Homemade Applesauce!

Recently I blogged about being so excited to find Transparent apples at Small's Fruit Farm in the Loess Hills on our anniversary trip (they're hard to find).  We kind of went to a lot of trouble to bring a bag of them home keeping them cool in a cooler since it was 100 degree days, and we were making stops.  This week I made them into applesauce - my first time ever to try making it!  


Grandpa & Grandma R.'s apple trees at their house were transparents.  I loved to climb those trees and spent hours up in them.  I also loved Grandma's applesauce that she made every summer from the apples.  Luckily at some point I had asked Grandma how she made it and wrote it on a recipe card.  

 
All you do is peel the apples and cut them into chunks.  Add 1 cup of water and cook slow, stirring some.  I had noted that she said Jonathan and Stamen apples also make good applesauce but NOT Lodi.  Depending on the apples, you might have to smash them after cooking to get it smooth or you can leave it a little chunky.  She added about 1/2 c. sugar per 1 qt. of applesauce.

As it was cooking, I remembered that smell too!

It was so exciting to see it start looking like applesauce - and not sticking!  And then when I tasted it - YES, it was the same!!  Yum!  Very creamy. 


Grandma froze hers in plastic containers - in pints I think.  It was always good to eat when it was just barely thawed and still really cold - sometimes with a little cinnamon.


Mom told me that she has a transparent tree.  I might have to visit next year when the apples are ready! 

Recipe - Chicken Spaghetti Casserole

For lunch with my stampin' friend, Ila, I had made Chicken Spaghetti Casserole.  When Mom was recovering from her knee surgery, Aunt Jan brought this over.  For some reason, hers tasted better than mine, but it may partly be that I was tired and tired of cooking!  It really hit the spot - we both really liked it.  It has a little bit of a kick and good taste from the Rotel tomatoes. 

I just served this with some cantaloupe and a cinnamon muffin.

CHICKEN SPAGHETTI CASSEROLE

3-4 boneless chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can chicken broth
4 oz. can of mushrooms (optional)
1 can Rotel tomatoes  (**see note below)
10 oz. spaghetti (cooked and drained)
half of a green pepper, chopped
onion, chopped(see comment below)
8 oz. Velveeta cheese, cut up
buttered cracker crumbs (like Ritz or Towne House)

Cook chicken and shred.  Mix together the soups, broth, chicken, mushrooms, tomatoes and green pepper.  Cook spaghetti and drain.  While spaghetti is hot, stir in the cheese until it begins to melt.  Add rest of ingredients except crumbs.  Put into a 
9 x 13 pan (sprayed with cooking spray).  Sprinkle crumbs on top.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 min. (until bubbly)
 
*   this time I put this in about 4 small baking dishes and froze two of them before baking  
** Bill doesn't like spicy food so the whole can of Rotel tomatoes was too much for him.  This time I used half and think it's about right (for him).  I like it made with the whole can.

A Nice Visit

Today was fun - one of my stampin' friends stopped by for a visit!  Ila was on her way from her home in southern Illinois to her daughter's which is about an hour and a half west of us.  She travels west on Highway 3 and through Pocahontas so called me and asked if I'd be home today!   Ila's been a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator in my group since 2006!  I haven't seen her for about 5 years.  We visited, she brought some card samples to show me, she gave me some card samples and I gave her some, we made a cute card, and we had lunch together!  Makes me miss all of my stampin' friends!  Hope you come back again Ila when you're coming through these parts!   We got 3/4" of gentle rain today so it was a good day!

This is the card we made using all Stampin' Up! products including designer paper, card stock, the Big Shot with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder and stamp set Itty Bitty Banners.  To order, go to my web site (top right) or click on Order Online 24/7 and then Shop Now - or e mail me at ckemna@iowatelecom.net.  The pattern for the dress and a tutorial are HERE.

Storm Clouds But Little Rain

Wed. evening we had these stormy skies with lightening and thunder, but  we had very high wind first for a little bit and then just barely 1/10" here at our house.  I think Tim had 6/10" at his house north of town and the town just north of us got over an inch.  We heard of a field of corn that was flattened east of us.

Our church held a special prayer meeting to pray for rain on this night.

Bill tells me that we're supposed to get quite a bit of rain tomorrow.  We hope so!  

Freezing Sweet Corn

I've been wanting to freeze sweet corn since I moved here five years ago but every year there's been a reason I haven't.  At first, we lived in the old farm house and the kitchen was small and didn't have a vent over the stove so boiling anything made the kitchen really hot.  Then there were a couple of years that the raccoons ate the corn.  Last year I was in Indiana in August when it was ready.

Back when we stayed with Grandma & Grandpa every day, they had a big garden and we helped shuck and get the silks off for freezing lots of corn.  I remember sitting and watching Grandma cut the corn off the cob and thinking it was so neat how it fell off in "strips" like this.  

Grandma had some false teeth so she usually cut her corn off the cob - and ours sometimes - and I liked eating these "sections"!  

This years' corn looks nice even with all the heat.  Tim put up electric fence to stop the raccoons!  I was lucky that Bill picked it and shucked the corn for me out in the garden so my part was easy.  I just did 18 pint size bags.  We don't eat that much corn since it's not a good vegetable for diabetics or if you're watching your weight.  But I hope it tastes good this winter!  It has to be better than what you buy at the grocery!

   

Bill's Birthday

Yesterday was Bill's birthday and to celebrate, we went to Okoboji to the The Fisherman's Wharf.  It's fun to eat there because you can sit and watch boats going under the bridge right below the restaurant.  It was entirely too hot to sit outside yesterday so we found a nice table by the window.  

Then we went to the amusement park, Arnolds Park, to catch a ride on the Queen II at 7:00.  The boat ride was about an hour and 15 min. and 18 miles of narrated history of the lakes.  I kind of wanted to ride the ferris wheel but by the time we got back to the dock the park was closing.  

Our thermometer is saying right at 100.  Des Moines is supposed to get up to 105 today - whew!  Thank goodness for air conditioning.  Bill & Tim are working (slowly Bill says) on putting a new tarp on one of the semi trailers.  It's the kind that rolls itself automatically which will be nice.  For the non-farmers, the semis have tarps to cover the corn or beans when you're driving down the road so it doesn't blow out - or get rained on.  With our old tarps, the guys had to manually unroll the tarps or roll them up.  It's hard on the shoulders, backs and arms especially when they're frozen after cold nights.

I've been doing laundry, fixed pork loin & corn, etc. for lunch, watering flowers, plants and our 4 new trees in the yard but now heading to the cool basement to work on stamping projects.