You MUSY Try this: Crock Pot Apple Butter

This Season's Discovery: Crock Pot Apple Butter

It Montana apple season, and they're coming in droves!

I have fond memories from being 7 or 8 years old and going to an apple orchard. It must have been in Nebraska, where we were living at the time, and I remember cider, hay rides, and all around fall fun. Maybe that's why when we had the chance to buy a house with three mature apple trees, we jumped on it.

Apple can seem so blah when all you eat or buy are the red apples from Wal-Mart and they are the same, bland fruit over and over. We are so fortunate in Montana to have great apple weather and tons of varietals of apple. This week in our CSA box we received several bags of beautiful pinkish apples, sweet but crisp. We've eaten plenty raw, but with the extras today I am making the easiest and most delicious and easily storable item, APPLE BUTTER!

My grandmother's made this beautiful concoction, but this year is the first I have ever tried it. It amazingly simple, totally cannable, freezable, and store in the fridgeable, and I have some in my crock pot right now! We eat it on bread, in yogurt, on pancakes, or by the spoonful for a treat. Try it, its easy.

You'll need:

A crock pot (our is medium sized, not large and it works fine)

A sharp knife

A vegetable peeler

1 Cup Sweetener (sugar, honey, Steevia, what have you)

2 Tablespoons Cinnamon

2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar

Apples (any variety, about a dozen medium sized for us)

Here's How:

Peel your apples and cut them into quarters. Don't use the core. 

Put them all in the crock pot while it is still off. 

Add your sweetener, vinegar, and cinnamon. 

Put the lid on and turn your crock pot on high for the first hour. 

Turn it back to low and allow it to go ALL DAY, eight hours or more. 

For the last hour take the lid off, turn it to high and let it bubble with the lid off. Occasionally give the contents a stir throughout the day but no need to babysit it. 

When finished, it is molten hot. Your can store it in canning jars in the fridge, but allow it to cool overnight before you put the lid on and put it in the fridge. You can also can it, but I have not attempted this yet. 

Bulbous Purple Nightshade Tale

Eggplant Parmesan ala Busy Mom

Many varieties, many uses :)

This week in our CSA box, we snagged two purple beauties, and the first thing that came to my mind with eggplants was Parmesan!I was hoping it would be more fall like this week but today was more smokey than anything. I still wanted this cheesy goodness so baked it even thought the weather wasn't perfect for it.

Eggplants, when cooked wrong, are chewy and can turn you off of dinner quickly. I perused the internet and found a few ideas to create the following dish delish! I used my own canned tomato sauce for this recipe, but I'm sure you can use store bought just as well. The home canned sauce was amazing though, and organic and cheap because I made it!

And it wasn't all that hard!

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Ingredients: * means its local

2 medium eggplants *

3 eggs *

1 sleeve saltine crackers

1/2 cup flour *

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp dried oregano *

1 tablespoon salt

3 tbl olive oil

2 pints spaghetti sauce *

3 cups shredded cheese (we used Parmesan, cheddar, and Monterrey jack) *

Slice your eggplants into 1/2 inch rounds, put them in a colander and rub with salt, allow them to sit for an hour if you have the time, 30 minutes if you need less.

In a small bowl, whip your eggs with a fork until thoroughly combined. In another medium bowl, crush your crackers and mix them with the flour, garlic salt, and oregano.

Blot your eggplants on paper towels. Heat a pan to medium high heat with your oil in it until the oil shimmers. Batter your eggplant pieces in egg first, then flour mixture, then egg again, then flour mixture again. Saute them in the oil for 6-8 minutes a side, until golden brown but also allowing the middle to soften and the batter to crisp.

Fry your eggplants in batches until done and set them aside.

In a baking dish (I used an 8X8) pour a pint of sauce on the bottom. Then add a layer of fried eggplants and then 1/2 of your cheese mixture. Add another layer of eggplant, another pint of spghetti sauce and the rest of your cheese.

Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes or so, and when you remove them, let them sit for ten minutes before serving. They were crunchy, cheesy, saucy and awesome!

Like a Nerd on Date Night, Fumbling through Chile Rellenos

Peppers, Peppers, Peppers, Cheese and Spice!

Hellooooo handsome!

