Apple Butter - the Essence of Fall

So, almost three weeks have passed since I canned the pickles. I know you're supposed to let them sit for like 2 months, but I figured I was safe testing the pickle chips. I took them over to a friend's house so we could share in my triumph (or failure!). Luckily, they tasted amazingly delicious! While they weren't crunchy, the flavor was great. Whew! That recipe is a keeper.

Yesterday I made apple butter with the three varieties of apples I collected. Making the apple butter brought back so many memories! The last time I made apple butter was when I was 16 or 17 and we lived in our dream house (rental)- a large ranch with green, red, and cream plaid carpet with matching couches (yeah, for real!), a full finished basement, a Hoosier in the kitchen, a wood burning stove, a town with amazingly delicious tap water, a huge backyard next to the baseball diamond and three apple trees. Man, I loved that house. The apple trees were a huge bonus. I made soooo much apple butter, but those jars didn't last very long. We polished off a jar a day, literally.

Over the years and with a very particular idea of what it should taste like, I became an apple butter snob. Apple butter just needs to be a certain way. It shouldn't be too thick, but not runny either - a happy medium. It needs a creamy texture, a beautiful deep golden brown color, and when it hits your tongue, your mouth is enveloped in a warmth of spices even if it's refrigerator cold.

My favorite way to eat apple butter is on peanut butter toast with just the right ratio of each type of butter. For those of you unfortunates that have never heard of or tasted apple butter you need to try it. Unlike the name suggests, it doesn't have butter in it at all - hooray for fat free! Apple butter is more like a condensed apple sauce with sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. It is so divine and I think it's the perfect way to preserve that apple harvest! Apple butter locks in those sweet, heady apple scents and when you taste it, it's like taking a bite out of autumn. I hope you take the opportunity to try it. Breathe in the scent... Aaaaah. This is where it's at, folks. The simple things that make life so delicious.

For the recipe, see my cooking blog HERE.