Autumn Projects - Week 2

"The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze."

- John Updike, September

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APPLE CINNAMON POMANDERS

Do you enjoy the fall scent of apples and cinnamon? Here's an easy craft that will leave your home with the delicious aroma of fall. Make some extras for your friends or family, too!

2 small apples
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (more, if needed)
1/2 cup whole cloves

~ With a large needle or toothpick, pierce holes in the skin of the apple to form a pattern. You can do swirls, circles, lines, or even initials.
~ Place a clove inside each hole.
~ When you have finished with your design, roll the apple in ground cinnamon. (It will stick to the apple because of the moisture released when you poked the holes.)
~ Place the apple in a warm, dry place and allow it to dry for three to six weeks. As it dries it will shrink, and tighten up your pattern.

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"As I lie restfully on this quiet porch, I watch the days swing by,
recorded in this calendared garden before me.
... I know not which is more beautiful,
the June riot of roses and of daisy-snowed fields,
the loveliness of Queen Anne's lace in midsummer,
or the Midas miracle of goldenrod in autumn."

~ Dorothy Scarborough

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PORCHSIDE GETAWAYS

~ Fall is a wonderful season to spend on the front porch. Keep cozy wool blankets, afghans or flannel quilts on a porch swing, and enjoy time outside with candles, books, and mugs of hot cider.

~ Prepare an autumn afternoon getaway on your front porch. Have a steaming mug of your favorite beverage, flannel quilts in earthy fall colors, sweet and crunchy apples, a lacy white cloth and fresh flowers on a side table; an antique letter opener for lingering over the day's mail; a magnifying glass for closer inspection of a butterfly; a stack of classics to immerse yourself in. Stay late to watch the harvest moon rise!

~ Listen to the sounds of fall on the front porch ~ hoot owls, nightingales, howling wind, crunching leaves underfoot, school bells. Hear the laughter of children returning home from school, and the giggles of kids and pets playing in newly raked leaf piles.

(From a favorite book that I highly recommend!!! 'My Front Porch... An Invitation to the Charm and Tradition', by Alda Ellis, with paintings by Sandy Lynam Clough. The copyright is 1999 by Harvest House Publishing. If you can find it, it's worth buying and reading over and over again.)

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"The friendly cow all red and white,
I love with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might,
To eat with apple-tart."
~ Robert Louis Stevenson

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APPLE DUMPLINGS

6 large apples, peeled and cored
1-1/2 cups sugar, divided
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, divided
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
6 tablespoons butter, divided
Favorite pastry crust (for a 10-inch double crust pie)

~ Preheat oven to 450 degrees ten minutes before dumplings are ready to be baked.
~ Roll out pastry 1/8-inch thick and cut into six 7-inch squares. Place an apple in center of each square.
~ Fill apples with a mixture of 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and 2 tablespoons butter.
~ Moisten edges of pastry with cold water and fold up around apples. Press edges together to seal firmly. Prick pastry with fork in several places to allow steam to vent.
~ Chill 1 hour.
~ Combine remaining sugar, cinnamon, butter, and 2 cups hot water and boil 5 minutes. Place apples in 9 x 12-inch baking dish and bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, pour syrup over apples, and bake 35 minutes more. Baste occasionally during baking.
~ Serve warm with vanilla ice cream sprinkled with cinnamon, or fresh whipped cream.

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"Traditionally in the country it has been more of a stillroom or store-room overflow; a place for drying and storing apples in the winter, for festooning drying herbs and flowers scenting the room with summer... "
~ On attics, from 'Folk Wisdom for a Natural Home'

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APPLE BUTTER

I LOVE to make apple butter. We use it on toast, English muffins, biscuits, in crepes, and it makes a wonderful gift. This is the recipe I use. I usually do it in two steps, processing the apples the first day and then putting them in the fridge overnight (or if you don't have time the next day, you can freeze the "sauce" at this point for later use). The next day I make the apple butter and found over the years that I prefer the oven method. You don't get any sticking the way you can with the stovetop method.

I don't have a food mill, and rather than using a sieve I've found that putting it in a blender for a few seconds works wonders and makes the pulp into a nice, smooth sauce. I use a 9x13 glass pan and about every 30 minutes I gently stir it through to distribute the liquidy part and prevent sticking. This really makes your home smell wonderful, and is great if you're in the process of selling your home, lol.

When we were selling our house in northern Arizona several years ago, I was making batches and batches of this to use up the apples from our two apple trees in the back yard. I had processed the apples into the sauce and had them frozen for months. Each day I'd pull out a couple of the bags and make them into apple butter so they wouldn't go to waste and the jars of apple butter could go with us when we moved. Everyone who walked in to see the house commented on the aroma (and loved hearing that we had our own apple trees).

In addition to the aroma, one of my other favorite things about making it is listening to the caps on the processed jars "pop" as they cool after the hot water bath :) I just love that!


APPLE BUTTER

To prepare pulp:
24 medium apples (about 6 pounds)
2 cups apple cider

~ Wash apples. Remove stems and blossom ends, but do not peel or core. Cut into small pieces and cook apples in cider until soft. Press through a sieve or food mill. Measure 3 quarts apple pulp.
****MY NOTE: Since I don't use a food mill, I take the extra time at the beginning and peel and core the apples before cooking them. When they're soft, it's easy to mash them a bit and then put them in a blender.

To prepare butter:
3 quarts apple pulp
3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cloves

~ In a large saucepan combine apple pulp, sugar and spices. Cook over a low heat until thick enough to round up on a spoon. Make sure to stir frequently to prevent sticking.

Oven option ~
Combine apple pulp, sugar and spices and pour in a large glass baking dish. Cook in a slow oven at 325 degrees for 3 to 4 hours, until it is thick enough to round up on a spoon. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.

To Process:
Ladle hot butter into sterilized hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Adjust two-piece caps, and process 10 minutes using the boiling-water canning method.