Mmmm Pie Filling.......

I think a key component to surviving in the country is canning. I know of ladies around here who don't like to can at all. I however, I do like to can. I canned some last summer, but I flat out CANNED this summer, except when I was getting married, and on the honeymoons :) I didn't grow up canning and have only done it for 2 summers, so maybe that is why I still like canning, and some of the ladies who have done it their whole life don't enjoy it so much anymore. I will admit it is HARD work! I fortunately had great support and help, my sister in law Janette, and mother in law, Mom Birky. If I had to do all the canning my myself.....well I just don't think I could do it all by myself, 1. It is a ton off work, and 2. pressure caners FREAK me out!!! 

One of the biggest pleasures of canning for me is that Bill really appreciates all my hard work I put into it, and we both like to look into my little fruit room, and see full shelves of food we hardly had to pay for. He likes to joke and say that this winter he wont have any work , and we are going to have to hunker down, in the freezing cold and can only afford to eat what I canned this summer.... Here is a peak at my fruit room.

I have a whole lot of pickles, jams, apple butter, and beets, on the sides of my room, but I thought this picture would give you a good idea of what my room looks like, I like to think of it as my trophy room :)

 Canning is also a good way to get to know, and bond with people. I knew Janette and Mom pretty well before this summer's canning season, but there was a whole lot of good quality time to talk about whatever happened to come up while we were all chopping, peeling, measuring, mixing, and sitting down for a rest when the caners were canning.

Ok, back to pie filling.....this morning Janette and I canned apple pie filling!! YUMMMMMY!!! I love canning pie filling because it isn't really that much work, and it is SO CONVENIENT when you need a dessert in a hurry! Just pop open the can and pour it onto a pie crust, make a delight with it, or make some sort of bars with it, very versatile indeed! I only got 7 qts. but I could have probably got 1 more if my niece Jodi and I didn't snitch so much of the yummy apple goodness while making it :)

Here are some pictures of the days events!

 This thing above is an apple-peeler-correr-slicer! An awesome tool! My mom had on when I was yonger, and I loved to use it, just stick the apple on the fork thing and turn the crank, and it peels, cores, and slice your apples!!!!

 Yummy, gooey, apple pie filling mmmmmm....

 My filled jars.

 My mother in law likes to say, " you can always tell when someone is newly married, they have all new rings and lids" :)

 The recipe.

 This is what happens when you pull the jars out of the canner too soon, the insides, spue over the top...

Janette's and my finished pie filling!