Sweet Potato and Apple Butter

Learning to Fly by frances robson

Good evening and come on in for a visit.  I love this picture I took back in the spring of a baby mockingbird sitting in a rose bush outside our window.  It was trying to learn how to fly and knew the rose bush would keep him safe and the rose was there to give him inspiration.  He rested there for several minutes admiring the beauty.

Our roses have been and are still blooming well.  I keep them trimmed back and they have done well but after all they are knockout roses and even I can grow them.  I enjoy cutting them and bringing them in the house for they smell like old-fashioned roses and last for days.  The bonus is that the more you cut them, the more they bloom.

I am still looking for low carb recipes and found a really good one.  Dr. Mansberger said his wife like the sweet potato butter she bought at a Mennonite bakery in Thomasville, GA so I bought some and agreed with her.  It is very good and I began looking for a recipe which would be similar.  I found one and am sharing it with you and of course I made a few changes like I always do. It called for water but I used lemonade for I knew it would a little tartness and a little extra flavor but next time it could be cranberry juice or whatever I have.  Apple juice would probably be best since you have apples in it.  Try it and let me know what you think.  Just click on the comment box at the bottom of the blog.

Sweet Potato and Apple Butter

Ingredients

• 4 cups peeled sweet potatoes, cut into slices about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick
• 2 cups peeled, cored, and sliced apples
• 1 tsp. cinnamon or to taste
• 1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
• 1/2 cup lemonade – or apple juice, water, cranberry juice or juice of choice

How to make it

• Peel and slice the sweet potatoes and apples with a mandolin if possible. If you don't have a mandolin slice thinly with a sharp knife.
• Combine all ingredients in slow cooker and stir. Cook on high until sweet potatoes are fully cooked. Takes at least 4 hours.
• Mash or beat with an electric mixer until well blended.
• This mixture will be a little thicker than apple butter.
• If you put it in hot jars with fresh lids and bands it will seal and you can put in your pantry.
• If not canned it will hold in the refrigerator for several weeks
  

I plan to use it on toast, English muffins, pound cake, or eat it by the spoonfuls.

Ya'll come back and be careful going home.

Nuff Said,

The Georgia Peach





Pumpkin Carrot Bars & Microwave Applesauce

Good evening and come on into the 'Net Porch and have a cup of coffee and one of my new Pumpkin Carrot Bars. I have wanting to bake this for awhile for after making the Sweet Potato Cupcakes, a similar recipe has been running around in my mind. Today I tried it out and it is really good.

I also made applesauce in the microwave to use in the bars for I think that bought applesauce is completely tasteless so try this applesauce to use in the Pumpkin Bars. It is also very good alone as a dessert or I use it as a spread on toast for there is no sugar in it. You can add brown sugar if you like but if the apples are sweet and with the cinnamon you don't miss the sugar. We also like chunky applesauce and I leave the peelings on the apples for the added flavor, color and texture. It is really better with the peelings.

Microwave Chunky Applesauce

4 cups apples in large chunks – washed and peels on - about 6 apples
1 cup dried cranberries
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
zest from orange
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp apple pie seasoning
grated nutmeg or a couple of pinches

Cut the washed apples in eighths and cut into large chunks. I use the apple slicer for this. Put in microwave proof bowl – I like glass – add the other ingredients and fold together with spatula. Don't over mix and bruise the apples. Cover loosely with plastic wrap – leave a vent – and microwave for about 7 minutes. After 5 min. check and see if tender. Mash with potato masher but leave chunky. I don't add sugar but if you like, add about ¼ cup brown sugar.
Makes about 2 cups applesauce

The apple pie seasoning is new to me but it really adds a great flavor. If you haven't discovered the wonderful, full flavor of grating your own nutmeg you are missing a great experience. It is much better than the ground.

The Pumpkin Carrot Bars are similar to the Sweet Potato Cupcakes and just as good. By adding the grated carrots, you are introducing a little texture and a little bit of vegetable and the added color is very pretty. If you try this, let me know.

Pumpkin Carrot Bars

1 box Betty Crocker Carrot cake mix
½ tsp. Cinnamon
½ tsp. Apple pie seasoning
grated nutmeg or pinch or dried
1 can pumpkin – not the pie mix but plain pumpkin
1 cup applesauce
¼ cup fresh squeezed orange juice or from carton
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup coarsely grated carrots
1 tsp. Orange flavoring
1 cup chopped pecans
zest from orange – about 1 tsp.

