We're very excited about joining together with other garden bloggers for "Thursday's Kitchen Cupboard"! Won't it be great to know a little bit more about what actually happens to all those great harvests we see? At our place, the harvest always goes straight to Belle! She's the work horse around here. And boy does she know how to bring it to the table! Sometimes she cans. Sometimes she dries. Sometimes she brings it straight to the table. I look forward to sharing her work with you. If I remember to ask her for the recipe, I'll share that too! From our cupboard to you, this is what Belle's been up to this week.
On Monday we went to the local farm auction and picked up 3 boxes of Gala apples for a really great price. Belle has dried several baggies of them, and yesterday she made apple butter!
Apple Butter Recipe
12 apples
3 cups apple cider
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon clove
1 cinnamon stick
1 generous squeeze of fresh lemon
1/2 lemon rind grated
Core and slice the apples. Mix apples with apple cider and cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes or until mushy. Separate the skins from the apple pulp with that hand held thing-a-ma-jig pictured above. Blend the mixture in a food processor. In a crock pot add the sugar, spices, lemon juice and rind to the apple sauce, and slow cook until the sugar caramelizes. Spoon a bit out and place on a cold plate. If the liquid does not separate from the apple butter, then it's done! Give the pints a 10 minute water bath, then you're done.
This week we also harvested and dried a couple of pounds of wild honey mushrooms. They are larger than white mushrooms, but smaller than portabellas they are similar in texture to portabella, maybe a little softer, and they have a beautiful golden brown color... like honey! They taste wonderful.
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| Wild honey mushrooms we found in the woods behind our house. |
Finally, for dinner one night Belle made chicken corn tortillas with the salsa verde she canned earlier this year. We also had pickled jalapenos and sweet potato fries fresh from the garden. Yummy!
Please stop by The Gardener of Eden and see what other people are preserving for the Cupboard and preparing for the table.
Sorry to you all who commented on this post yesterday. I had technical difficulties, but we're back in business.
ReplyDeleteAfter almost 40 years of dealing with computers, I'm amazed I still have any hair left. Glad to see you back in business. This post even showed up in my Google Reader!
ReplyDeleteYou are coming back up on my reader, so I think you are good:)
ReplyDeleteWow! Those mushrooms look absolutely beautiful! We have so many mushrooms that grow in our area but I honestly have no idea which are safe to eat. I really should make it a point to get educated on that topic. Missing some good eating for sure.
ReplyDeleteApple butter sounds perfectly delicious too. :D
I am happy that you finally got this blogger buggy fixed! I can see this post on my reader!
ReplyDeleteThanks all for letting me know I'm back online. There was one file on the post that was to large. It was gumming the whole system up.
ReplyDeleteKitsap, Jane mentions a great book for mushroom hunting in our area in her comments on the Hens post. I'm sure there's a good book for your area too. They must be everywhere. Your climate seems perfect.