Welcome back friends! I just heard on the news the possibility of our first frost this weekend, bring in your plants. Fall is all around us, including in our share boxes this week, take a look at share box #18:
- 1 bag spinach
- 1 bag of leafy greens
- 1 Cinderella pumpkin
- 2 acorn squash
- 3 leeks
- 3 eggplant
- 4 onions
- 1 bunch lacinato kale
- 3 green peppers
- 1 box Brussels sprouts
- 1 spaghetti squash
- apples
- 1 box of cranberries
- apples
- 6 green peppers
- 3 leeks
- 1 bag of wax beans
- 1 bag of spinach
- 1 bag of leafy greens
- 3 acorn squash
- 1 bunch of Swiss chard
- 1 box of Brussels sprouts
- 1 bunch kale
- 1 bunch Swiss chard
- 1 bunch collard greens
- 8 honey crisp apples
I mentioned in the honorable mentions post a fabulous slow cooker recipe, chai spiced apple butter. This stuff is beyond good. You can slather it on just about anything. We had breakfast for dinner tonight I couldn’t stop spreading it on my pancakes. Here is how you too can enjoy this apple butter:
Peel, core, and slice about 5 pounds of apples, it worked out to be about 20 small to medium sized apples.
Put them into your crockpot with 2/3 cup of brown sugar and 1 Tablespoon of vanilla.
To that, add 2 teaspoons each of cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric, and coriander. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Give that a mix and set your crockpot on high for five to six hours, until the apples have broken down.
Stir it well and press the large apple chunks until it is the consistency you like. You will notice this is more like apple sauce at this point, much too much liquid to be an apple butter. So, set the lid of your crockpot off to the side so that moisture can evaporate, cook like this for another 1-2 hours until it reaches the consistency of apple butter. In other words, until it’s spreadable.
At this point you can leave it a little chunky (which I enjoy), or you can purée it for a smoother finish. This apple butter will leave your house smelling amazing due to the last two hours of cooking with the lid partially off.
This week I am planning on adding this into a homemade ice cream, I can’t wait! Enjoy!