Showing posts with label apples. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apples. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Advent Day 2 - The Fall - Genesis 3

To get you in the mood for day 2, I'd like to play you one of my favorite songs, The Fall by Gungor.


I love the words in this song:

"The fall, the fall, oh God the fall of man
The fruit is found in every eye and every hand
Nothing there is nothing yet in truest form
We walk like ghosts upon the earth
The ground it groans

How long, how long will you wait
How long, how long till you save us all, save us all

Turn your face to me..."


This is the low point of the story...but stick with me. It gets better. MUCH better.

All is Grace, 
Carie

Day 2  -  The Fall  -  Genesis 3

The Message (MSG)

The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”
2-3 The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die.’”
4-5 The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.”
When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.
Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on”—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.
When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God.
God called to the Man: “Where are you?”
10 He said, “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid.”
11 God said, “Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?”
12 The Man said, “The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it.”
God said to the Woman, “What is this that you’ve done?”
13 “The serpent seduced me,” she said, “and I ate.”
14-15 God told the serpent:
“Because you’ve done this, you’re cursed,
    cursed beyond all cattle and wild animals,
Cursed to slink on your belly
    and eat dirt all your life.
I’m declaring war between you and the Woman,
    between your offspring and hers.
He’ll wound your head,
    you’ll wound his heel.”
16 He told the Woman:
“I’ll multiply your pains in childbirth;
    you’ll give birth to your babies in pain.
You’ll want to please your husband,
    but he’ll lord it over you.”
17-19 He told the Man:
“Because you listened to your wife
    and ate from the tree
That I commanded you not to eat from,
    ‘Don’t eat from this tree,’
The very ground is cursed because of you;
    getting food from the ground
Will be as painful as having babies is for your wife;
    you’ll be working in pain all your life long.
The ground will sprout thorns and weeds,
    you’ll get your food the hard way,
Planting and tilling and harvesting,
    sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk,
Until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried;
    you started out as dirt, you’ll end up dirt.”
20 The Man, known as Adam, named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.
21 God made leather clothing for Adam and his wife and dressed them.
22 God said, “The Man has become like one of us, capable of knowing everything, ranging from good to evil. What if he now should reach out and take fruit from the Tree-of-Life and eat, and live forever? Never—this cannot happen!”
23-24 So God expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they’d been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life.


Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Easy Crockpot Apple Butter




One of my favorite things to do in the fall is to take a day trip down the valley to a couple quaint apple orchards. My mom has been making apple sauce and apple butter every fall for as long as I can remember and I've always relished the memories - and especially heavenly smells - this tradition brings me.

The last couple years we have taken my kids too. And although Sassy got bored on the way there and kept requesting to play Lego Junior on my phone, I bravely held out. I mean, I didn't get technology on short road trips, why should she? I'm hoping she'll develop a grasp for imagination and the ability to love staring at the changing scenery as it flows by. One can dream...

The first farm we usually go to was unexpectedly closed, but thankfully my mom remembered a smaller one that was close by. It was open and currently staffed by the cutest-feistiest-little ol' couple you ever did see and their polite friendly grandson. They let us sample all the apples, their cider and raw honey. We left with three cases of apples, three gallons of fresh cider and tummies full of fruit.

Bubba, ever the goof.

"Me thinks I may have overestimated the size my mouth."

Our view from the car. Not half bad.


Even though I love apple sauce, I love apple butter even more...So other than sheets of apple crisp, I used most my apples for this purpose. The nice lady at the orchard recommending making the butter in a crockpot, and so after searching for recipes on line, I mixed a few together and have been really happy about the result. Now I just need to make some bran muffins to spread it on...



EASY CROCKPOT APPLE BUTTER



  • Apples  (Enough peeled, cored and sliced to fill your crockpot to heaping. They will cook down considerably)
  • 1 cup granulated Sugar
  • 1 cup Brown Sugar
  • 1 Tbs Cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp Cloves
  • 1/4 tsp Salt
  • 1 Tbs Vanilla extract
  • 2 tsp Lemon juice
Yields: Anywhere from 4 to 10 pints depending on apple used and size of crockpot.


INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Peel, core and slice apples. Add to crockpot until full. Don't worry about leaving too much room for the sugars, they should filter through the cracks.
  2. Mix sugars and spices.
  3. Spread over top the apples.
  4. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. 
  5. After a couple hours, stir to evenly coat apples with spice mixture.
  6. Check around the 8 hour mark. Depending on the apple you used, adjust the time. If the apples were softer like my Macs, you should be able to use an immersion blender at this point. If they are still too firm to blend, then cook an additional hour or two.
  7. Taste for sweetness. If too sour, add an additional 1/2 cup of granulated and brown sugar, or to taste.
  8. Stir in the vanilla and lemon juice.
  9. Allow to simmer with the lid off for an additional 1 to 2 hours, or until the sauce has reduced to your desired consistency.
  10. Spoon into canning jars and freeze with lids off, leaving room for expansion. 
  11. Enjoy on baked goods, graham crackers or out of the jar!

If you have a corer-peeler, I highly recommend it. However, if you are using a softer apple, such as a MacIntosh, it may be easier to peel by hand, then use it to core and slice. As I peeled the apples, I piled them into the crockpot so I could get a rough guess on how many I needed.

Make sure your lid will still fit.


After several hours on low, stir to coat.

After pureeing, check for sweetness, adjust accordingly, then add the vanilla and lemon juice. Simmer until reduced to taste.
Spoon into freezer safe jars.


Lil' Peach was super excited about the huge box of apples, and I was excited at how busy they were keeping her, until I realized she was methodically eating her way through the box...
So I faked her out and gave her a box of lego "apples" instead. This is probably the only second the ruse actually worked. Let's just say, nap time soon followed.

So there you have it! It's super easy, and if you have little helpers who can handle a peeler, I say a little child labor never hurt anyone. It will cut your actual prep time down a ton. I hope you are enjoying this beautiful fall as much as I am! 

All is Grace,
Carie