Summertime Pork Sliders

I L-O-V-E me some summertime

Everything about it...

the food, the sunshine, the pool, the beach, bare feet,  fruit, gardens, and on and on and on.

When it comes to those hot "dog days" of summer, I tend to pull the crock pot out to keep from heating up my kitchen.  And I'm certain that this summer won't be any different.

An Apple A Day...Day 6

Day 6...Canned Crock Pot Apple Butter

This is a great recipe and an old time favorite! And super easy! Hope you enjoy!

Here are the items you need:

5 pounds of apples
4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt

First: Peel the apples.

Second: Slice and core the apples.

Third: Place apples in the crock pot.

Fourth: In a bowl, mix sugar, cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt.

Fifth: Pour mixture over the apples and mix well.

Sixth: Cover the crock put and cook on high for 5 hours.

Stir occasionally, until mixture is dark brown and thick.

Seventh: Reduce heat to low, uncover, and cook for 1 hour. Stir with whisk or mash mixture with potato masher if you are wanting a more smooth butter.

Eighth: Spoon mixture into hot, sterilized jars. Wipe top of jars then put the lids on. Boil in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Then wait for the "PoP! PoP! Pops!" One of my favorite parts of canning is waiting to here the lids pop and counting them down!

Don't they look great! I can't wait for some hot biscuits. Have I told you how much I love biscuits?...let's just put it this way, a nickname of mine growing up was the biscuit burner and the Mr. doesn't call me "Biscuit" for nothing. I can't get enough of those fluffy, flaky, buttery biscuits....

Back to apple butter!

I was hoping for more jars to fill, but this really cooked down. I ended up with 2 pints, 3 half pints, and 2 of those small jelly jars. They will make great gifts, though...if they last that long!

Happy October!

Today is the first day of my FAVORITE month...OCTOBER!!! And in celebration of this fabulous occasion, I made... drum roll please... Caramel Apples!! I have been collecting items for quite some time to make these delicious treats. I think this is the beginning of a lifelong tradition, and a beautiful friendship!

I have 2 small crock pots so I put a bag of caramels with 2 tablespoons of water in one, and in the other, I put half of a bag of white chocolate almond bark. I cooked them both on low and stirred about every 10 minutes until they were both creamy and melted...YUM!

While the caramel and the white chocolate were melting, I pulled down 3 plates ( do these look a little familiar? Junking Parte Uno - Habitat for Humanity...LOVE that place!), and filled them each with goodies. Whole pecans, one with crushed pecans, and one with cinnamon! Yep, I said cinnamon...

I ended up with 4 caramel apples. The first 2, I dipped in the crock pot with caramel, rolled in the chopped and whole pecans, then drizzled with melted dark chocolate. The other 2, I dipped in the caramel, let cool, then dipped in the white chocolate, then rolled in cinnamon. We call this the Apple Pie Caramel Apple! This one is by far, the bestest, most tastiest caramel apple in the world.

I had quite a bit of white chocolate and caramel left over, and you know that I work very hard at letting nothing go to waste. That meant caramel, white chocolate, dark chocolate, and cinnamon drizzled popcorn and white chocolate turtles...YES MA'AM! This also turned out to be wonderful!

Here's a picture of all of the goodies...So pretty! and so tasty too! They are displayed on the cake plates that I made from my yard sale and junking travels this morning! You'll be seeing a lot more of them in the future, and some tutorials, too!!

Happy October Ya'll!

Check it out! You can find this blog posted over at Someday Crafts!