This week our delightful CSA sent us bell and poblano peppers, the likes of which were shiny, firm, beautiful and fabulous. I held them in my hands and thought about the delicious possibilities. Peppers contain high amounts of vitamins C and A, and when I have the chance to make a filling dish based on veg and not meat, I will take it! From these thoughts, I started to fumble through chile rellenos, a Mexican version of stuffed peppers, and here's what I ended up with:

Ingredients: * Mean its local

6 peppers (any kind, I used poblano and bell) *

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup bread crumbs (panko have a good crunch but any are fine)

1 cup shredded cheese (we used raw milk cheddar, half for the filling, half for the topping) *

3/4 cup fresh cilantro, torn or chopped *

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 diced garlic cloves *

1 cup milk *

4 eggs *

1/2 cup flour *

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 slicing tomato *

 

 

STEP 1:

You'll need 6 peppers of your choice, I used 3 poblano and 3 bell because I was not sure how spicy the spicy peppers would be in the end (mild heat, by the way.)

Rub the peppers in olive oil and put them on a baking sheet under your oven broiler. Turn it to high and let them roast and blacken their skins for about 4 minutes before turning them with tongs to blacken the next side.

After each side is pretty black and charred, but not smoking or on fire, take them off your baking sheet, put them in a lidded rubbermaid container or ziploc bag, and seal them in for a good ten minutes while they cook down and the skins loosen up.

After ten minutes run some cold water from the tap, rinse off the peppers and peel off the skin. Set your peppers aside.

STEP 2:

Prepare your stuffing! I used 1 cup of bread crumbs, 1/2 cup shredded raw cheddar cheese, tear up about 1/4 cup of cilantro and mix it in with 1/2 teaspoon cumin and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Add in 2 diced garlic cloves and stir it all together.

STEP 3:

Ready your batter! In a food processor, with a stick blender, or even with just a fork, mix together 1 cup milk, 4 eggs, 1/2 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder and a pinch of salt.

Step 4:

Stuff your peppers! Set aside your choice of cheese in six large chunks, cheddar, Monterrey jack, your choice, for ease I used mozzarella (its what I had!) Oil a baking dish and set your peppers inside of it. Put a generous spoonful of stuffing and piece of cheese inside each pepper (they will fall apart a bit, no one will care!) One they are all stuffed, pour the batter on top of them, slice up a tomato and layer it on top of the batter, tear up about 1/2 cup of cilantro and drop it on top of the tomatoes and sprinkle more cheese, your choice on top of that.

STEP 5: Bake! For 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

We ate our covered in salsa and sour cream and they were awesome!

Gringa Green Tomatillo Enchiladas

Trying Something New with Montaxican

I tried these for the first time yesterday, and it was delightful!

Continuing my exploration into new things, this week I received a bag of tomatillos from our CSA. These little green guys look like baby tomatoes but are in fact relatives of the gooseberry. I scoured the internet for ideas, my cookbooks not offering much inspiration. After combing a few sights I decided to experiment in roasting my own green enchilada sauce using these instead of green chiles.

I took inspiration from the tomato sauce I make and for the first time ever, canned last week. I used the lovely green sauce in some enchiladas that I put in our oven on a timer so we could go to Saturday night mass and come home to a fully cooked, delicious meal.

Here's what I tried out:

Gringa Green Enchiladas

Ingredients: * means its local

1 pound tomatillos *

1/2 walla walla onion *

1 jalepeno pepper *

1 bulb garlic *
2 chicken bullion cubes
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon black pepper
 1 tablespoon olive oil

8 eight inch corn tortillas *
1 pound pork sausage *
1/2 cup cooked corn kernals *

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese *
1 slicing tomato *

In an oven safe dish, put your skinned tomatillos, chopped onion, diced pepper, crushed garlic, bullion cubes, cumin, coriander, black pepper and olive oil. Mix it with your hands and then put it in the oven at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes while it roasts and mixes its flavors.

While your sauce roasts, cook your ground pork sausage in a large skillet until done, and then add the corn when it is almost finished.

When your tomatillos are done roasting, remove from the oven, allow it to sit until its done bubbling and then pop in in your food processor or blender and pulse until creamy and smooth.

In another oven safe dish, fill your tortillas with your pork mixture and a bit of cheese. Roll the tortillas shut and place them seam side down. Fill all your tortillas and when done, cover with your gringa green sauce, then slices of your tomato, then your shredded cheese.

Bake uncovered for 35 minutes at 375 degrees. Allow to cook a few minutes, and then enjoy!