One of the ways that I save money is that I make all my jams & jellies at home, and can them. Just this past week, I made 3 quarts of Lemon Blueberry Jelly, which is by far my family's favorite jelly ever. You would think that 3 quarts would last a long, long time - but you would be thinking wrong! We eat it on everything from peanut butter & jelly sandwiches to biscuits.
Another of our favorites is Apple Butter. For those of you that haven't heard of apple butter before, it's not actually a butter. It's like a spiced, sauce-like textured, jelly. I prepare a big batch of it in my crockpot, & use some immediately on fresh on hot biscuits - and then can the rest for future use. My daughters actually like to eat it like applesauce because they enjoy it so much.
Pour in the 2 48oz jars of all natural applesauce.
Add in all of the spices & the sugar.
Pour in the apple juice.
Cover, & cook on low for 10 hours. Your house will smell DIVINE while this is cooking!!
After the 10 hours, uncover - and it will look like this:
Using a whisk, give it a good stirring, and it will look like this.
Serve on hot biscuits, & can the rest
. Makes about 8 pints.
Crockpot Apple Butter
Ingredients:
- 3 pound bag of granny smith apples - peeled, cored, & diced
- 2 (46oz) jars of All Natural Applesauce
- 4 cups sugar
- 1 cup apple juice
- 2-3 tbsp cinnamon (depending on how 'spiced' you want it)
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Instructions:
Put the peeled & diced apples in a large crockpot. Cook on low for 10 hours. Stir well with a whisk to smooth out at the end of the cooking cycle.