Preheat oven at 350 degrees or 325 for glass dish
Spray 13 x 9 inch pan with cooking spray

In mixer bowl combine cake mix, pumpkin, applesauce, orange juice and carrots and mix on medium speed until mixed well. Add the cranberries and flavoring and mix. Add the pecans and mix by hand until well mixed.
Pour into prepared pan and bake about 25 – 30 minutes or until tested. It make take a little longer according to your oven. Remove from oven, cool on rack in the pan and cut into bars. Can sprinkle with powdered sugar for a little extra sweetness if desired. This will be a dense bar cookie and is good for breakfast with milk or coffee. It is also good reheated and served with additional Chunky Applesauce on top.

If you use my microwaved chunky applesauce, you don't have to add the orange juice, spices or cranberries.

This is a good recipe and I hope you will try it and let me know if something needs tweaking. Would love to hear from you.

Well, the day is drawing to a close, getting later and time to read awhile. I have just finished Michael Palmer's The First Patient and started James Patterson's The 9th Judgement and it is good. Both are books you won't put down until they are finished if you like mysteries.

Ya'll be careful going home and come back to see me. Enjoy the recipes and let me know what you think, please.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach

Applesauce Recipe

Morning Moon Over the Pond by frances robson

Good evening and come on up to the Net porch and sit a spell. It is feeling a little like fall down here in South Georgia and I like it for we can put the windows up and let the fresh air blow through the house. There is only 1 little problem- fall means winter is not far behind and as ya'll know, I do not like cold weather for at my age the joints begin to ache when they get cold. As would say here in the South, "Arthur Itis" is visiting and he is painful.

We like to eat applesauce as dessert and yesterday I tried and new recipe and it is really good. I thought Roy was going to eat all it and not share but he was sweet and gave me a little bit. It is cooked in the crock pot which makes it easy which is the first criteria for my cooking. I used a recipe from a favorite website, kinda, sorta, but with my twist. If you like it all smooth you won't like it for it is chunky and did not peel them. I hope you enjoy it.

Chunky Crockpot Applesauce

6 – 8 medium apples (Gala, Roma or another baking apple) If you can find home grown apples it is even better
1/2 cup apple juice or other juice. I used cranberry apple and it was really good
1 tbsp. Cinnamon - if you don’t like a lot of cinnamon decrease the amount
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
Freshly grated nutmeg – a light sprinkling

Directions:

Wash and core apples – can peel but I don’t for the peelings have extra flavor
Chop up into chunky pieces.
Place apples in crock-pot.
In separate bowl, combine juice, cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg.
Pour mixture over apples in crock-pot, and stir gently until apples are evenly coated.
Cover crock-pot, and cook on low for 4 hours, or until soft. Mash slightly but leave chunky.

Let me know how you like it and how you changed it to suit your taste.

Have to go for I am crocheting Noah a new hat, knitting a scarf and on and on. ADD people have to stay busy to stay out of trouble.

Ya'll come back to see me and be careful going home.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach

Roy's Workshop by frances robson

Good afternoon on a hot Friday afternoon. Ya'll come on in the house and have a glass of tea. At least it is not in the 90s today but it is so dry. We haven't had rain in several weeks and we are having to water our citrus trees a lot for some are loaded with fruit. I don't want a hurricane to come through but would like a good frog strangler or maybe it will pour cats and dogs. Where in the world did we get these terms from? It would be a mess if this really happened. Can't you just see dead frogs everywhere after the rain had strangled them or being overrun by cats and dogs? We have some interesting descriptions don't we?

A friend of mine who is taking classes for his masters degree called me last week with an interesting request. It seems he is taking a class in linguistics and needed to interview someone from South Alabama for the professor said we talk differently than other Southern states. Now I almost took exception to this for I don't think WE talk differently, just other folks but I agreed to talk for him. It's seldom that someone WANTS me to talk so off I went.

Todd had several questions prepared for me to answer and he wanted to record my answers. Well, I know I sound really countrified on tape which is why I avoid it even for a message on my phone. I just know I don't sound like that for it is kinda bad. To please Todd, for he is so cute, I said OK and he began to question me about Camden, AL, other places we had lived, my family and lots of other personal questions.

Being a Southern Lady, I had no problem talking about where I grew up and my family for we all do that rather well. He was a little surprised to find out that my family is from Mississippi and we have lived in Mississippi, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama so my accent may not be a true "South Alabama" accent but it's close. I didn't absorb a lot from the other states but heck, it's not a dime's worth of difference in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia accents. North Carolina strays a bit over on the coast and especially the outer banks. Their accent is almost English but different. It is definitely different from lower Alabama.

