Apple Butter

Yesterday I spent the day making apple butter. We brought home apples from my dad's house. The boys helped Grandpa pick them from his orchard. It's been a long time since I made apple butter or canned anything. Mr. 4 yr. old had a great time helping me wash the apples, peel the apples, and put them into the pot to cook. I knew I was a little disorganized as a started but as the day went on I realized how unprepared I really was. I had all the jars and lids I needed-that was good. I couldn't remember what I did with my canner-that was not so good. I did have an old pressure cooker in my garage that I had never used. Well, how hard can it be to figure out? HARD! The direction booklet was about the worst one I've ever read. It didn't include any directions on how to actually use it.....things like timing. After consulting the Internet, calling my "knows everything" friend (not "know it all" but really does know everything!) I decided to try the pressure cooker. Oh, and I remembered why I got rid of my canner. You can't use them on a ceramic top stove...which is what we have! Does anyone have a good water bath canner that can be used on a ceramic stove? So, after trial and error and a whole day spent trying to can apple butter it finally got done. It's yummy too!

Apple Butter Hand Pies is the first thing I'm going to make with it.