Blueberry Vanilla Applesauce

My coworker has an apple tree thats exploding right now and she gave me about 14 pounds of apples. These apples aren't the best for eating, but are great for applesauce.

I found some great applesauce recipes from www.theyummylife.com . They had some super easy recipes and the best part was I didn't have to peel a million apples. I used my Vitamix to puree the applesauce after it was cooked, so it was nice and smooth.

The best part is you don't have to can it either! It will keep in the fridge for about a week or freeze it for up to a year.

Makes about 4 pint jars of applesauce

Ingredients:

4 pounds of mixed, naturally sweet apples, cored and sliced, with the peels on
2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
1/2 cup of apple cider or juice (unsweetened if possible)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise down center; or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

1. Sterilize jars in boiling water for 15 minutes. Keep hot in canning pot.

2. Add apple slices, blueberries, apple cider (or juice), lemon juice, vanilla bean to a large pan. Use a spoon to push vanilla bean to bottom of pan so it will cook in the liquid. Bring the liquid to a boil over medium high heat, then cover and lower heat to low and simmer for about 45-60 minutes. Make sure you stir every 10 minutes or so, to watch for burning on the bottom. Use a potato masher to speed this up. Once all the apples are cooked and falling out of their peels, remove the vanilla bean and in batches, puree the applesauce. Return the applesauce to the pan and keep hot.

3. Remove jars from canning pot and slowly pour boiling water back into canning pot. Pour some boiling water in a small dish with the lids and rings. Add hot applesauce to the hot sterilized jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe rims clean with damp towel and place lid and ring on each jar. Tighten the rings finger right. Water process in canning pot for 15 minutes. Remove from canning pot and let rest on a folded towel for 12-24 hours.

I used some of my friend's applesauces and some other apples I had in my fridge.

I used organic apple juice in my applesauce.

Poured apple juice, lemon juice, blueberries and apples in a large pot. Start cooking on medium high heat.

Cut vanilla bean lengthways and had to pot.

Once boiling lower the heat to medium-low to low heat. Keep stirring every 10-15 minutes.

Once the apples are fully cooked. Remove from heat. Remove vanilla bean before pureeing.

Puree in batches.

Return hot applesauce to pot.

Ladle into sterilized jars.

Place lid and ring on each jar.

Place in canning basket and place in boiling water bath. Process for 15 minutes.

Super easy and healthy!

Canning, Canning and More Canning

Molly picking berries!

So these past two weekends have been full of strawberry picking and canning. Strawberry season came a little early this year in Washington, so we've been taking full advantage of it! There is a u-pick place in Arlington, WA, at Biringer Farms. Super fun place and family friendly. It's only $2.25 a pound, which is a great price considering these strawberries are about $10 for half a flat at the local grocery store. These strawberries are super sweet and ripe, so you have to eat them or can them within 24-48 hours after picking.

My sister and canning-partner-in-crime and I have been cleaning out all of our local Goodwills for canning jars. We love thrift store shopping and buying items that are unique and fun. Its also a smaller footprint on the environment to buy used and cheaper! Only $0.20 a jar and it doesn't matter what size. We plan on doing a lot of pickling, so we're going to need loads of large jars.

 Also, my husband and I have been super busy in the garden and so far we've planted a bing cherry, rainier cherry, puget apricot, fuji apple, and gala apple trees! We're super excited to have a bunch of fun fruit trees and we've also planted a few blueberry bushes. Next year we should have a ton of fresh fruit!

We've canned loads of strawberry jam, strawberry lavender jam and strawberry orange compote. Over 50 jars! We can't wait to can more jams and jellies.

Spring is in the air!

Sorry, I've been missing-in-action. My husband and I went to Southern California to attend a wedding and visit friends and family. My wonderful roommates watered my garden while I was away and I'm pleased to say that I some tiny sprouts coming up! So cool. I do have to report that the starter plants, that I planted in February, didn't survive the transplant. Boo. I think that they didn't get enough sun,while in the house. Thats ok, thats what Fred Meyer Garden Center is for.

I bought some starter tomato, jalapeno, green bell peppers and some herb starter plants and two weeks later, they are doing great. I've read that buying starter tomato plants is the way to go, so we'll how many tomatoes I'll end up with.

I've been planting carrots and lettuce two weeks apart, so I should have a continuous crop through the summer. I'll keep you all posted.

Tomato plants in containers.

Pea sprouts

Some starter marigolds and bell peppers

Garden bed #2

Little beet sprouts

Herb Garden

Jalapeno starter plant

Operation Garden Beds: Almost complete.

The days are growing longer, there aren't as many dark, depressing clouds hanging over; its like emerging from Gollum's cave. I love the Northwest, but I'm finished with it getting dark at 4pm.

We've been busy fixing up the house and now its time to spend some time outside. Our roommate is a carpenter and built us these amazing cedar gardening beds. We have two built right now for vegetables and herbs and he's working on building two smaller ones for berries. My husband has his heart set on raspberries and marionberries.

So we started by digging out all of the grass where the garden beds were going, since grass is a weed and we don't want it to grow up thru the beds. Also the ground here is very clay rich and we want to make sure there is proper drainage. Our roommate made the beds and we just placed them in the holes. We still have two holes in the backyard, for the berry beds, but it looks like we're digging graves right now. Our neighbors already think we're weirdos, so  what the heck. Here are some pics of our progress.

Beds all finished and ready for planting!

Lumber all cut and ready to be assembled. 

Garden bed No. 1

The backyard before we dug it all up.

Spring time! Starting my garden.

Spring has come early in Washington. The flowers are blooming, the days are getting warmer and longer. I love this time of the year. I've had small gardens on my balcony, in my Long Beach apartment, and now I'm so excited to have my own backyard to start a proper garden. This will be my first attempt at this, so no promises if it all works out, but I'm ready to get my hands dirty.

