Bushel Basket of Apples

I mentioned the surprises that my sister, Beth, brought with their visit, and the other one was a bushel basket of apples. My grandpa has a wonderful apple tree and this year the apples are so good! They are baking apples, but no worms and hardly any bad spots. I borrowed my neighbors Pampered Chef apple peeler/corer/slicer thing. (angels singing, AWESOME!) I decided that I want one! Let me know if you are having a PC party! So with my bushel, I made 16 cups of apple jelly, 10 cups of apple sauce, about 20 cups of sliced frozen apples for future use, two batches of dehydrated apple rings, and some apple pie pastries. Whew!

The apple jelly was a first and we really liked it! Not as good as Washington blackberry jam, but delicious nonetheless. But a fav treat for us was the dehydrated apple rings. They are crispy, like chips. They do take 15 hours to dehydrate so it takes a while for a small result. But for organic, all natural, no sugar added treat--they rock!

Below is the basket after I had made one batch of jelly. I like the picture too because you can see my Anniversary roses in the background.
Juice for jelly! Jelly was a little more time consuming, but you make the apple sauce and juice for the jelly at the same time. So you end with two complete projects at the same time.
The boys played and played and played while I worked with the apples. So I rewarded them with a favorite meal--Kraft Mac and Cheese and peas.

However, below is what they were playing with ever so contently. I didn't mind picking up the mess because they stayed out of my hair. That happens quite frequently in this household.