Apple Chips and Popsicles

My mission these past few months has been to use up the foods in my freezer and pantry that have been sitting there for way too long.  A couple of weeks ago I used a bunch of red apples and pears to make an apple-pear butter. Last weekend I made a peach butter that didn't quite have the oomph for the hubby as the apple-pear butter, but he ate it nonetheless and all those lovely peaches didn't go to waste. 

I had about 5 granny smith apples and wanted to use them for something stellar.  Memories of a colon cleanse a few years ago came to mind.  The hubby and I tried a 4 day fast (we couldn't make it any longer than that) and lived on juiced fruits and vegetables and a bentonite/psyllium drink 5 times a day.  The fast was actually not that bad.  We felt great during and afterwards and couldn't wait for the new fruit juices we could try ever 4 hours or so.  The best one was granny smith apple juice.  It must have been the lack of food because it tasted like a green apple blow pop.  I just bought a popsicle mold set and thought green apple blowpop popsicles would be delightful.  We juiced all the frozen fruit and filled the molds with the juice and froze. 

These were really good.  Not green apple blow pop good, but we're not in starvation mode so that may have something to do with it.  The hubby was about to throw away all the glorious pulp until I stopped him!  Juicing is such a waste if you don't make use of the pulp.  I threw it all in the dehydrator for about 12 hours and made the best apple chips ever. 

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Apple (and Pear) Butter

Up until yesterday, my husband had never tried or even heard of apple butter.  Or any kind of fruit butter for that matter.  Fortunately, I had about 10 apples and 5 pears in the freezer that I needed to put to good use.  Originally I made two batches of applesauce, one with about 5 roasted apples and the other with 5 apples and 5 pears that were just cooked down.  I stored both batches in the freezer and this was a perfect opportunity to try a new recipe and make room for the 3 frozen geese we bought this weekend.  I mixed these two sauces and created a naturally sweet, satisfying apple-pear butter that was worth the slaving over the stove.

Choose any combination of apples and pears that you like.  I used local Korean apples and Bartlett pears.  Roast the fruit in the oven and process to a smooth sauce (I left some nice big chunks in there) or cook down, adding water if necessary.  I love lots of cinnamon so I added both ground and sticks to the sauce.  Put sauce back in a heavy bottom pot and simmer on low heat until the water has cooked out.  Mine took about 2 hours.  As the mixture gets more concentrated, the color will turn a deep brown and you'll need to stir more frequently to prevent burning.  That's it.  No sugar required and a whole spoonful was too sweet for my sugar-fiend of a husband.

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