Christmas Apple Butter

So I know this is a bit late, but did you have any idea that you can make apple butter in the crock pot? 

I had no clue until I was looking into making apple butter for home made Christmas gifts! 

Turns out it is super easy, it just takes forever. I'm sure you can use whatever recipe you want, and I found out my mom had nana's "secret" recipe which does have a surprising secret ingredient... shhh I can't tell!

Anyway, I did just a half batch at first to see if it would work and if it would actually taste like Nana's. I was a little surprised, but it actually tasted right!

So how do you do it?

1. Prep everything and throw it in the crockpot in the morning.
2. Set it on low for 8 hours and leave it alone. Dear husband (DH) said it made the house "smell like Christmas." Gotta love that!
3. Mash with a potato masher or immersion blender. You still want a few small chunks in there, don't make it too soupy with the hand blender like I did the first time.
4. Leave the lid off, and let it continue to cook on slow for 5-6 hours to thicken it up. You can help speed this up by thickening on the stove, but just make sure not to burn it. 

5. Package and enjoy! You can freeze, refrigerate, or can it in jars. I canned it so I could gift it for Christmas.


We gifted a jar to each of our family members, our close friends, and as host/hostess gifts for the holiday parties we were invited to.

It was great to just have a bunch of these on hand for the holidays, ready to gift if a situation came up!

Fixing the Fireplace and First Place Finishes

It's that time of the year when you want to cuddle down in front of a toasty fire with a warm mug of cocoa. Mmmm.

But first things first. Fires can always be dangerous, and I strongly urge you to get your chimney cleaned and inspected if you can't remember when it was last done. It usually only costs $80-$100 if there aren't any complications or repairs. That is much less expensive than having your house burn down!

The first company we hired I wasn't terribly impressed with, but they did say we could convert our crumbly, broken fake logs to a real wood burning fireplace if we just switch out the gas burner.

In this instance I am much happier being safe than sorry, so I willingly hired another company for my own peace of mind. The second set of guys were much better (actually inspecting the chimney with a camera) and confirmed that we could burn wood.

He also said "If your husband is handy, he can install the new burner himself." I informed him that I was actually the handy one in these types of projects. *sigh* Gender stereotypes: still happening everyday.

The existing gas line was a pan of sorts (see above), that had large flames come out the pipe and extending through the fake logs. The new one has more focused flames that you only light to start the real logs aflame, then turn off once the wood is burning on it's own.

Disclaimer: Do NOT do this on your own if you are not completely comfortable and thoroughly understand what you are doing.

I did my research and took all appropriate precautions. Thankfully Mom was there to help me because the toughest part was trying to get the old pan out!

The existing pipe actually had the wrong type of sealing tape (white is used for water lines) so I bought some yellow which is specifically for gas lines. This is wrapped on any threaded connections.

 The actual assembly went pretty smooth after that.

We made sure to check all the gas seals with soapy water. When turning on the gas, if there was a leak it would have created bubbles with the soapy water. Then we would have had to shut the gas off right away and tighten the connection.

The instructions say to make sure the flames are pointing down and toward the back. This prevents ash from falling in the holes, or the gas blowing hot ash out toward you.

Eva wanted to help out too and offered encouragement even though my hands were all dirty.

She may be great at supporting DIY projects, but she also did great a few weekends ago when we competed in another Rally Obedience trial.

We participated in two trials, and she took first place in both! (It helps that she was the only dog in her class, so as long as we qualified, we got first.)

 She also moved up a class level, which is the middle ribbon. We moved from level 1 (beginner on-leash) to level 2 (intermediate off-leash.)

She wasn't too thrilled to have to sit and "stay" when there were interesting ribbons to smell and inspect.

Christmas 2015

We have been having a wonderful Christmas, and festivities are scheduled to continue through to the New Year. The best part of it is taking time off to spend with family and friends.

One of our gifts was a huge hit: a wookie pajama suit for BroP!
Believe it or not, he had a Chewbacca t-shirt on before he even opened the gift. He hammed it up and sported it for most of the night, certainly giving us a Christmas to remember.

