Apple-sass

I just plain feel sorry for anyone who hasn't experienced the fun and yumminess of canning. Today I tackled a box of apples - MacIntosh to be exact, which are one of the best sauce apples.

Appropriate tools make any job easier, and this one is a doozy. It's Pampered Chef's apple peeler-corer-slicer, which comes mounted on a little stand. This thing peels, slices and cores apples in seconds. Max loves to turn the crank on it, especially if the slices are going to end up on his snack plate, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. He can do the whole thing himself, thank you very much.
One of the advantages of using the apple gadget is that the apples cook up faster than if you just quarter and core them. I ran a sharp knife through them a few times to cut the slices up, poured in about a cup of water, and cooked them at medium heat to prevent any scorching.
It only took a couple of stirs with my trusty wooden spoon and in about 10 minutes the apples had cooked down soft and sweet.
The Foley Food Mill is another favorite canning gadget. It squishes the soft apples through a screen and keeps any remaining peels, etc. in the kettle side. If the apples had only been quartered and cored, which is a common way to do them, the peelings pile up and you spend a bit of time emptying them inbetween batches. This way, there is only about a quarter cup of peelings and stuff left, after doing the whole kettle of apples. I do love my gadgets!
Did I mention I love canning? There's an element of satisfaction in having everything all lined up, organized for fast action, all the ducks in a row - um, maybe that's a bit of an obsession? Anyway, here we are all ready for action...waterbath canner steaming, applesauce steaming, lids steaming, jars steaming. I fill the jars using a canning cup ( no bottom, fits inside jar rim) to keep the jar rim clean, check for dribbles before slapping on the hot lid and screwing on the ring. Into the waterbath for a 20 minute boil.

The Macs are a nice apple to work with, they cook up quickly, need little sugar. I put a tasty amount of cinnamon in this batch, after taking a sample over to the testing crew at the farm house. Upon their approval, back to the cabin to finish the job.
The final count was 17 pints of tangy sweet apple sauce. With just enough left for a bowl of warm sass for the cook~ the rewards of canning are sooooo nice!
And speaking of sass - THIS stuff is REALLY sassy! It's the jalapeno jelly, and Whoa Nelly, is it good! I keep finding new ways to use it. For dinner I spread some on a tortilla, piled on some rotisserie chicken slices and jack cheese, topped with another tortilla and toasted the quesadilla on both sides in one of my castiron frying pans. Yep, it's good stuff...
I think the next taste test will be the peanut butter sammich.