That's the title of a cookbook that has been floating around my mother's house for decades. You can buy it here and support the local Junior League ladies and their cause. I personally prefer to support them elsewhere by shopping at their killer thrift shop in tony Roslyn, but that's beside the point. At the beginning of October, we went apple picking at Kelly's Farm Market & Bakery. Well let me tell you! They have that bakery part down! We had donuts and cider and cookies and cupcakes . . . but I digress. I really wanted to write about the apples. We went with the intent of picking one peck of apples. That's about 2 gallons of apples. I figured we could try to make some apple sauce, and have some fresh apples for a week or two. Enough for the girls to feel like they had a nice experience. Well, I sorely underestimated the appeal of picking apples off of cute little mini apple trees to 3 girls I know. I had to hold them back at a bushel. (That's 4 pecks. 8 gallons!--I had to look it up too.) They could have easily gone for another bushel or two without blinking an eye.
So then the question presented itself: what in the world do you do with a whole bushel of apples? Well, thanks to the internet, we figured out how to make applesauce in the crock pot--peeling & coring the apples first to make chunky, or leaving the peels on & using a food mill to make it faster & smoother like store bought. Thank goodness Grandma still had a food mill in her basement! So we peeled and pared, sprinkled with lemon juice (it still came out dark), seasoned with generous amounts of cinnamon and a good bit of sugar in some of it too. 8 1/2 quarts later, I'd done my first canning, and half the apples were gone. Only half. Sigh.
Why is it that if I hate cooking (and really, I do--this is why we eat late most nights . . . and why we eat a lot of pasta . . . and why we probably don't eat enough vegetables . . . ) Is it because I was part of the process from start to finish? It's kind of miraculous to see something that comes from the earth turn into something pretty tasty. Is it the novelty? I could see how it could get old after 60 quarts. I'm so glad that making apple pie and canning applesauce aren't prerequisites for motherhood. As fun as it was for an hour or two, I can't help being reminded that there are so many other aspects of motherhood that make a more tangible and substantial difference--laughing with your children, sharing new knowledge with them with excitement, responding in a moment of tension with compassion . . . The rest of the apples went in a box in the garage, wrapped individually so one bad apple won't spoil the bunch. We had some today and they were crisp and juicy. Cross your fingers!
What role does cooking play in your mothering (parenting)? Mormon tradition dictates that a shelf of home canned goods a badge of honor. Yes or no? What other parenting qualities do you value more (or less?) than caning and why?
1 comment:
I actually enjoy bottling (some things). But I'm also lazy and don't get around to it very often. I don't think of it as a badge of honor when I see others that have done it though. I just do it because I prefer some things bottle taste-wise, and it saves a TON of money. For real. Cooking doesn't play a huge role in our house because I don't like it either. But baking does. Aleyah bakes with me all the time and loves it (eating all the sugar is more the reason though, probably). She know's what I'm baking when I start to pull out just a few ingredients. lol.
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