Please Welcome My Guest - Allison

My sweet friend Allison from Polka Dots and Paisley has offered to help with a guest post while we are moving this month.  

Please give Allison a warm Kathe With An E welcome!

Hi everyone. I'm Al from Polka Dots and Paisley, where I post a little bit of everything: crafts, artwork, recipes, organizational ideas and more. I'm thrilled to be posting here at Kathe With An E while Kathe is in the process of moving. I can't wait to see all the before and after's from her new house!

I recently spent some time visiting a friend and her family in southern Saskatchewan. I love spending time with her, her husband, and their incredible little girls. They live on a beautiful acreage that is calm, peaceful, and good for the soul.

The friend I was visiting is the one who first taught me how to make jams and jelly. In the past we've made strawberry rhubarb jam, peach jam, and habanero jelly.While I was visiting this time she had a giant bag of apples from the yard of a friend so we made a delicious apple jelly.

Steps:

1. Sterilize jars on a cookie sheet with the oven set on low heat.

2. Sterilize lids in hot water.

3. Chop apples until you have about 12 cups. We removed the stems and little black spots on the bottom. We did not remove any dents, bruises, or seeds. 

4. Bring apples to a boil in a pot with 6 cups of water. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Mash until you have a nice mush and simmer an additional 5 minutes.

6. Place mush in a cheese cloth placed over a jug. Use a spoon to move around the mush in order to drain out the juice. Be careful because you don't want to push bits of apple into your juice. The cleaner the juice, the clearer the jelly.

7. Pour the juice into a measuring cup until you have 5 cups. You can wait for the juice to cool before moving on to step 8 but we just washed the pot and kept working.

8. Mix 5 cups of juice, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and 7.5 cups of sugar in a clean pot. Bring to a hard boil for 1 minute.

9. Remove from heat, stir in 1 pouch of liquid Certo, and continue to stir and skim off the foam for 5 minutes.

Place in jars while still hot and leave on the counter to set.  You'll notice the jelly get darker as it cools and you'll know it's done when you hear the "ping" and the top doesn't move when you press on it.

There you have it: delicious apply jelly made with fresh local apples. I've been enjoying mine on crackers and toast, smiling every time I eat is as it reminds me of time spent with a friend.

Thanks again for welcoming me here today. If you'd like to see more of my projects, stop on over to Polka Dots and Paisley and say hi. I'd love to have you.