Happy October

So, I gotta keep it real with y’all. October, November and December are my three favorite months of the year. Apple picking, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas…. I absolutely love them all. And I think it’s mostly because of the abundance of family activities, crafts and fun foods I get to make. I could probably due without the impending snow but hey, it comes with the territory right?

Before I fast forward to the days where I’ll have to stop Olivia from eating the white stuff that has been peed on by one of the neighborhood dogs or when Caiden tries to sword fight with icicles I’ll celebrate the present, the  magnificent Autumn days.

I had been promising the kiddos since the middle of September that we would make our cider “soon”, but as a parent “soon”  really means “I hope they eventually forget because I already have 99 million things to do.”

Honestly though, I was looking forward to making the first batch of cider. It makes my house smell soooo good and we make apple sauce with the remaining apples in the crock pot. I’m really excited to share this recipe with y’all because it’s apple season and who doesn’t enjoy a warm glass of cider. I think you’ll actually be surprised how easy it is. It just takes a long time, well worth the wait though. My recommendation is to use a variety of apples, some sweet, some tart. I usually use a mix of Honeycrisp and Granny Smith AND surprise surprise, you’ll also be adding an orange to the mix!

HOMEMADE APPLE CIDER

INGREDIENTS

• 10 medium sized apples cut in eighths
• 1 orange, peeled and segmented
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 3 tsp ground cloves
• Honey… adjust to taste. I personally don’t like a lot of honey, and only use a couple tbs but if you like your cider sweeter you can up to a half a cup

DIRECTIONS

Put all ingredients into your crockpot and add enough water to cover the fruit.
Cook on low for 7 hours (Or high for 3). I prefer to cook mine on the lower setting for longer. Don’t expect some scientific explanation as to why because all I can say is “because.” I think I learned that from my 4 year old.

At this point the fruit will be super soft. Grab your masher (or giant spoon if you don’t own a masher) and mash the fruit. This is the part that really releases the flavor and also the part where we get really excited because it’s almost done.

Let cider cook on low for 1 more hour

Now it’s time to strain! SLOWLY strain the cider through a fine mesh sieve, using a spoon to press down and squeeze out all the liquid into whatever you’ll be storing your cider in.

Serve warm or refrigerate for up to 1 week. Yea right…. like anything in my house lasts more than one week.

We like to use the remaining solid apples to make apple sauce. Just remove the peels and mash a little more.

My oldest daughter suggested that we make something Halloween related every day of October which I thought was a dope idea. It may not necessarily be edible but I’ll be posting pics every day on my Instagram. Last night we made apple cider floats (just put one scoop of the ice cream of your choice into a mug and add cider) and these cute little ghost brownies which were so simple to make, mainly because I took a shortcut (ugh I cringe thinking about all the added crap in em) and used already prepared brownies. I got the idea from Betty Crocker