apple 911

Honestly, I've been staring at these bags of apples in my kitchen for a few weeks now, procrastinating and putting them further and further down on my to-do list.  Yesterday, when we certainly had more important things to do, I looked at my sad apples and knew I had to do something with them A.S.A.P.  

The ways in which I preserve them; apple rings, frozen apple slices, apple muffins, apple sauce, apple pie bars, apples crisps, apples stuffed into my crisper bins.  We still have a 5 gallon bucket of newspaper wrapped apples in the garage that we have to bury in the ground.  Sort of a make-shift root cellar.

This apple-peeler-corer has been one of our best investments.  We've used it many times since we bought it a few years ago.  It's a bit fussy at times but once I get in the groove, these apple slices pile up quickly.

One of my favorite ways I've discovered to preserve apples is by dehydrating them.  My freezer is stuffed which means we have to start getting creative.  At least more creative than we've had to be in years past when there were barely any apples on our trees to preserve.

We bought a sheet aluminum screen and used it in our oven instead of buying a dehydrator.  I thought about it, I truly did but I'm a minimalist when it comes to kitchen gadgets.  I like to keep it simple in the kitchen.  Depending on how long I kept them in the oven, they turned out either like pliable apple rings or apple chips.  I don't soak them in lemon water.  I just slice them and dehydrate them in a 170 degree (F) oven for about 2 hours.

Something else on my mind this past week has been the devastation caused by hurricane Sandy.  The kids  and I have had our ears peeled on the radio listening to what's been going on there.  I'm sending my good thoughts to everyone who has been affected by this natural disaster.