An Apple a Day

Yesterday was a grocery shopping day. You know I hate grocery shopping. I didn't murder anyone while I was there...always a lucky day for my fellow shoppers...but I'll admit there were a couple of times I nearly stepped over the line. The final straw was the gentleman who was using one of those riding carts who stopped, blocking the ramp off the sidewalk into the parking lot. He was admiring the flowers, but geez. Couldja back up a couple of feet and let others pass? There's canning to do back home, Mister! Oy boy. So, that happened. (No fellow shoppers were harmed during this grocery shopping excursion.)

It was past noon when I got home, later than I'd hoped, but I ate some lunch and took a 15-minute break off my feet before starting on the apple pie filling. My recipe listed the amount of apples by the number of cups cut, and I really didn't know how much that would take by weight. I weighed out 7 lbs. of apples and then went to work coring and peeling. I had the required 12 cups of apples when I'd only gone through about 2/3 of what I had. That was a nice surprise. The rest were returned to the bucket. Once they were cut and peeled, it was only about another hour and a half until I had 7 pints of apple pie filling.

Yum. Mae likes to put this in her oatmeal. I like to put it in pies. Mae's method is probably slightly healthier...or maybe it just takes a healthy dish and makes it unhealthy. But hey...an apple a day keeps the doctor away, right? Nobody said anything about no-sugar, and so I'm calling this health food.

There was still time left in the day, and it was tempting to do something else. Too bad I didn't have any clean jars. Yeah...really...so, so sad. Guess there was no more canning for me yesterday. Here's a picture of me feeling sad.

Sadie was sitting on the window sill looking intently at something outside. When I looked out, there, just beneath the window was this guy. He was all stretched out and resting there. Tired after a day of digging holes in the yard and stealing sunflower seeds from the birds, I imagine.

So...no canning for me today. Sue and I are going to the fair. She's coming here in a little while, and we'll take the back roads down to Salem. It's actually a pretty drive that way. I'm excited to see the quilts. So far, I haven't been brave enough (or motivated enough) to enter any canning. I keep thinking about it...maybe next year. For now, I'm just looking. Sue likes to see the pigs, and that leads us to sheep and rabbits and chickens. We enjoy it all. It's going to be on the coolish side, a welcome respite from a hot summer. It's feeling very much like fall right now, but I expect the heat will return before its gone for good.

If I get home in time, I might do another canning batch of something. Today I actually have clean jars. Either way, I'll be back at it tomorrow. On Saturday, a dump truck will be delivering a load of tomatoes, and then I'll be up to my eyeballs in pasta sauce.