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With Thanksgiving on the way, it is definitely time to be ready for pie season. By now, you know my love for pies and the love that goes into making them. We have posted a lot of pie recipes here. I gave you my Apple Pie Filling recipe on this post. I often make enough pie filling for just the number of pies that I am going to make. But, it is great to be able to can filling in advance and save myself some time when Thanksgiving actually arrives!
Lindsey was able to get a big box, or bushel of apples for a really good price. I split the cost with her and decided to make pie filling and also another easy beautiful way of canning apples with my half. Cinnamon Apple Rings! So, today, I am going to share both recipes with you.
When processing a large amount of apples, one of the greatest tools ever is the spiral cutting peeler/corer. Obviously, mine is old, as you can see. But, here are a couple of options.
This gadget makes it so much faster to peel and slice your apples. The slices come out in round rings, so for the pie filling application, I just slice the entire stack in half after it is spiralized, and throw the slices into the pot.
I like to make nice deep dish 9" pies, so I usually use 1 and 1/2 jars to fill a pie. So, 3 jars will make 2 pies. For an 8" pie, 1 jar is enough.
The 2nd thing I did with the apples is both beautiful and delicious. You use cinnamon red hot candies in the syrup to make cinnamon apple slices. When they are all finished, they look so beautiful in the jar!
I still use the apple spiralizer, but this time I only cut through one side of the stack of rings in order to have pretty rings in the jars. Here is how you make them!
Have I mentioned what a great feeling it is to can? Now I feel a little bit closer to being prepared for the holidays and it is such a great feeling to have this food in my pantry.
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Are you one of those people who hates crowds? Or likes to get their shopping done early? Today is your lucky day because Target is doing a ONE DAY ONLY SALE! Like an early Black Friday! SO I'm going to show you my favorite things from this sale. And don't forget Target is having FREE Shipping and returns until 12/23! This means you can do your shopping in PJ's and possibly none of the extra spending that usually happens when you physically walk into a Target store (it's not just me right?)!
For the Game Lover in Your Life
For the Clean Freak
I know some people would hate to get a vacuum as a gift, but I think we all know at least one person who would love it. Personally, I wouldn't mind. Today a Hoover WindTunnel 2 is on sale for $70, $30 off the original price! A really great price.
For the New Mom
So check out these and other early Black Friday deals available only today, Nov 6!
This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for any purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
We've all heard the story of John Montagu, the Earl of Sandwich, popularizing eating meat between 2 slices of bread and that meal taking on his name. The sandwich became very popular in England from that point on, but after the Revolutionary War, American cooks avoided making food that reminded people of their British forefathers, so the sandwich didn't really become popular again in America until the 1800s. (source)
Since that time so long ago, we have made up for lost time and statistics say that Americans eat over 300 million sandwiches a day! I guess that is why the sandwich gets a day all to itself! Today is National Sandwich Day and therefore, the subject of Friday Faves!
What is sandwiches do you think are the best?
Two of my kids work at competing, well known sandwich/soup/salad restaurants. That means that we get to try some of the newer creations out there on some of the tastiest breads! Choosing favorites can be difficult, but we came up with a few for you and some of our choices are easily made at home. Not only that, my husband even weighed in this week when he heard about our fave topic for the week!
His absolute favorite sandwich is the grilled cheeseburger! He loves the pickles, the onions, the melting cheese. As a matter of fact, not only does he consider the cheeseburger to be the best sandwich of all, it is his favorite meal over all! Of course home grilled burgers are the best because you can control the thickness of the patty, the amount of all of the other ingredients and so forth. I have to agree that a good, home grilled burger is hard to beat!
A couple of years ago my husband and I gave all of our sons-in-law panini makers for Christmas! This one from Sunbeam is a really great price and they work very well! We know this from experience! Shortly after that Christmas, Lindsey and her husband had us over for dinner. She made her own ciabatta bread and we had delicious sandwiches made in the panini maker! They had chicken, cheese (she offered a variety), spinach and pesto on them. We had strawberry-spinach salad on the side. It was all so delicious. The panini sandwich is now one of Lindsey's faves. I was so impressed with her ciabatta bread making skills. I think she should do a Renny's Recipes post about it!
Can I just say that I am getting really hungry talking about all of these sandwiches?
