Spiced Apple Pear Freezer Butter

In an effort to rid myself of use up apples, I made two batches of Spiced Apple Pear Freezer Butter this morning. I found the recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I love this book! Every recipe that I've tried so far has turned out delicious. It's such a leap of faith to commit several pounds of produce when you have no idea how the finished product will turn out.

The Spiced Apple Pear Freezer Butter is a favorite with my youngest. It's lighter and brighter than traditional apple butter, and the best part is, it took me less than an hour from start to finish per batch, six half-pints each.

Another 12 apples gone, about 40 more sitting on my counter, and I don't want to think about what's waiting on the trees. I don't have a food dehydrator, and although my oven has a drying setting, I don't have the appropriate racks for it. Anyone have an idea for making drying racks? Another "I can't find" - apple corer. I've tried three stores and can't find a single one. What's up with that? I could string apple slices, but need to core the apples somehow.


In other news, fall is here with misty, wet weather. I had a cord of firewood delivered today, and am getting the furnace checked soon. I'm going to try and not turn the heat on for as long as possible, but if it remains cool and wet, I'll wind up turning in on sooner than later, I suppose. Our wood stove heats most of the house, but takes a while to warm up. So it's great for in the afternoon and evening, but won't heat up the house in the morning. I put the flannel sheets on the bed, and it's hard to get up out of them, especially when it's still dark outside.

We had a coyote in the back yard one morning. It was after the mice, and I saw it pounce several times, but to no avail. What happened next was strange. It started going along the ridgeline, as they always do, but now it's blocked by the f***ing left neighbor's fence. So it started up the fenceline towards our house. Now I'm all for the critters staying in the right neighbor's pasture, or down by the woods, but up by the house is not good. So I opened the back door, yelled and clapped my hands. It took off down to the ridgeline and stopped. I guess I know how scarey I am now. About 50 yards scarey. So I let it be, keeping an eye on it. After about ten minutes it suddenly ran pell-mell to the neighbor's pasture, then back and forth along the line of the woods, sometimes chasing its tail, for five minutes, then suddenly dashed into the woods. I don't know if a flea really got it or what, but it was the strangest behavior I've ever seen.