It was kinda funny. As I answered the questions and got wound up and talking, I began to lapse right back into that soft, Alabama drawl that is like honeysuckle and wraps itself around the speaker and the listener - sweet and aromatic and binding. Once you hear a Southern accent you have to like it and if you don't, you have a problem.

Through the years I have changed a little bit for as I became "edjicated" and began to teach school, I tried to clean it up a little bit so people could understand what I was saying. When I went off to college in Montevallo, AL, many moons ago, they thought I sounded "funny" so I tried to clean it up a little but it didn't work. I have kept that Wilcox County drawl but when I try, I can speak little plainer but I really don't think dropping all my Rs and word endings is too bad. Sounds good to me. I just wonder what that professor is going to say when Tod plays that tape. I can hear him now saying how country and southern and that's alright for I am both.

How do you like my "Santa Claus" above? Roy loves to work with wood and refinish furniture and that little, white rocker was our mama's when she was a little girl. Someone put "new" rockers on it at some point but they are rockers taken from another rocker and were cut down to fit this one. It was probably Granddaddy Burt for if it almost fit, that was fine - just nail it on. He was not exactly precise at times with his building and repair. I sat in it and our children and grandchildren have rocked in it.

It has been down in the shop and I wanted it cleaned up for our great-grands and Roy does a much better job than I do. He was hoping to take it apart, strip it, re glue and paint. He found that he couldn't do that so he is stripping, tightening joints and repainting for us.

He is also painting a wooden bench that Grandaddy Burt built many, many years ago. While helping daddy add onto our house when I was a little girl, he built a carpenter's bench to use. When they completed the rooms daddy kept the bench and I brought it here to refinish and put in our sun room. It is rough, beaten up but I love it for Granddaddy made it and we used it for many years in the yard and on the carport at mama and daddy's. When I get it in the house, I will take a picture and share with you.

I fixed a good and quick dessert yesterday and thought ya'll might like it also. It is baked apples in the microwave and I don't have a recipe all written out with measurements for I didn't measure but I will do the best I can and being exact it not necessary. So, here it is and enjoy.

Microwaved, Baked Apples

1 apple for each person plus 1
brown sugar
cinnamon
nutmeg - freshly grated
lemon zest
fresh lemon juice
butter

I used a pie plate to cook these in and it worked well. Cut the apples in half, core out with a small spoon or find that a serrated grapefruit knife does a good job. Place the apples, cut side up, on the pie plate. Put about 1 tsp. of brown sugar in each half, sprinkle with cinnamon, grate nutmeg over each half and put on a small tsp. butter in each half. Grate lemon zest over the buttered apples, and squeeze lemon juice over all of the ingredients. 1/2 lemon will be enough for you just a little bit of the tartness is what you want not lemonade.

Cover with plastic wrap or I have a microwave cover which does a good job. Microwave on high for about 4 minutes and check to see if butter and brown sugar have melted and joined forces and the apples are tender but not too soft. You want a little crispness but not much.

To serve, place 2 halves in a bowl and top with whipped topping sprinkled with a little cinnamon or a scoop of vanilla ice cream on each half. Just use whatever you have or serve it alone. It is better when warm but refrigerate leftovers and reheat later.

I used the Splenda brown sugar for it has less calories but I did use real butter. Freshly grated nutmeg has become one of my favorite spices and the freshly grated is so much better.

Apples are coming in now and this would be a quick, easy and delicious way to cook and eat apples. Try it and let me know.

The picture below is the moon early this morning before it set for the day. It was so pretty, I just had to take a picture to share with you. God gives us such awesome beauty.

Got to go sweep and mop the kitchen for it is a lot dirty. You can eat most anything you want off the floor.

Ya'll have a good weekend and be careful going home.

Nuff Said,

The Georgia Peach

Morning Moon by frances robson

Cranberry Salad or dessert

This is an easy congealed salad which I also use for a dessert.

Molded Cranberry Apple Salad

1 Pkg. Strawberry Jello
1 Cup boiling water
1 Small carton of sour cream
½ Can of whole berry cranberry sauce
½ Cup chopped apple – leave pealing on
½ Cup chopped pecans

Mix jello and boiling water. Stir until dissolved. Cool. I place mine in the freezer for about 10 – 15 min. Add sour cream and beat until smooth. Add cranberry sauce, chopped apple, and pecans and stir until fruit and nuts are mixed in. Pour into mold and refrigerate. I don’t usually use a mold but a square glass dish and cut in squares to serve. Can add whip cream to top of cool whip. Easy to double

This is good for anytime, but especially around the holidays. If trying to cut calories, use sugar free jello and low fat sour cream. Not as good as original but will do. You can also use walnuts if you prefer.

Good Eating
The Georgia Peach