Alicia couldn't decide which is the best between two kinds of sandwiches. Her first choice was a good French Dip. I know the appeal of this sandwich, it is also a fave of mine! Alicia says, "I like French dips because they are so delicious. I love the flavor of the roast beef with the cheese. Then when you dip it in the au jus it’s so perfect." I couldn't agree more. One caveat is that the au jus has to be flavorful and not bland. When it is good, it makes the sandwich! The Pioneer Woman has a great recipe here!
Alicia's other choice is grilled cheese. She said,"I like grilled cheese because melted cheese is the best. And they are so good with tomato soup. And if you get just a little char on there the flavor works really well together. I mostly like to use white cheese for my grilled cheese. Monterey Jack or for a fancy one I would use gruyere." It seems so simple, and it is, just cheese on buttered on the outside bread, then toast it up until the cheese is melty. I use a small nonstick skillet. Of course, serving it with a creamy tomato soup in mandatory. Tomato-Basil is great with a Provolone Cheese sandwich.
Our resident vegan, Madalynn says, "I like veggie sandwiches. Any veggies are good but I like to have spinach, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and spicy mustard on mine. It’s a lot of good flavors and I like the crunch." I think she left one thing off of that list that I know she loves, pickles! When you have all of those good flavors and crunch on a sandwich, you don't really miss the meat. But, if you feel you still need a little meat, you can add a few slices of turkey a some cheese to round it all out.
Well, now it's my turn and I must say it is becoming impossible to choose the best sandwich with all of the good choices out there. Here are a few that I have had that I would love to try to make at home or just make again.
Finally, when it comes right down to it, there is one sandwich that I just crave sometimes, along with a tall glass of milk, and that is a nice Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. It has to have a nice thick layer of peanut butter, (I like creamy) and a good amount of my homemade strawberry jam. (click the link to learn how to make it.) Now that is real comfort food. When I was a kid, I didn't like the crusts, but now they make those store bought kind without crust. Meh! Who needs to spend money on that when you can make these sandwiches more deliciously yourself. If you want to cut off the crust and seal the sandwich at the same time, you can even buy the gadget that does that here or here. Now that I am an adult, I love the crust, but I think one of those gadgets would be great for my grandkids!
So, there you go! Some of our favorite sandwiches and how to put them together. What are your faves? Do you like creamy or crunchy peanut butter? Whatever you enjoy, eat it today in honor of National Sandwich day!
Did you know that the first Thursday in November is Men Make Dinner Day? Well, it is, and today would be that day!
So, I want to publicly express my gratitude for my amazing husband who makes me food on the regular. Since becoming pregnant I really have not been doing my fair share of the work around the house. I've gotten better, but especially in the beginning of my pregnancy, if PH didn't make dinner, nobody made dinner. If PH didn't do the dishes, nobody did the dishes, if PH didn't do the laundry, take out the trash, pick up clutter, vacuum, sweep, dust, mop, mow the lawn, clean the pool, do any other household chore, it did not get done. I am a firm believer that whatever the size of your household everyone needs to share the load. I just stopped doing my part and my husband was doing the work for two. He has never once complained about my lack of helping. He has never once made any kind of comment about being the only one getting anything done around the house. When we painted the nursery he had to get up into the hard to reach places and he ended up hurting himself, and still no complaining on his part. He is a real trooper and I love him so much. He is also a great cook! So, here is a list of some of the things he has made for me.
Remember my Halloween party appetizers? PH made the chicken wings! I'm thinking it's time to start cooking up some tasty side dishes for Thanksgiving and I am certain that he has some great ideas up his creative sleeve!
Then there was the time that PH went all out and sort of became a guest blogger (although I wrote the post, but he made the whole meal and made the table look awesome for my picture taking). He made this awesome grilled rasperry chipotle pork! I think some people stop grilling in the fall winter because it's so cold, but if you live in the heat of Arizona like we do, the fall is an awesome time to grill! You don't have to worry about dying of heat exhaustion while grilling! My birthday party was this past Sunday and PH made one of my favorite dishes. Stuffed shells! According to my sister in law Jessica and her mother Stuffed Shells are not a real Italian dish. I'll have to believe them since they are Italian, but I still think it's delicious! PH found out that growing up my mom would make stuff shells for me on my birthday as my birthday dinner and he had never had them. So he tried his hand at them and he loves them too! (What is there not to love about pasta, tomato sauce, and cheese?) Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of them because we ate them too quickly. Family came over and helped us out so they were gone really fast! I promise you though, if you want an easy tasty, Americanized Italian meal, stuffed shells is the way to go! |
Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
April 2024
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