Making Homemade Applesauce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lOjSV6XQc0

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Today we will show you how we made homemade applesauce. I had to make something as I had just got my food mill in preparation for the boy coming and I wanted to be able to make baby food (at the time I did not realize how long it would take to get him to the stage to actually eat baby food). This recipe did not turn out as good as I had hoped, but it is because I used too much water.  Take that into consideration and DO not add water like I did in the video.

Ingredients

  • Apples
  • Cinnamon
  • Sugar (if needed)

Procedure

  • Select the apples
    Get apples that are sweet, like Red Delicious, Gala, Fuji, Winesap, McIntosh, Yellow Delicious, or Mutsu.  You’ll get about 12 to 16 quarts of applesauce per bushel of apples. Count on 12 or 13 quarts per bushel.
  • Wash and chop the apples!
    Chopping them is much faster if you use one of those apple corer/slicer – you just push it down on an apple and it cuts it into segments. don’t peel the apples!
  • Cook the Apples
    Put about 1 inch of water (I used either filtered tap water or store brand apple juice) on the bottom of a huge, thick-bottomed pot. Put the lid on, and the heat on high. When it gets really going, turn it to medium high until the apples are soft through and through.
  • Sieve the cooked apples
    This is where I messed up, I did not strain the apples and just dumped the mixture in my food mill. It made a lot of good juice, but it was more like thick cider.
  • Season
    Put the applesauce into a large pot. Add cinnamon to taste. You should not need to add any sugar.

The applesauce does not need any further cooking, but you can can it if you want.
Pints for 8 minutes at 6 pounds (0-2000 ft) Quarts for 10 minutes at the same pressure.

How to Keep Brownies from Sticking to the Pan

 

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This is a very simple tip.  My wife loves cooking homemade brownies.  She uses it as a teaching tool in her special education class to teach cause/effect, math, and life skills.

Unfortunately if you are not careful a homemade brownie will stick to the pan. Luckily pinterest showed me a better way.

If you grease your pan normally, but then spread parchment paper over it, and then pour the mix over the mix the brownies are very simple to remove.

The paper will not stick to the pan, nor the brownies.

This homemade brownie tip is short and simple, but that does not mean it is not useful.  I know that it saves me a lot of time cleaning out the pan because I don’t have to scrape out little burnt bits of brownies from the pan.

I will understand if you need to practice this tip over and over to ensure you get it right.  You may have to make several brownie batches to ensure you get it just right.  I have a homemade brownie mix that may make this even better.

If you want a healthier (healthier being relative) I have a recipe that uses blackberries in the brownie mix.

Recipe: Caramel “Dulce de Leche”

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Making homemade caramel is something I have been meaning to try for several months, but could not quite decide what to make to put it ON, but once I made it, I realized, that a spoon is the perfect thing to douse liberally with this golden condiment.It is a simple thing to make simple simmer an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk in water f0r 2-3 hours.

Just keep this in mind – do not let the pot boil dry, and do not open until the can is completely cooled.  Failure to do those things can be similar in scope to getting the mogwai wet or feeding it after midnight….

I have heard that you can do this for 8 hours in a crock pot, or 15 minutes in a pressure cooker (but only if you use a steamer basket to prevent the can from touching the bottom or sides of the cooker).

I will say that this Homemade Caramel is the precursor to some really good recipes, but I like eating it on apple slices.

Whatever you use this caramel on, you will enjoy it – and with the two different ways I show you – you will find it pretty easy to make also.

Thanks for visiting the site.

Organization Tip: Mason Jar Salt Lid

Organization Tip: Mason Jar Salt Lid
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The Parmesan cheese lid article was so popular I figured I would show you a similar tip for wide mouth jars.  I present to you the mason jar salt lid tip.

The top of a 26 ounce salt container just happens to be the same size as a wide mouth mason jar.

The top and the bottom are formed, with the body being wound around them.

If you feel the container, you will feel a “lip”.  If you carefully cut the top along this lip – you can press it down over the top of a wide mouth mason jar and screw the ring over it.

This isn’t as easy as some of the other lid tips I have shared with you, but it is a good way to store opened salt.

As I said in the video, I only use this mason jar salt lid for containers I have already opened – but it does make it easier to store salt without it getting moist and hardening.

I used this the other day after a snow storm – I used some stored salt in these containers to try to remove some stubborn ice spots since I took all my shovels to the land.  I know that table salt is not the same as road salt, but the work similarly (just more expensively) – it worked though and I could get to work.

Using the Survival Still to Distill Salt Water

Gear Review: Survival Still for Salt Water
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When I did the first survival still review I heard two types of comments

  1. its neat, but too expensive
  2. its cool, but the commenter had a filter, and therefore had no need.

Those are both valid concerns, but – at least in my situation (and probably many of yours) they aren’t accurate.

I know $279 seems expensive, but when looking at durable goods you have to balance cost with benefits.  The price of the still is very competitive with filter systems like Berkeys – but unlike filters – they never clog, break, or need maintenance.

As a firearm instructor – I see students try to skimp on quality – and when they come to class with cheap guns trying to save a few dollars on guns and end up with malfunctions and problems – until they end up buying quality the second time.

I would not expect anyone to only have one piece of equipment for such a vital need.  At my house we have stored water, multiple chemical purification means, filters, and the materials to make filters.  But each has its own pros and cons.

Distillation takes energy, but it its 100% effective.  Filters can clog, chemicals don’t work on toxins, and sodis doesn’t work on chemicals.

In the video below we purify salt water- filters won’t work on chemicals in solution – so salt water will be a problem if filters are your only means of water purification.