a bowl full of jelly a month early

So today I was feeling quite domestic as I decided to take on the task of making homemade applesauce and four kinds of jams/jellies all in the span of 4 hours. Oh yes, not to mention I also made dinner. I thought what a fun activity to do with the kids and it started out that way and then turned into a frantic, let’s getter’ done activity! Thinking ahead I decided to document the whole event and even write down step by step instructions on how to make the applesauce, apple jelly, and jams so you can make them, I can make them next year and my kids can make them in 10 years when I decide I’m retiring from the applesauce, jam, and jelly making job. Oh lovely will be the day. I figure train them young and let’em at it. I do have to thank my mother-in-law and sister-in-laws for all their verbal instructions on how to make all this stuff, usually I steal theirs, but not this year, I decided to do it on my own.

No really people always ask me why the heck do you make all your stuff from scratch how do you have time and is it really worth it and the answer to both is I make time and yes for my family I believe it is. Trust me when I say it taste 100% better then anything you get in any store, it’s 100 time fresher then anything you get in any store, and I know EXACTLY what’s in it. If you haven’t read anything lately on High Fructose Corn Syrup you should start, it’s terrible for you and it’s in everything, including applesauce and Jams/jellies, and yes it’s worse then sugar. Obviously Jelly and jams have lots of sugar so eat them in moderation.

Now I am not telling you this to preach to you and say my way is the way you should do it or you are doing something terribly wrong but mainly I want you to know there is a reason to my madness, I’m not just doing this for fun! Okay let’s get started.

Applesauce:

1. Buy Jonathan Apples (These make the best applesauce and apple jelly) I found that 1 pound of apples makes approximately 1 cup of applesauce
2. Get the right tools to make the job easy
-stockpot
-apples
-Apple peeler corer slice (Pampered Chef)
-cutting board/knife
-colander
-foley food mill/big bowl
-sugar/cinnamon
-foodsaver and bags
-extra bowls
3. Core and slice apples using the Apple peeler corer slicer (leave the peel on because it makes the applesauce a pretty color) and put in stockpot covered in water and bring to a boil. Boil until tinder and soft.
4. Then, drain the apples using the colander into a bowl (save the water to use for apple jelly) and using the foley food mill put the apples in it and start turning away and out will come applesauce into a big bowl.
5. If you are using the applesauce for a baby don’t add anything just give them pure apple, if using for your family I add sugar and cinnamon. I did about 8 pounds of apples and got 8 cups of applesauce so I added 1 cup of sugar and 1 Tbsp. of cinnamon and mixed.
6. Finally, I put about 2 cups of applesauce into individual foodsaver bags that I can freeze until I am ready to use it.

Apple Jelly:

1. Using the water that you cooked the apples in measure out 7 cups and strain trough a cheesecloth (just found in the baking section of the grocery store)
2. Get mason jars (the small ones) and put into the dishwasher and be ready to do your jelly right when they come out and are hot (don’t put the lids in the dishwasher just the jars)
3. Then follow directions on the package of the yellow sure-jel packet for cooking jelly. (just don’t follow the canning part)
4. While you do the boiling of the apple water, add the pection, then add the sugar (Step 3) you also want to be sure to boil the lids of the jars so they are really hot. Then right when the dishwasher is done (or on the dry cycle) take the HOT jars out, funnel the HOT apple jelly into them, wipe the rim, put on the HOT lid, and screw closed tight, and it should seal down on it’s own. My sweet husband helped me with this part, it was way easier with two people, since you want everything really hot so it seals shut.
5. There you go you are done, follow the rest of the directions on the sure-jel package.

Freezer Jam:

I just followed the directions on the yellow sure-jel package and made strawberry, blueberry, and blackberry jam. The nice thing about this is it will all go into the freezer and will last all year. Yeppie.