Strawberry fig preserves

Tastes like strawberry jam but uses figs. Recipe from my neighbor who has a fig tree.

3 cups mashed figs
3 cups sugar
1 small box strawberry jello

Mix well all ingredients. Bring to simmer and keep simmering for 20 minutes. Pack in hot sterile jars and process in hot water bath.

Apple Butter

Making apple butter today. Combined my old favorite recipe with another and really enjoyed the results. May have to do with the fact I used gala apples instead of granny smith. Not sure. I'm writing down what I did because we want to remember it!


8 cups apple mixture
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 cup basalmic vinegar

Peel and core and chop up apples, approximately 6 pounds. (Yankee apple peeler/corer/cutter!) Simmer with 2 cups of water until soft. (Don't burn!) Put thru largest holes of a food mill, measure 8 cups. (Don't puree!)

Mix apples with sugars and spices. Simmer, stirring often until rounds up on a spoon. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath. Makes about 4 pints.

No pictures because my camera battery is dead and I can't find the rechargeable one. Tomorrow I hope to try cranapple butter. Yum.

Apple Butter Canning

Hee hee. Did you catch my corny joke in the title? :P

It is Apple season again and that means applesauce and apple butter in our house. I did try apple jelly this year which was interesting, but not my favorite. I don't think I will ever do it again. That would probably be a better topic for another post.

So my favorite Apple Butter recipe actually comes from a random Crockpot cookbook I got one year for Christmas from brother in law. The book can be found here: Slow Cooker Recipes.

I checked out the copyright in the front of the book and it says that I can't quote anything in the book without written permission so I can't write the recipe here. Boo.

But I googled the title and found it published somewhere else so here is a link to the recipe: Chunky Sweet Spiced Apple Butter.

Note - mine isn't chunky ever, at least in my opinion. But the flavor is awesome. We love it in our oatmeal for homemade apple cinnamon oatmeal.

The beauty of this recipe is how easy it is. Peel apples. Pile stuff in crockpot, leave for 8 hours on low and then mash up a little more before canning it.

I always double the recipe, I'm going to try quadrupling it next week, as the original recipe just makes enough to fill one regular mason jar. I use the larger jars because we use it so quickly and because they are cheaper.