Papa's Apple Butter

It's the time of year when all things pumpkin, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg smell wonderful.

I had read about this recipe for apple butter some months back and had wanted to make it once the weather cooled. It's Darby's recipe. I like apple butter, but it's not something I crave.

For me, it is one of those things that triggers a memory.

Apple butter was one of my grandfather's favorite things. I remember he always had a jar at home whenever he had biscuits. I also remember that any time we traveled within a 15 mile radius of a Cracker Barrel we had to stop so he could eat their apple butter too.

Papa 

(aka Frank Denning)

My grandfather was one of the sweetest, loving and funniest men I've ever met. He passed away this spring. I miss him dearly, but thought making this would be a great way to remember him during this fall season.

I wish he had been here so he could have gone to the NC Mountains like he did every year with my grandmother and bring back fresh apples. Instead I had to settle for some I bought locally.

I mixed them up and did half Gala Apples and half Green Delicious Apples. I ended up dicing about 16 apples. That's a lot of peeling and cutting. 

But they were so pretty and smelled so good! And this was before I had even added in the rest of the ingredients. 

I have a fairly small crock pot. (Side note: I just noticed last week my boyfriend has a HUGE crock pot at his house that's still in the box. Next time, I'm using his) 

It wouldn't hold too much and I thought it was going to spill over, but once I threw in the cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and sugar and got it warmed up...

...amazing things started happening. The house began to smell like the Yankee Candle Store and the apples started cooking down to a more manageable amount. I started on high and then turned it down to low and let it work its magic over night. 

I love a crock pot for that very reason. It does all the work while you're sleeping. 

I forgot to snap a shot of the finished product prior to the next step - the blender. I'm still half asleep when I wake up. But, close your eyes and imagine a bowl of apple goodness that had turned a dark, cinnamon brown color. I drained some of the liquid off so that my butter wouldn't be runny. I poured it in the blender and pulsed it until it was the consistency of apple sauce. 

Then I broke out this - 

I felt like such a domesticated woman when I bought that at Wal-Mart way back when. I'm pretty sure if someone suggested me doing that around my early 20's I would have laughed and made some joke about a grandma. Funny how your perspective changes in just a few short years, huh? 

I went to work filling up my jars and boiling my water. Canning stuff really isn't as bad or complicated as I originally thought. 

See how good that looks? Just imagine it on a biscuit straight out of the oven. 

I finished them off just in time to head out the door. I was meeting my grandmother for dinner that evening and I wanted to be sure she got the first jar of my first batch of apple butter. I wish she could share it with Papa, but I know she'll be thinking of him with every bite.

Happy Fall, y'all!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Yes. I realize that it's still October and we haven't even put our Halloween costumes on yet, but it is the time of year when I start working on the infamous Christmas card picture. (If you're going to take the picture outdoors you have to do it before the leaves fall from the trees so your picture looks fun and cheery instead of cold and dreary.)

I used to stress about the fact that I wasn't married and didn't have kids to put on the front of my Christmas card, but I still wanted to do one with a picture. I mean, my dog is my kid and I like pictures. So shoot me.

I worried people would think I was being vain - I'm not. But, statistics (ok, maybe its an unscientific poll of friends and family) show that you keep the cards with pictures and display them proudly. While, the other cards, even though they are sweet, thoughtful and much appreciated, don't get the same valued space on the fridge the way photo cards do.

I read about this promotion that Shutterfly is doing for bloggers who will write about their favorites from their website. I wasn't convinced at first, but after doing a little browsing, I was instantly in love with about 15 different cards I could easily send out for Christmas. And, to top it all off - they were consistently cheaper than most of the other major websites that offer similar products. Sold!

The Christmas photo cards are my favorite. This one is too cute, but wouldn't work for me. Again, it's that whole issue with not having a couple of kids to fill up all the different places for pictures. My mother is probably the only person on my list that would appreciate that many different shots of me and Cody.

Instead, I always go for the cards with space for one picture. I love this one. It reminds me of the Greek Key pattern in a lot of fabrics I've seen lately on decorating blogs and in magazines. This would color coordinate nicely with my living room. This one is from their Holiday Cards collection.

In year's past I have been known to throw a little Christmas Party. It's usually a cookie or ornament exchange party. I don't think it is in the cards for me this year. There's just too much going on and not enough time to get it all in. But, if I did throw a party, I think I'd use this for my invite. I didn't know Shutterfly had invites, too!

There's so much to choose from which is typically a good thing, but it may not be for me. 

I usually end up trying to sort through the 567 pictures I take to get a good shot of Cody. Then I have to do the same thing all over trying to decide which card to pick. However, now I've already got that part out of the way. (I didn't show my absolute favorite since some of you may be getting it in the mail very soon). 

But, I will leave you with the out-takes from last year's Christmas Card photo shoot. 

Cody must have seen something more interesting...

Or he was embarrassed by what the wind was doing to my hair.

I think we were both over it at this point...

...but, we finally got it together! 

Happy Early Christmas Card Shopping!

Love, 

Kelly and Cody

Celebrate What's Great!

In case you didn't know that's the tagline for the NC State Fair. I can "fairly state" that I may be one of only a couple of people I know personally that genuinely look forward to the fair every year. It's become a tradition with one of my best friends, Holly and I.

This year, her husband Matt and my other girlfriends Melissa and Kathryn joined in the fun.

Here they are waiting on me to grab some cash out of the ATM. Who goes to the fair and forgets cash? (me)

There are certain things about the fair that I've come to look forward to. This, however, was not one of them - The Krispy Kreme Burger.

I did NOT buy one of these cardiac contraptions, but I did ask a very nice lady if she would mind if I snapped a shot of her's. She was still contemplating what she had just done and how she was going to actually fit it in her mouth. 

