The Kitchen

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The Castle's surrounding apple trees have been providing a bountiful harvest for quite some
time now. Today I welcome you to the kitchen where all those luscious apples will be
transformed into delectible edibles for neighbors, friends, family, those in need and yes, even for you to enjoy.

Being of German descent, I learned early in life from my 2 grandmothers and mom that
cooking and baking were wonderful ways to express myself creatively. Besides, most
of the time what I helped make tasted pretty good.

Today I am preparing apples for apple butter.. apple cake..apple pie and apple jelly. Some of you by now might be saying, why bother..those things can be bought at the store. Sure, they can be, and sometimes I do buy them, but when God allowed me to acquire the talent to cook and bake and when he has so graciously supplied the produce to me, I feel it would be a shame to waste it. So I continue to peel, core, chop, and measure once more, preparing to bake another cake or pie or some other goodies.

As I escort you to the door, I hand you a delectible morsel and a recipe to take home in hopes that you will try this fun way of creating, and sharing with others in your own little niche of this world.

APPLE BUTTER RECIPE

Ingredients:

5# apples that have been cored and sliced leave the peelings on
2 cups of apple cider vinegar
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Place the above 2 ingredients in a large kettle and let cook on med. temperature until apples are soft using a food mill grinder extract the pulp and place it into a roaster pan...discarding the peeling waste .

Ingredients:
5 cups sugar
1tsp. allspice
1tsp. ground cloves
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
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Place the above ingredients into the roaster pan with the apple mixture and stir till mixed well
Place the roaster pan into a 300 degree oven ( no lid) and stir each hour for the next 4 hours.
Ladle the hot apple butter mixture into hot canning jars and then put lids and rings on jars and place into the canning kettle of boiling water for 10 minutes ( this is called a hot water bath)
Remove the jars carefully with canning tongs and place onto a bath towel and listen for the lids to make a pinging noise to know that they have sealed properly. Let cool and then store or enjoy on toast etc. right away.