I have always loved fall. Who doesn't? A break from the long hot days of summer. The beautiful changing colors of the trees. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Even school starting is a good thing for some. But I am loving fall more and more each year as I learn more and more about canning and preserving food. Fresh foods are always best but home-canned or frozen goods come in a close second. I don't grow all my own food but I usually get fresh food from farmers markets or family and friends. I can't say I am an expert at preserving yet (I tried making fruit leather and failed miserably) but I am getting better. In previous years I have made apricot and apricot-pineapple jam. I have canned and frozen corn. I have canned peaches. And this year, I dug into some apples.
This year, with the help of my amazing husband, we canned 14 quarts of of peaches, froze 12 quarts of corn, canned 14 quarts of apple pie filling and picked 100+ lbs. of red potatoes.
This was our most productive year yet.
Besides canning, I also wanted to make some snacks for the kids to have for after-school. I have a "snack cupboard" that the kids usually raid the minute they get home but with the snacks containing all kinds of ingredients I can't even read and being as pricey as they are, I needed to find an alternative. I have tried making fresh snacks but who has time to bake up a fresh batch of cookies or muffins everyday. They like to eat veggies and fruit but once in a while it is nice to have something special. I wanted to make some home-made snacks that they can throw in the microwave instead. They are healthier, cheaper and faster. I made apple-pumpkin streusel muffins, apple bread, chocolate-caramel apple turnovers, apple strudel, apple pies (which aren't really for a snack), chocolate-chip cookies (froze the dough), zucchini muffins, banana muffins and banana chocolate chip muffins.
These are apple-turnovers. I adapted them from several different recipes I saw. I put cut up rolos in them too but I think I might prefer to make them just plain apple next time. I also used Rhodes rolls and pre-made pastry dough. The pastry dough ones definitely came out better but the Rhodes rolls worked pretty good too. They actually freeze great. When microwaving them, the pastry isn't quite as flaky but still good.
This was the first apple pie I made from scratch. I looked and looked for apple pie recipes and narrowed it down to two. So I made both. They both were excellent. This first one was from America's Test Kitchen. The filling was sooo good.
This next one was from All Recipes...you can get it here. The crust came out fantastic on this one. So the next time I make one I am going to use the filling of the one recipe with the lattice crust method of the other. Then I think I will have a "perfect apple pie." recipe.
These are Apple Streusel bars from ourbestbites.com. Chris LOVED these but maybe that was because it was our first dessert in over a month. :) They were pretty good. I used half the almond extract the recipe called for and it was plenty. But, then again, I am not a huge almond extract fan.
These muffins are pumpkin-apple streusel muffins (recipe found here). Great muffin, moist and not too sweet, perfect for freezing and having for an after school snack. I haven't tasted the apple-bread yet because I just put it in my freezer.
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