Honey Crisp Apple Sauce

It was a beautiful crisp fall day today. The sun was shining bright, but there was a definite chill to the air. Over the weekend, my mom and I went to Ralph's Produce on Fraser Hwy and picked up a 20lb box of Honey Crisp apples to make applesauce. Even though the boxes were labeled "seconds", the apples were perfect for chopping up and simmering down to a delicious sauce.

Honey Crisp apples are fairly sweet, so they make wonderful applesauce apples. We find we don't need to add a lot sugar to the apples. This year (maybe because of all the warm sunshine through the summer) we found we didn't need to add anything to the apples. Which means each jar is 100% pure apple yumminess.

We start with washing all the apples. A little bit of bruising here and there is okay. No worm holes or rough scale spots to cut away this time, so we are good to go. Next the apples are quartered and then cored, and the seeds are removed. We don't peel the skins off the apples; they boil down with the apple pulp. Then it's into the big stew pot on the stove over medium-low heat.

Basically, the apples turn mushy and soft, and then we take a potato masher and squish them down into a warm, yummy pulp. It's really super technical. Once it's at the consistency we like, Mom (or sometimes Dad) ladle scoops of the mush into the food processor. Couple spins and the skins and apple pulp become one. Then it's into the hot sterilized jars, put on the lids, screw on the rings and into the hot water bath cooker to seal them.

From a 20lb box of apples, we made 23 pint jars of applesauce. We could have made an even 2 dozen jars, but we wanted to keep one open for tasting.

Applesauce is perfect with a number of different dishes, so it is always great to have it on hand in the pantry. Classic pairings include pork chops or pork tenderloin, or fried chicken. A number of muffin and coffee cake recipes call for applesauce. But one of my favourite ways to have applesauce is warm over ice cream with a little cinnamon. The other is chilled and stirred into plain Greek yogurt.

Applesauce is also the last thing we preserve for the winter months and so it marks the end of canning season. Time to put away the canning equipment and start going through those Christmas baking books.......

A Year of Pretty - March 01, 2014

Here we are, the first of March. February was a bit of a blur (okay, a whole big bit of a blur) because I was designing for two shows at the same time, both happening within the same week. Luckily, both shows had the same theme of The Great Gatsby.

Now it is the beginning of a new month. Time to start thinking about new projects. Which means time to be inspired .. .new ideas, new colour palettes, new textures, new tones.

Today's Pretty Post is another palette swatch designed by Design Seeds. This one is called "tagged hues".

I've written about Design Seeds before, and it's a great site for gaining inspiration from everyday items and coming up with beautiful colour combinations, like the one shown here. I will probably post a couple of these over the next few days.

Design away my friends . . . Design away !

A Year of Pretty - January 05, 2014

Okay, okay . . . I know I've been posting a lot of cup and saucer and high tea photos this past week. But just one more tea party themed post and then I'll move on to something else.

Today's Pretty Post is from one of my FAVOURITE design inspiration sites called Design Seeds. First, I think it's a really awesome name for a design inspiration site, since each idea for design does indeed start with a seed of sorts. The seed grows and changes and grows some more until the designer arrives at the end product; the manifestation of the original design seed.

So what is Design Seeds? Basically, it's a palette search tool based around colours found in an item, such as shown in today's post. Think of it as an elegant version of paint chips you'd find at Home Depot or Rona.

Created by Jessica in 2009, Design Seeds began as a way for her to incorporate her love of colour with design blogging. Throughout her art school training at the Center for Creative Studies and her extensive design career working with companies such as Ford, Reebok and Timberland, Jessica has created original colour journals. Design Seeds is a modern interpretation of these journals.

While the colour palettes shown do not have any specific paint brands associated with them, there are many paint stores that will scan a colour swatch and create a corresponding paint colour. Just keep in mind that what you see on your screen and what is printed from your desktop printer may be slightly different.

Design away my friends .  .Design away !

Champagne Wishes . . . .

Garage Sale Finds

Why oh why do we not have garage sales like this in Canada, more specifically in Vancouver, BC ? This is from an outdoor market sale in Amsterdam called Albert Cuyp Market on....Albert Cuypstraat (street).

The largest open air market in the city is open year-round Mondays through Saturdays . . .has been for over 100 years. (I bet some of these beauties are still hanging around from then).

If airlines didn't charge so much for checked luggage, then I definitely would have taken home one of these lovelies. Cut an oval in the top, drop in a sink and some plumbing...turn the drawer fronts into cupboard doors and ta da! instant guest bathroom elegance.

Sweet and Pretty . . . take 3

Today’s helping of Sweet and Pretty is actually a collection or treasury of items discovered by Bella of Allami. While the grouping is definitely inspired by Russian matryoshka dolls (you know, the nesting ones you played with as a child), the items would be perfect for a nursery or little girl’s room. All well priced, these are sure to bring whimsy and delight to any princess, no matter the age.

One of the items that really got my attention was this painted horse box by GoodWoodDogs. Other than being pink and girly and a great place to store special trinkets, the hand crafted, hand painted pine and basswood treasure is made by a father - daughter team. The father is a retired chemist-turned-artist.  Dad does the carving, daughter does the painting. Which I think is just great, and adds a bit of back story to the item.

In a time where more and more children’s toys are mass produced, it’s so nice to see hand-made items with care and attention to detail . . .and no batteries required.