A Bit of Apple Pie (filling)

Welcome to November 1...the first day of NaBloPoMo! I've been informed, by a friend much more educated and knowledgable than I, that NaBloPoMo is actually a rip off of the original "National Novel Writing Month". (NaNoWriMo??) Sorry, Ara- I think our blogging one sounds cooler. :-)

I am home...I had a good time in Seattle visiting my family, all things considered. We had the funeral, we saw the friends, and we ate at least three dozen cookies apiece at the open house afterwards. I spent the rest of my time hanging out with my two sisters (my twin, and my "baby sister" who is 10 years younger than me.) ( No, I won't tell you how old she is! Some of y'all think I'm mature and stuff...and if I told you when I graduated from high school, I'd lose all that street cred! Then again, maybe you think I'm a lot younger than I actually am? Oh, shoot...decisions decisions. Fine - Baby Sister turns 17 in a few days. Oh, and she's single, guys...and cute, too!)

Thank you for all your kind wishes and prayers during the past week. The funeral was beautiful, and it was lovely to see so much of my family all together. Thank you, especially, to the ladies who took care of Lo Gung and BBJ while I was gone. I don't know if they read this blog, but one lovely lady brought dinner, unannounced. Aunt SheShe extended an open invitation for dinner any night during my absence. Someone else took pity on my and my funny looking bread that I entered into our church bread baking contest, and let me share First Place honors with a friend. (Megan, if you're reading this, I'm bringing the certificate to you on Sunday. :-))

Now, for my first post!

While the apples are still plentiful, my friend and I decided we simply must make apple pie filling. We used Wonder Woman's MIL's recipe (Hi, Nana!) and went to work.

(That's BBJ and my friend's kids. Aren't they cute?!)

We used two of these handy little Apple Peelers and tore apart about 6 pounds of apples. (In the end, my friend decided she really didn't want 7 quarts of apple pie filling, so she just helped me can my apples and kept one jar to make a pie.)

The recipe is super simple...it's just apple pie filling...in a jar! It takes a while, because the syrup needs to simmer for about 20 minutes to get thick.

You pile the apples into jars and then pour the syrup over the top. (Isn't Kim's kitchen great?! I mean, seriously - who else do you know who has silk plants on the counter in the kitchen? Some day I'm going to kidnap her and make her redecorate my home.)

After taking a nice long bath (25 minutes) the jars are ready to be removed from the pot. I certainly hope everything is nice and sterile and preserved! We spent all morning making these funny looking jars. Good news, though - if they did work, we'll be the only girls with really fresh tasting apple pie this winter!

(Nana, if you're reading this - I'm not entirely sure who's recipe this is, but do you think they would mind if I put it up on the Chow Review??)