Homemade Apple Juice

My mom has an apple tree that produces TONS of apples.  She recently gave me a box full of apples so I decided to make some apple juice. 

Apple juice is SUPER easy to make and the perfect thing to do if you have tons of apples that are not 100% perfect.

You first need to wash your apples.  I just put them all in the sink and washed them all at once.

I then run them all through our juicer.  If you don't have a juicer there are several other methods of making apple juice, but I really recommend just buying one.  It is definitely worth the money!

Here is a link to one. There are several other one on amazon though.

 Juicing the apples is my children's favorite part!  They love putting the apples through the juicer!

Once you juice all the apples I put the juice in a pot and bring it to a boil.  While it is boiling I just scraping the sediment from the top of the juice.

Once I get most of the sediment off, I run the juice through a strainer.  I just use a handkerchief laid in my strainer and it works great!

Then you put it in your jars.

 I did not water bath my juice here because I did not have enough to make it worth my while.  But I have done it before.  Here is the recommended process...

• Boiling-water bath
• Pints or Quarts – 10 minutes
• Half-gallons – 15 minutes

Feature Friday: Rivers Recipe Review

I recently came across a blog that I fell in love with!  Who doesn't love looking at beautiful pictures of wonderful food?  At Rivers Recipe Review, you will spend your day looking at all the yummy food and wanting to whip up the delicious recipes yourself!

Alyssa Rivers is the creative force behind Rivers Recipe Review.  She takes recipes and reviews them.  Then she rates them on level of difficulty and how good it was.  She also includes changes she would make and if she would make it again. She is a SAHM of two cute boys and you should really click on over to her blog and check it out.

I had a hard time picking which pictures to post here because they all look so yummy!  But here are a few...

The Key West Grilled Chicken looks amazing!

And you will definitely have to check out The Best Sweet Pork Tacos!

My husband will absolutely love these Mini Peach Cobblers!  Peaches are his favorite! And I love how they are in individual servings.

And this Zesty BBQ Chicken is something that I will definitely have to try as well!

So take a few minutes and stop by Rivers Recipe Reviews and I know you will not be disappointed!

Summer Snack- Chocolate Covered Bananas

I am always looking for kid-friendly recipes that my children can help me make.  This one was a lot of fun for my kids and they loved them!

Chocolate Covered Bananas!

I got this recipe out of the July 2012 Friend  Magazine.  It was super easy.  You can find the recipe HERE.

Instead of using chocolate chips, I used the Wilton Chocolate Melts. You can find these melts at JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby or Amazon (see link below).  I also didn't have any popsicle sticks, so I just used plastic knifes.  I just cut the knife part off, so it was just the handle.

 

Sweet Servings Giveaway Winner

Thank you to everyone who entered our Sweet Servings Giveaway!  We had 254 entries!

Rafflecopter picked our winner...#234

Debra Lee

Congratulations!

I will email you, if I don't hear a response within 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen.

Thanks to all who entered!

 

And for those of you who didn't win and really want some yummy pretzels, you can contact Cindy from Sweet Servings  and she will be happy to accommodate any order!

Pretty in Pink Quilt Top

If you have been following us for awhile, you might remember the Quilt that I made out of Receiving Blankets from my boys when they were babies.

Well, after I had a handful of boys, I had two sweet, little girls.  So we made a huge shift to everything Pink!  It was a lot of fun!  But now I have girl receiving blankets that are taking up room in the closet.   I figured it is time to make another quilt!

I decided to go with a zig zag pattern this time and it was so much fun!  I didn't have enough blankets to cut up to make a twin size quilt, so I found some light pink minky fabric that I bought a long time ago with stars embedded in it and I used that fabric and alternated it between the receiving blankets.  

This quilt will be so soft!  I'm excited to finish it!  I just bought a walking foot for my sewing machine and I am in the process of machine quilting it.  I just wanted to give you a little preview!  I love it!