Apple Pie Jam

This jam is awesome! I make this from the apples off of our tree in the fall. The jam tastes like an apple pie in a jar. It is delicous on toast, delightful on ice cream and to die for as part of your glaze on an easter ham.

Enjoy the recipe! It is best made with fresh apples from a fruit stand. Stick to the apples that are good for baking. Golden delicious and Brauban apples are wonderful in this jam.

Apple Pie Jam

About 8-10 fresh apples
2 Tablespoons real lemon juice (no bottled juice!)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 box pectin
4 Cups white sugar
1 Cup packed brown sugar

Peel, chop and finely dice the apples. There should 4 cups of apples. Pack the diced apples into a 4 cup measuring cup. Add water to the apples to fill space between the apples and fill to the 4 cup line on the measuring cup.

Put the apples, the water, fresh lemon juice into a large pan. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the pectin and stir. Bring the mixture to a full boil. When you can no longer stir down the boiling apple mixture, add the white and brown sugars. Stir continuously and return to a full boil that you can no longer stir down. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and skim off any foam.

Ladle into hot, clean jars leaving 1/4″ headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars with a paper towel and cover with a lid and ring.

Process in boiling water for 10 minutes.

Apple Pie Princess

Little N made her first pie!

She rolled out the crust using the scraps from the larger pie we made for the fourth of July dinner. She managed to roll out the crust, and place it into the mini-heart-shaped cake pan. She filled the crust with apples and then rolled the top crust, all by herself. She managed to place the crust neatly on top of the mini-pie. She needed a little help sealing the two together and crimping the edges with a fork, but she got the hang of that very fast.

I will say she handled the hard part of rolling the crust and putting the pie together very well!

Big N's recipe

Big N's kindergarten class put together a recipe book full of their favorite recipes for Thanksgiving. I was very proud of Big N for selecting Apple Pie as his favorite.

He really liked being able to pick the apples for his pie. An acquaintance cut this out of the local paper for us.

Apple Blossoms

Our trees are blooming... They are beautiful and a reminder how fast the winter has flown by. The days are getting warmer and longer. We are once again able to enjoy the lingering sunshine on the back porch after dinner.

About two weeks ago, on one such evening, the kids were playing on the slide and I noticed the blossoms. The light had a pink cast to it, warming up everything in view. I immediately ran inside to find my close-up set and my favorite lens (85 mm). I think taking photos was in the back of my mind after talking with Mica when I recently ran into her.

This summer, I promise to not let the months fly by so fast. I need to take more photos. I need to do that for myself as much as for the kids. I am horribly out of practice, making mistakes that I notice on the screen and would have noticed through the lens in the past.

Apples from our tree

It is really cold at night now and we had not picked the apples from our tree. Big N helped Pete finish that today. The puppies even helped, but they have been stealing the low hanging apples for weeks now.



We were surprised with the amount of apples off of the little tree!

Big N was fascinated with the size variation among the apples. He found one that he could fit in his hand. The tiny apple made his day, he put it in his pocket and kept it warm when he was helping daddy pick apples. Big N was very concerned about the little apple. He went to great lengths to tell me his apple would need a lot of sunlight and fresh water so it could grow as big as the rest of the apples. We talked some about what it meant to pick the apples from the tree and he was sad for the apple.



Little N helped me make apple sauce with the apples that didn't look as pretty. She ate a few that I cut up and hit the button on the food processor once I had cooked down the apples.

Big N gave the apple sauce a try this evening. He gave two thumbs up on taste. The sauce has a really strong apple flavor compared to commercially made apple sauce.

I also had to make an apple pie.

I'm sure that is surprising to everyone who reads this blog.

Little N helped me roll out the crust.


It has been a great, apple filled day.

More apple sauce and perhaps another pie for the freezer tomorrow.