Turns out apple butter is the perfect way to ramp up a bowl of oatmeal, but not just any apple butter – no mine also includes dates and toasted walnuts. But, before I go into the details, let me tell you how I got there.
Last week my husband was complaining to me that he was overweight. He’s not overweight. He runs the better part of 10 miles a week at the gym. Why no hubby, you look great to me :-)! So the next morning I got up, and made him a bowl of nice old fashioned oatmeal. To me, warm oatmeal with a little brown sugar and butter is a great way to start the day. Lots of fiber, good for cleaning out the system, as they saying goes! Sent him off to work with a smile on his face.
After I got my son on the school bus, I headed to the NC State Farmer’s Market. I’m in hog heaven down there, this farmer’s market is open 363 day a year. All the vendor know me, just like they did back in CO. Why yes, I’ll take 20 pounds of canning tomatoes for $10, and I’ll bring you back a jar of my salsa. My girlfriend Amber that works there, she calls me the crazy lady. But she’s always happy when I bring her a jar a raspberry and chipotle jelly!
Walking into an apple orchard kind of smell!
It’s of course apple season out here, and when I walked into the market it was just like walking into an apple orchard. It’s like that every time the fruit begins to come into season, peach, strawberry, scuppernog grapes; it’s like a heady perfume.
So when I walked in last week, it made me immediately think of my mother-in-law’s apple butter. I’m not a huge fan of just straight-up apple butter, it’s just okay. But I knew I had to bottle that apple goodness, wanted like an apple pie in a jar! I thought to myself “wouldn’t something savory like a hearty apple butter taste good over some warm oatmeal?”
20 pounds of apples, 3 pound of dates, and some toasted walnuts!
When I got home with my bounty, I called Mark’s mom, or Grams as we call her. Grams has this recipe for her apple butter that was originally her mother’s. Love things with a lot of history! So I got started making a huge batch of apple, date, and toasted walnut butter. Ended up adding some brown sugar, and smidge of allspice to get the final results where I wanted. It also took two days of cooking, takes a long time to cook down 20 pounds of apples at 300 degrees.
When it finally came together to the correct flavor, I put some out on a plate to cool. My seven year old came in from playing, walked over to the plate, and asked, “What’s this mom?” I told him it was apple butter, and he could taste it if he wanted to try it. Stuck his little dirty finger smack dab in the middle, and tasted it. “Yum that’s good” was his reply. That surprised me, he doesn’t like any of my jellies or jams. The only kid out of four that doesn’t like a PBJ sandwich. What kid doesn’t like a PBJ sandwich every now and then?
I hope you’ll enjoy it too! Darn thing is I have to make another batch! I have to submit two different batches to NCSU, for product testing, and nutritional analysis. Not doing 20 pounds again LOL!
Be healthy, happy, and eat well!
