Apple Butter

A few days ago, I made apple butter. I had one very good reason for this - a large bag full of apples, that my fiance's mother sent us. Many, many apples. And they're really not good enough to eat - I'm picky and like my apples fairly tart. (Granny Smith, yum!) These were way too soft and floury. So, I peeled the whole lot, tossed them in a pan with assorted yummies, and pretty much just forgot about it for three hours or so. Results? Excellent! This yielded a very thick, brown gooey mass, and it tastes fresh and spicy. I used this recipe, from The Domestic Goddess.

I've never had apple butter before - and it's not available in stores or anything here -so I can't say I know what it's supposed to be like.. but it's good! That's all I know. And hopefully, that's enough. I had some on oatmeal this morning - great pairing.

Actually, I had something that was called apple butter this summer in California, at a restaurant called Lucille's Smokehouse, a chain restaurant with awfully yummy food. It wasn't real apple butter though - more like butter, but with apple flavoring. Still good, very very good. I wonder if I could make that by stirring some of MY apple butter into actual butter? Hm. Must try. I had an awesome salad there, and a tiny side order of grits - that's not something I've ever tried before either. And actually, now I want some more! Getting hungry just thinking about it.. but again, grits aren't sold here. I really should have bought a box to take home - but at that point, the luggage was full to the point where it almost exploded, so... no grits for me.