We did run straight to the Cary United Methodist Church booth and grabbed the one item I think about all year long.

A ham biscuit so good I would swear my Grandma Hilda made it! I could have easily devoured more than just one but I had some serious eating still left to do, so I backed away from the table and continued on. 

Holly had a Bright Leaf Hot Dog - better known as a red hot dog. There are mixed reviews on these hot dogs... you either love them and that's all you eat. Or, you turn your nose up at the thought and make weird noises if someone suggests you try them. I'm in the first category. They're the only kind I eat!

There's another stop that must be made if you're me - or if you're from Mt. Olive, NC - or if you like pickles - or if you don't like pickles, but just want a sticker. 

Every year I grab my sticker and guess how many pickles are in the jar and every year I never get a call from Mt. Olive Pickle Co. telling me I won. This is on my bucket list. But I digress... and on we continued. 

Kathryn is my horse friend. She used to be on the Clemson Equestrian Team. I made her take this picture with the fake horse. She's a good sport. 

This booth had taken the candy apple to a whole new level. This one was named something like the "G.I. Buster". I'm pretty sure that means your stomach won't thank you once you finished with it.

Matt grabbed a philly cheesesteak. I think that's mustard on there. That's a new one to me. But, at the fair anything goes. 

My other "must have" of the evening is the NC State Ice Cream. It's the only time I seek out something red with the Wolfpack logo and pay money for it. But, there's something about it. I guess those farm kids from the ag school really do know what they're doing. (jk)

Click here to read more about Howling Cow Ice Cream and how you can get it all year long!

I had cherry vanilla while Holly tried the chocolate. 

Kathryn and Melissa grabbed a blooming onion to finish off our dietary disaster for the evening. I did eat onion at the same time I was eating cherry ice cream. It would never work at home, but out there it just felt right. 

After we finished stuffing our faces we moved on to some of our "brothers and sisters" who are good for doing the same thing.

I felt exactly the same way. 

There's one barn that houses all of the prize winning animals, vegetables and fruit. I looked just like an amateur that got a new camera and snapped way too many pictures. Just ask my friends who were with me - They left me and I had to run to catch up with them.

Who knew there were so many varieties of apples?

Watermelons

 Pumpkins

Prize winning sweet potatoes

We even found a cow that had a lot in common with Holly. They shared the same name. 

We finished up our tour with a brief walk through the Village of Yesteryear. These folks are REAL crafty. They made my spray paint and hot glue gun feel inferior. Check out these hand painted eggs. 

And this hand carved and hand painted ducks. 

Talent. 

On our way out the door we tried to stop by to see the pig races, but that place gets PACKED - quick. There were so many people you couldn't get close enough to see them. But, like anything else, you can find it online. Here's what we missed!

I'm already trying to decide what flavor ice cream I'll get in 2011!

Onesies and flowers

This is my best friend Megan and I last weekend at the home where she grew up. We were in Tabor City to do a little celebrating. 

And this is who we were celebrating. 

Megan's having a baby!!!

As you can tell she's not here yet, but I'm absolutely already in love with her and the thought of getting to spoil her rotten. Megan's about the closest thing I'll ever have to a sister and that baby is about to become another one of "Aunt Kelly's" favorites. 

In preparation for her big debut we've been hard at work picking out paint colors, fabrics, cribs, etc. Megan is supervising a grand remodel of the nursery suite. (Ok, so maybe its just a nursery but when this room gets finished I'm going to suggest that Lily James take the guest room so I too can enjoy the life of luxury when I visit). But, I'll post more about that when its ready for the big reveal. 

In the meantime, I've been working on a few projects of my own.

So, my thing has been to make a sock monkey for my friends who have had babies recently. In my earlier post I mentioned that I totally stole the idea of making these from another blog. 

Well, I've done it again. 

I wish I could take credit for what I'm about to show you, but I can't. 

I saw it, I liked it, so I made some for Lily James' first baby shower. 

Who doesn't love a onesie on a baby? And what better way to show off a little girl that's going to have style than with a flower to match her mood that day?  I saw them here. 

They really are so stinkin' cute and fairly easy to make. The flowers come off and can be changed. I bought a pack of onesies and went by JoAnn's to find some various fabric that I liked. 

There are a ton of ways to make the flower. Google it sometime if you don't believe me. It's a bit overwhelming. Who knew there were women out there who's lives were all about teaching me how to make flowers out of scraps? 

After I was happy with my flower I finished it off by stitching the other half of a snap to a piece of felt then attached that to the flower. Most of my flowers were made out satin and so they needed a little something to reinforce them on the back. I doubled and tripled alot of my stitches. My biggest fear is having small pieces that Lily James could somehow pull off and get in her mouth. 

And voila  - with that a shirt was born. Or, rather, alot of shirts were born. I sewed snaps onto four different onesies. I hear babies get messy and you have to change them alot. 

And here was my "garden" of different flowers. If the poor girl takes after her mother or I, she'll have a hard time deciding what to wear and may need to change her mind at the last minute. In that case there's always a back up. She won't even have to get undressed. Pop one off, pop another one on. 

And, should she find herself wanting to change it up even more I made a headband too. So the flower she wears today on her shirt could be the flower she wears tomorrow on her head. Oh, so many choices, so little time. 

The best part is she'll never really outgrow them. I'll just keep getting bigger onesies and sewing snaps on the front. They'll grow with her.  Snappy, I mean snazzy, huh? 

And here was my finished product all wrapped up for the party. These flowers also can moonlight as packaging decor as well. :)

My only regret is that I didn't put a snap on a t-shirt for Megan. I just know she'd love some mommy-and-me matching outfits. (just kidding)