We also got to spend a bunch of time with our sweet NieceM. This was her first Christmas and you could tell she was in aww of this magical time of year. (Amazing photo courtesy of BroJ.)









Even Eva got in the spirit with her Christmas outfit. There was a lot happening, and she didn't appreciate being distracted for pictures.

Christmas Eve also happens to be MomB's birthday! While it is great to all be together every year to celebrate, I always feel a bit bad that it gets overshadowed by Christmas festivities.
I usually make or help make a cake, but this year I wanted to try something a little more special.




I think it took me three hours, and about half the dishes in the cupboards, but I made a Yule Log cake (a.k.a. Buche de Noel). It is actual an old European tradition you can read more about.

This is the Yule Log Cake recipe I used, but I added a chocolate ganache frosting.

The cake doesn't have any flour or leavening ingredients (stuff to make it rise like baking soda, baking powder, or yeast.) Instead it relies on eggs whipped into a stiff meringue and folded into the batter.  This is much more technical than most of the recipes I attempt, but it is a special occasion. It's not difficult but does take a lot of focus, time, and attention.
Overall it actually turned out much better than I expected. It even kind of looks like a log!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

Christmas Prep

The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas always seem to be a scramble.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get much of a head start since Dear Husband (DH) came down with the flu just a week after he got his flu shot. It takes about two weeks for your body to build up the antibodies after getting the shot, so he wasn't quite protected from the flu when he came in contact with it.
Thankfully I had gotten my shot a few weeks before DH so I was safe from the flu, but as soon as he got better I came down with a viral infection. Lovely.

Even with a lingering cough, I rallied enough to help decorate for the holiday. Of course Eva helped, as always. Here she was, helping make giant origami Christmas decorations. I really should have taken a picture of them since they were so cool, but here is a link to show you how we did them.

Then she had to inspect our mini Christmas tree... It is real, but I think with the stand and the angel it is maybe 4 feet tall. It is so worth it for the fresh pine smell. (We need one that fits in the trunk of our Honda Civic.)

Thankfully she can't reach the mantle to inspect the "Father Christmas" collection ornaments. This was the last series of ornament that my Nana was sending me when she passed. The series is still going and I make sure to pick up the new one every year.















I was cooking up some home made Christmas presents when DH caught me sneaking some treats to Eva and her boyfriend, Aiden. Hey, apples are a healthy treat!

Best Christmas gift so far? We had an extra vacation day, and DH suggested we take a Friday off to go shopping for gifts. A whole day date with a stop at the Chocolate Cafe? Perfect.

Eva Turns 3!

 I can't believe our baby girl just turned three!
It seems like just yesterday we brought her home all paws, gangly legs, and wiggly butt.

We have learned so much and had so much fun: puppy classes, catching rabbits and other critters, Rally-O classes and even a Rally-O competition with a win!

I can't imagine having any other companion to complete our little family. She is just perfect for us even when she does get into trouble or roll in heaven knows what!

Such a great snuggler.

For Halloween she did really well with the doorbell always going off... I found out that giving her a favorite rawhide every time minimized barking and gave her something to focus on.
(She wore her "Prisoner" costume again this year... too cute!)

In preparation for the impending cold, we got the fireplace and chimney cleaned. We had the ugly, fake, (broken) logs with gas flames coming through. The chimney sweeps told us we could actually convert it to a wood-burning fireplace!
I know a lot of people like/want gas, but we will still have the gas line for ignition, and I just love the smell of a real wood fire. Plus this way we will have a heat source if the gas ever goes out.  We only light a few fires a year and are young and can buy just a bit of fire wood.
And the gas line will still be plumbed, so future owners can re-install a gas insert.

As Halloween has passed, I like to give Fall/Thanksgiving to most face-time as possible before we get inundated with everything Christmas. So I threw this mantle decoration together using what I had around the house. I still need to add some squash/gourds for a bit more "harvest" feel.

Want to know a trick? See that twine wrapped around the candles? They were too boring by themselves, so I took some strings from the burlap fraying edges to use as a wrap! Not too bad for less than a half hour for the whole thing.