top.
Combine all dry ingredients for crumb top in a bowl - mix well.
Add your butter in cubes and blend with pastry blender until it resembles a coarse meal.
Pour apples into pie crust, then top with crumbs.  Heap both in the center so you get all that yumminess into the pie!
Bake in a preheated oven at 375*F for 1 hour or until golden brown.
Let cool, and then enjoy.
I mean it, go crazy, enjoy that sucker!! Add whipped cream, caramel, sprinkles, live it up! :)

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-Applesauce-

I make my applesauce in a crockpot, then can it.
You can easily make it on the stove, and you can just as easily store it in the fridge or freeze it instead if canning it.

Ingredients:
Enough apples to fill your crockpot.
1 cup water
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbs lemon juice

Directions:
Combine ingredients in crockpot and cook on low for 4 hours.
After cooking time has ended, stir apples - many will fall apart, but will not be smooth enough for applesauce.
Use a potato masher, food processor or immersion blender to purée apples until desired consistency.

Canning:
Add hot applesauce to prepared jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace
Place 2 piece lids
Add jars to boiling water canner and process for 20 minutes

I do believe it is the tastiest applesauce ever.... Do try it!!

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-Apple Leather-

I feel like a little kid when I eat fruit leather... So yummy!

Ingredients:
Applesauce

Directions:
Line baking sheet with greases parchment paper
Spread applesauce about 1/4 inch thick
Bake in a preheated oven at 170*F for 5-8 hours, until leather is smooth and non tacky.
Peel, cut into strips, and store in ziplock or mason jar!

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-Dried Apple Rings-

These are my hubbies favorite!
And I'm ok with it, because they are healthy!!

Directions:
Make apple slinkys but leave the peel on.
Dry in a dehydrator for 10-12 hours.

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When you have so many recipes to choose from, 115 pounds of apples sure goes fast! 

I wonder where I can get some more...

Plus i could really use some more apple cores, my husband deserves a good fruit pelting :)

Lumberjack Lindsay

Today we got our first snow... and its not even October!!!

First Snow = First Fire!!!

One thing I love about snowy idaho winters is sitting in front of a warm fire with a hot cup of tea and a nice cuddly cowboy by my side...

However... The warm fire is only attained by firewood, and plenty of it!  When it doesn't get above 10*F for a whole month, when the night time is 15 below, and when your only heat source is your fireplace, you sure do use a whole lotta firewood!

Thus, you need to have mounds of firewood ready to burn... And this is accomplished by logging trips to the high country!

The road to Pole Creek cutting zone and the coolest fence ever!

A few times in the fall, my hubby and I will venture up into the high country, into the forests, into the Sawtooth pines and cut us some firewood.

Ideally, we look for a spot that has multiple dead trees, either standing or down, and proceed to fall them if still standing, then limb them, cut them into 8ft lengths, and load them into the truck or trailer.

This is one exhausting adventure!

one load down... many more to go!

Although im not afraid to get down and dirty, these 8ft logs often weigh close to 200 lbs if not more! Matt likes to get the nice big and tall lodgepole pines.

The bigger the tree, the more firewood.... but of course the bigger the tree, the heavier the 8ft logs will be... Some so heavy I can't even think to lift them!

I like to fall the trees that are about 8inches in diameter, but even these in 8ft logs can weigh 150lbs.

Woodcutting is when a flatbed really comes in handy!

Needless to say, the day after our woodcutting trip we are pretty dog tired!

And sore... And bruised... And cut up!

Our last cuttin trip, Matt and I both cut through our jeans with the CHAINSAW!!

By the grace of God, we were both lucky enough to only tear a good hole in our jeans! Not even a little scratch!

Talking to our neighbors in this country, almost everyone has cut themselves with a chainsaw, so hopefully this was our turn and we escaped any real injuries!

so tired, but so happy its over! 

But you do knick your skin with the rough bark, twist ankles, get wood chips everywhere, get burned with a hot chainsaw bar, cover yourself in bar oil, you get the picture!

Matt and I, both armed with a chainsaw (mine is a 16in Poulan that I had before we got married... Wouldn't say it was the best brand, but come on... I had this when I was a single gal! Even Matt's friend said I was a catch simply by bringing a chainsaw into the marriage :) - My dad just gave Matt an18in Husqvarna that is a beast) we can really cut some wood! I'm not a huge fan of falling trees... My forearms are not quite cutout for the angles involved... So Matt falls them, I limb them, he cuts them, and together we load them.

hard to think about burning firewood when its 85* outside when your cuttin it!

We have a system, and for it just being the two of us we do a pretty good job!

My dad went with us a few times, and although he is a young 67, logging is hard on a guy his age! But it's nice to have his company, and an extra set of hands will never be turned down!

For this winter, we have about 4 cords stacked outside... It still needs to be cut and split, but that's what Matt's free time is for!! (Free time on a ranch.... Hahah, who am I kidding!?)

We have tags for 1&3/4 more cords... But we might buy more tags.  You definitely don't want to run out of firewood when there is 4 ft of snow on the ground!  We are praying for a heavy winter, and with a snowfall in late September, it sure looks promising!!

Matt and our 4 cords of pine firewood

Picabo!!! Get it?!?! oh i crack myself up!

It sure is a back breaking day, but there is something about working hard all day knowing you will have plenty of firewood to enjoy those romantic nights in front of the fire that make it all worth it! ;)

Or at least that's the line that Matt keeps feeding me...

The woodpile is also a favorite for the dogs... this is where they hunt an endless supply of

bunnies and rockchucks!