This past week I spent two full days canning applesauce.  I canned 4 bushels of apples and made approx. 68 quarts of applesauce.  Can you tell we love our applesauce here.  I make it with no added sugar or cinnamon...just the apples and I must say it's really good.    I used my apple peeler/corer/slicer all in one machine and it worked great.  This year I put it right at the edge of the counter top and put a bucket on the floor and the peeling went right into the bucket...it worked slick.  I put some press and seal on the cabinets to keep them from getting sticky.  

Now I will leave you with some pics and some apple fun facts.  Enjoy!!!

Apples are fat, sodium, and cholesterol free & about 80 calories

 Applesauce can be substituted for oil in cake and muffin recipes

 Apples ripen six to ten times faster at room temperature than if they were refrigerated.

 The old saying, “ an apple a day, keeps the doctor away ”. This saying comes from am old English adage, “ To eat an apple before going to bed, will make the doctor beg his bread.”

 A bushel of apples weight 42 pounds and will yield 20-24 quarts of applesauce.  (I only got about 16 quarts...no far. :)  )

 Astronaut John Glenn ate the first space meal aboard Friendship 7 in 1962. He ate pureed applesauce from a tube.

Americans eat 19.6 pounds or about 65 fresh apples every year.  Europeans eat about 46 pounds of apples annually.  INTERESTING!!!!

Salsa

I've been making this salsa for the last couple years and it's so easy.


Salsa
8 cups tomatoes, chopped
3 onions, chopped
2 green peppers, chopped
8-10 jalapeno peppers, chopped (keep seed for hot, remove for milder)
1 12oz can of tomato paste
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 TBSP garlic powder
1 TBSP salt
1 TBSP pepper


Combine ingredient in a large pot.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 60-90 minutes. Put into pint jars and seal.  make 5 to 6 pints.

Notes:
I usually put my salsa in the blender after I cooked it for a smoother salsa.

Tip:
wear plastic gloves when working with jalapeno peppers so you don't get the "hot" of the pepper on your hands.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I have tomatoes growing out of every nook and cranny at our house.  I already have plenty of salsa but still have tons of tomatoes...so I headed to pinterest for some ideas of what to do with them.  That's when I came across this recipe for a great Spaghetti Sauce that I could can.  So that what I did Monday before and after our little trip to the local animal park

picture credits:  tasty kitchen

Now, we haven't had it on pasta yet, but everyone seems to like it when they tasted it off the spoon.  Can't wait to have pasta again soon (it's a fall/winter food here at the Van Dam household so we haven't had it for a while.)