Apple Butter

Well, I'm officially a Southern gal.

Over the weekend, I not only made homemade apple butter from the apples the kids had picked at the orchard, but I also decided to can the apple butter. 

Apple butter and canning preserves... does that make me double Southern? 

 I've gotta admit... there are some pretty awesome things I've learned since living in the South and apple butter is one of them. I LOVE me some apple butter. I actually had never even heard of the stuff until I had a student bring me a jar a few years back. Oh my! Heaven in my mouth! I could literally scoop it out and eat it by the spoonful. Although, atop fresh, warm biscuits is THE best! So good!

 Anyway, I decided it would be the perfect gift for the kids teachers. We have four teachers at preschool, and my recipe ended up making 11 8oz cans--so I have quite a few to save or give away. I've gotta say, canning is actually not that hard--and pretty fun! I just hope I did everything right. I'd hate for someone to come down sick. I think I'll  warn our gift recipients to use it quickly since it was my first go.

 Anyway, I decided to make little cards using this adorable (and FREE) apple template frame, which you can snag HERE. I'm going to help the kids write messages on the inside. I added the words "My Teachers are... Bushels of Fun!" They really are! The kids are having a blast! 

In fact, we had a breakthrough this week--Liam didn't cry at drop off!! Woot-woot! I'll admit, he wasn't exactly happy, but as I set him down in his room, I told him, "Go tell Ms. Kim about picking apples at the orchard." He ran to her and said, "I went to da apple tree!" I quickly made my escape, but as always stopped in the side hall to listen to see if he'd cry. But this time, he didn't. When I came to pick him up, the teachers said, "Mom, do you think you can take him to an apple orchard every day?" lol! It seemed to do the trick!

Anyway, hopefully the apple butter will be the perfect treat for these SUPER awesome, amazing, very talented and PATIENT preschool teachers of ours! We'll see...

On a side note, I still have a ridiculously large amount of apples--I'm going to have to think of something else to make with them ASAP! Suggestions?!