My husband is going to build raised garden beds in the next few weeks. I'm looking to have about three large beds and maybe we'll plant some apple trees as well. I want cherry and peach trees too, but those may have to wait till next year. A good fruit tree can cost about $30, so that adds up pretty quick.

One thing I started right away, was ordering a composter on Amazon. Since I'm part of an HOA, I can't have an open compost pit, which is understandable. The last thing I want, is to attract all kinds of wildlife, to an open pit of rotting food. I decided on a rotating, duel composter, because it had good reviews and wasn't too expensive. Also, it would be delivered to my front door, so if anything keeps me from running an errand, I'll do it.

Even though it feels like spring, there are still frost on the ground some mornings, so starting my seedlings inside is a good idea. I started seedlings for beefsteak tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, green bell peppers, jalapenos, rosemary, sage, thyme, lavender, and marigold flowers. I've already started seeing sprouts with my tomato plants! So excited. I love summer tomatoes.

Besides my seedlings, I also want to plant cucumbers, brussel sprouts, watermelon and cantaloupe, to name a few. Those will have to wait till the garden beds go in. So hopefully, I'll have lots of yummy fruits and veggies all summer long!

Tomato sprouts!

Area where the garden beds will go in. You can see my composter along the fence. 

Thrift Store Finds - Refinishing Furniture

So, as some as you know, I've been in love with Thrift Store shopping since my punk rock days in high school. It all started, while living in the Coachella Valley, with thrift stores like Angel View, The Salvation Army, and other church affiliated second hand stores. I had acquired quite a collection of Doc Martins, vintage t-shirts and plaid skirts. I would make $20 go a long way.

The love affair continued with moving to Long Beach, Calif. for college. Retro Row, on 4th Street, has an amazing selection of boutiques, thrift stores and vintage furniture stores. Some of these stores were a little out of my moderate budget, but I still enjoyed looking at everything. Always keeping a mental note, that if I won the lottery, I would know where to get all of my awesome furniture, to fill my multimillion dollar loft.  

Now living in the City of Everett, about 30 minutes outside of Seattle, I have once again dived into my thrifting habits. My husband and I have filled our two-bedroom apartment with thrift store and auction treasures. We recently moved into a 4-bedroom house and now we have the work-space to take on larger projects (raised garden beds, brewing beer, bothering the neighbors).

This week I hit up the local Goodwill in Lynnwood, WA and I was drawn to this amazing little black chair. It's in good shape and has an eye-catching look. The paint is super thick and icky, so I'm in the process of stripping it. My twin sister lent me her book on refinishing furniture, so I'm using it as a basic guide.

Its going to take more than one coat of paint stripper, but I'll hopefully have this beauty ready for sanding by next week. I'm going to be looking at cool fabric to reupholster the seat. This chair was $5, so if it doesn't work out, I'm not that invested in it.

I also bought two shelving-storage-things, which I can't really describe, but I plan on making it a buffet, for my dining room. I plan on having them end-to-end, with the shelves facing out. When I first saw this piece, it was placed as a corner storage unit, but I think it would be cooler as a buffet. I want to refinish it in milk paint, so I'm stripping this as well. 

I love having a garage. I feel so adult now. My Dad loves talking to me about these kind of DIY projects, so I call him often for advice, little tips and status updates. That man could talk about tools all day. My parents currently live in Palm Desert (near Palm Springs) and he doesn't take on these kinds of projects like he used to while living in Minnesota. Its okay, he has me to fill his crafting needs. 

I never thought I would be so excited about carpet...

So day, is an important day. Today, we're having new carpet installed on the second floor. Ha-za!

The old carpet wasn't the worst I've ever seen, but it was old, had paint and bleach stains and all together yucky. We're going to be putting some kind of bamboo flooring on the first floor, in a few months. It didn't make sense to replace all the flooring, if we were going to rip some of it out soon anyway. The good news is that Lowe's has this carpet in stock, so if we change our minds, we'll just put in carpet anyway. Originally, we were going to go with a carpet liquidators, to replace the carpet, because they could've had it in before we moved in. When we got a quote from Lowe's and saw that it would take longer, but would've saved us over a grand, we decided to wait.

So now the top floor has all new paint and carpet. I can finally set up my bedroom and stop sleeping on a mattress on the floor. I keep waking up to discover that I've rolled off the mattress. Makes for interesting dreams....

So now I can paint the DOWNSTAIRS. My career as a painter is not finished yet, unfortunately. Hopefully I can start creating some new posts on yummy new recipes and the like, but right now things are still crazy. This weekend is Valentine's Day, so I want to make something full of chocolate and sugar. Let me know what you guys are making/doing for fun ideas!

Boxes, boxes, and more boxes....

I've just started packing and I'm already tired of looking at boxes. I'm so excited to be moving into our new house at the end of the month. Some of my blogs maybe less than exciting this month, but after we get settled in our new house, I want to focus on gardening, baking, cooking, canning, and most importantly home brewing beer again. If there is anything you guys want me to blog about, I would love to get some feedback.

Our new house has a huge, ugly concrete patio. I'll probably get some large planters and maybe do some raised beds. If anyone has some experience with either planters or raised beds, let me know. I have some great books for reference, but some real-life experience would be great.

Also, we'll start home brewing with all-grain, instead of extract. Anyone who knows about brewing beer, will know what I'm talking about, but for those who don't: extract is like a beer syrup, which is used in simple home brewing and all-grain is the way professional brewers do. I hope we can also start kegging and stop bottling. Bottling is just a lot of work and cleaning.

Hope everyone is having a great day on this sunny Seattle Tuesday.