Trying to enjoy the process

I've written here before about my bouts of pathological amounts of canning, usually when stressed because it is something I can do that I have control over. Last summer was a very productive canning summer, for all the obvious reasons. Not leaving your home helps a lot. So, I may can a lot (sometimes), but I have to admit that as much as I love the product, the process is not my favorite. It's just time consuming. 

I had mentioned the other day that our apple trees are loaded with apples. And this year for the first time, they are actually good apples. Good apples as in you would want to eat them instead of looking at the blighted, wormy thing and dropping it on the ground. I don't know why this is as we have done absolutely nothing different this year. (We have done absolutely nothing with the apple trees in general, actually.)

See? They're beautiful apples.

With all that free, good-looking fruit just outside my back door, I decided I really did need to do something about preserving it, so I blocked this afternoon out and declared it an applesauce afternoon. I was looking forward to having it done, but not so much actually doing it.

I have always preferred product over process, and that is something I have been working on general for quite some time. Instead of focusing on what I can get done and checked off my list, I instead have been working to focus on the actual doing of the task and finding enjoyment from it. I decided that I really needed to apply this to my applesauce project. To make the whole thing more enjoyable, I made sure to start with a clean kitchen and spend some time checking that I had all the necessary supplies. (I'm pretty notorious for starting something and then realizing I don't have everything I need.) Since I actually did have everything I needed, this was good. I also put on a some music. Today's selection was the Goat Rodeo recordings that YoYo Ma (and others) made. They are one of my new favorite albums.

With the necessities taken care of, I started making applesauce. The pleasant surprise today was H., who was very interested in what I was doing and was very helpful. We had a lovely afternoon together. I really did enjoy the process. Now, in full disclosure, the thing that allows me to even think about enjoying the process is the attachment I have for my KitchenAid mixer which quickly and easily does the hard part. If you've made applesauce, you know that the skin, seeds, and core need to be removed. You can either do that before you cook the apples (which is time consuming) or you can do it after they are cooked. I much prefer the second option and before I had my attachments would put it all through a food mill by hand. (This is truly not fun and I don't recommend it.) But one year I splurged and bought this.

It's a strainer that the cooked apples go through and it separates out the skin, seeds, and core from the applesauce. I could get away with just buying this piece because I already had this one, which is also needed.

They are totally worth it if you plan on making applesauce more than once in your life. Here it is all put together.

The mixer is under the towel (because I was ladling hot drippy apples over it), and the attachments go on the front. You put the cooked apples there in the hopper on top and push them down. The applesauce comes out to the right.

The core and peel comes out the front.

I ended up with four full bowls (the bowl with the blue band in the picture) of thick and yummy applesauce which become 10 1/2 quarts of canned sauce.

I was doing okay with the process until I had to send the last batch through the canner after dinner. Then I wasn't enjoying it any longer. I really need to plan to be done with projects like this before dinner because other than sit here and write or read a book, I just can't do anything. But there they are ten jars of applesauce that pretty much were free. I do love that. And it is just a very small fraction of the apples we have. We could definitely eat 30 quarts over the course of the winter, so it would be good if I can get more made, but I'll think about that another day.