The Best Apple Butter

Wonderful, gorgeous apples! The best part about living in Washington is those marvelouse Honey Crisp apples. They're so so good!
I ordered four boxes of different apples for canning. From that we got :
5 quarts of apple juice
6 jars of apple jelly
16 quarts of applesauce
16 jars of apple butta
12 jars of apple pie filling
+
2 bags frozen apple pie filling
2 fresh apple pies
8 carmel apples
lots of apples for eating fresh
and 1 happy Kelly! Oh! And I learned the best method for applesauce and butter. So good I had to share! Get your hands on a steamer juicer. I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow one from my friend Mischonne, the canning master and learned this from her(don't tell her I told you, she never lends it out!!). Cut the apples into quarters - leave the cores in for apple butter, cut them out for sauce then toss them into the juicer pot and steam/juice them. Instead of being watered down by boiling them they are steamed. I used the juice for jelly and... juice... then I was left with wonderful flavorful apple pulp that I put through my crank seive. It makes the most wonderful, thick, smooth applesauce! I even added more juice back into the applesauce because it was too thick fo me.
The apple butter was so good that I call it ~ apple butta~.

It's worthy to take to the state fair.

I just used a plain old recipe in my Ball preserving book, added lots more clove and cinnamon and used this fabulous juicing method. I made a second batch so I could give some out for Christmas.

Now I'm wondering if I can be generous enough to give them away!
If you can't use a juicer I think you could still accomplish this by simply steaming your apples. For sauce, just peel and core them first then mash or blend your steamed, softened pulp. For butta, don't peel or core them and hopefully you can use a seive of some kind to process your pulp. Use a basic recipe. I think I had a big potful of pulp and I added 6-7 cups of sugar, lots of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg and cooked it down until it was good and thick. Watch out - that part's messy! Apple splatter everywhere!
Soli was my kitchen companion through our apple canning fun. It took me a good week or two to get through it all - not sure, I got tired and lost count!

She's likes fabric, just like Mommy, and she loves to wrap up her stuffed animals and her baby in pieces from my fabric stash. She always tells me, "I need fabric." and has to grab more every time we go downstairs to do laundry (that's where the fabric shelf is).

She has a bib on here - that would be evidence of her being jealous of baby Katie... She started with kleenex, then moved up to the fabric.

She would lay it all out on the kitchen floor and meticulously spread and straighten over and over again, layer after layer of fabric.

Then she lays her baby of choice down and wraps her up...

Then, this is the best part, she picks up her baby, sits down with her and sings to her! She loves to sing "I am a Child of God" and knows it word for word. Oh be still my heart! I love these sweet toddler days!