I just love Fall Harvest foods. As you saw in my previous posts we harvested the honey and got the bees all ready for colder weather and the apple trees are producing and will be ready for picking in a week or so. Hopefully there will be some left as the helpful dogs keep picking and eating the low growing fruit.
My mom was generous enough to give me a bunch of apples from her early blooming trees and several kinds of squash that are ready straight out of her garden. I love that she has a garden since all I can seem to manage are a couple tomato bushes in planters by the deck. And even those really rely on my hubby for water on a regular basis.
So, since today's focus was food and relaxation I started the day out by going and picking a bunch of her delicious apples so that I could start making some applesauce and apple butter.
Now, there are seriously very few things that I dislike as much as I dislike peeling apples. That's why I never make apple pie, that and the fact that making pie crust is one of those things that I dislike just as much. My mother-in-law is my hero because she bought me an amazing apple peeler/slicer/corer that makes life ridiculously easy in the apple department.
It's seriously the miracle gadget. It makes it so easy and fast to process all the apples that before long you have a pot full of apples, cinnamon and cloves bubbling away on the stove. And by that time the house of course smells amazing.
Apple butter is my all time favorite spread. I could eat it straight out of the jar, but usually control myself long enough to toast a piece of bread, but not always. I just love the sweet and slightly tart flavor and the spices make it just perfect. Even though I don't like cinnamon, it's a must have for this recipe.
And, before long......that apple butter is in the jars, canned, sealed and labeled. Just waiting for me to break out the toaster for a taste, but I'll refrain cause it just gets better when the flavors have been allowed to mix together for a couple weeks. Let the countdown begin.
Applesauce is another easy product to make and can and with the abundance of apples at our house, my mom's house and our friends' houses it's a must for Fall canning. I like to make mine without adding any sugar and leaving it chunky, so no food processor required. So that means the only ingredients required are apples, water and a little lemon juice. What could be easier? That's what I made with the apples left over after my double batch of apple butter. Yum!
Since my mom had given me an acorn squash from her garden earlier in the week I decided to experiment with stuffed squash. I've never made or eaten it, but it always looks good, and really, how hard can it be? So, I cut the squash in half, put in a pan, filled the pan half full of water, covered with foil and baked it in the oven for about 45 minutes. This nearly cooked the squash through so that I'd just have to stuff it and cook the remaining bit.
I wasn't really sure what to stuff it with, so I raided the fridge.....extra lean elk sausage, red onion, mushrooms, apples, garlic, spinach, cous cous and feta cheese.
I mixed that all together in my new favorite cast iron skillet and by the time it was done, I was ready to eat it all on it's own.
But no, I piled the mixture into the squash halves, topped them with salt and pepper and popped them back in the oven for another 20 minutes to cook the rest of the way and give the stuffing a nice crispy top.
All I can say is....wow! It was so good and I had tons of leftovers. I'll definitely be experimenting with stuffed squash again.
Since I've got another huge piece of some large orange squash in the fridge I think squash casserole will be on the menu tomorrow night. Wish me luck!
Happy Fall, Everyone!
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