All I have made recently is dried celery leaves and applesauce. And both of those are so easy/self-explanatory that there's no need for a tutorial. Which is why I will now share with you a brief one for each. If you are already an expert, see you tomorrow! If not, read on.
Dried Celery Leaves
You can use these to flavor things in which you don't actually want to put any celery. When processing your celery into munchable sticks/chunks, instead of throwing away the leaves, cut them off. Spread them out on paper towels on a baking sheet. Set the oven to Warm and let it warm for 8 minutes. Turn off the heat and put the baking sheet inside. The temperature is too low to burn the paper towels. Every couple of hours, re-warm the oven until the leaves are dried and able to crumble. Put in jars (and probably you should label them). Mine only took about 2 hours.
Applesauce
Peel and core your apples. Using a mix of apple varieties always makes your sauce taste better. (And don't use Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, or Red Delicious. The first is not a good sauce flavor, the second is meant for eating, and the third tastes like Styrofoam.) Cutting them into smaller chunks can help the process go more evenly (like boiling potatoes for mashing). Place in a large pot and add just a little bit of water - a 1/4 cup or less. Apples are full of water that will be released when they start cooking, but this first bit will keep them from burning at the start. Set on the stove at medium to low heat. You can sprinkle cinnamon on top at any point and continue adding it to taste as they cook. Stir and mash occasionally. When fully mashed, do a taste test (caution: hot!) and add more cinnamon as needed. Remove from heat, let cool a bit, and then pour into containers to keep in the fridge for sooner or the freezer for later.
Both of these are lessons I've learned from my mom. Along with "Sometimes, the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap."
Love and Applesauce,
Leah Joy
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