what do you want to eat?

apple butter

These lovely green apples came from the Farmer's Market.  I spotted them one week but didn't buy them until the next week when I thought about making my own apple butter.  I LOVE apple butter...but most store bought brands use high fructose corn syrup for sweetening...which I try to avoid when I can.  So, I bought a peck of apples...most of them the sour green type you see above.  I also got a few small eating apples thinking Dylan would enjoy them (he did by the way). 

We got the apples home and I gave Dylan one to eat.  He spotted the green apples and said "peeese other apple....geeen apple".  So, I gave him one to hold.  I also had a red delicious apple I put in front of him.  He quite happily talked about the "big apple" and the "tiny apple" and "red apple" and "geen apple" and "tiny geen apple".  Cutie boy.  I took a couple of photos of him with the apples for size reference.

He decided he needed yet another apple, and proceeded to bite into the green apples.  He didn't get very far though....don't know that sour apples are his thing. 

Oh boy, I've digressed far enough from apple butter haven't I?  Okay, back to the main event.  I looked online for recipes for apple butter and found a basic one to help me with proportions.  Then I kinda did my own thing.  It turned out quite delicious and we all enjoy it on our toast.  I even made homemade pop tarts with it....that's my next post.  It's particularly good with the lemon quark (spreadable cheese that tastes like cheesecake) on an english muffin.

Toddler note:  Dylan loves the apple butter (he calls it apple jelly or apple jam usually). 

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Apple Butter

3-4 lbs apples (I used mostly the little green sour apples you see above with a few of the eating apples)
1/2 that amount of sweetener (I used a combination of sugar and honey...about half and half...next time I'm trying agave nectar)
apple juice or cider
water
cinnamon (I didn't measure, but I'd guess 1-2 tablespoons)
nutmeg  (about 1-2 teaspoons)
2 vanilla beans

Wash, peel and cut up your apples.  I read some recipes that recommended slicing them thinly...I cut mine into chunks and it worked just fine.  Put the apples in a large pot and fill about 2/3 with half water and half juice.  You don't want to cover the apples, you want to be a couple of inches below them.  Bring to a boil.  Turn down the heat and cover.  Cook for about 30 minutes, then add the sugar, honey, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla beans and add those as well as the bean itself to the pot. 

Cover and cook, stirring occasionally.  Break up the apples with your spoon as you stir.  I cooked for about 2 hours on the stove, and then moved the mixture to my slow cooker to finish (I needed to leave the house that afternoon).  I put the slow cooker on high and when I came home, the house smelled fantastic.  The apple butter was just the right consistency.  That took about 2-3 hours on high.  You could just as easily leave it to cook on the stove top until it thickens up.  Let cool and store in a container in your fridge.  Enjoy!

fresh pea pesto

For over a month now, we've been getting a box of fresh vegetables every week through a local farm's Community Shared Agriculture program.  The first few weeks were mostly a lettuce mix and mescalune with some radishes thrown in.  We also have been getting fresh mint every week.  One week we got asparagus.  The past couple of weeks have been more interesting though.  We've had kohlrabi (for the first time ever), garlic tops, rainbow Swiss chard, baby kale, and english shelling peas. And last week in addition to the mint we got a large bunch of fresh basil.

I decided it was time to do something with the peas Sunday evening and pulled out the peas to start shelling.  Dylan decided he wanted to help.  And it turns out shelling peas is a great toddler activity.  It went slowly at first because I had to hold the pea pod for him (he had a plastic tomato in one hand), but once he set his tomato down, he just needed me to open the pods and he dumped them into the bowl, said "all done" and handed me the empty shell.

I'd seen Jamie Oliver make a pea pesto on his tv show and decided to do my own version.  I put the fresh peas (probably 2 1/2 to 3 cups) in the food processor with a large handful of mint and a large handful of basil.  I added juice from half a lemon, salt and pepper, a handful of toasted pine nuts, 1 clove of garlic and one garlic top, and about a cup of parmesean cheese.  Then I streamed in olive oil until I had a nice paste. 

The next evening, I boiled some pasta (I used alphabet pasta in hopes of getting my toddler to eat some) and threw in some frozen peas towards the end of cooking.  I stirred a nice portion of pesto with the pasta and peas, and threw in some chopped steamed carrots.  I topped the pasta with chicken that was seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked up in my cast iron skillet.   A little sprinkle of parmesan and the pasta was complete.

Toddler Note:  Dylan liked looking at the pasta but was not interested in eating it.  He did eat some cut up chicken on the side and some of the cheesy bread we had leftover from pizza night the night before.