I have a grand total of 110 pounds of apples in my kitchen right now.  You know what this means don’t you?  Yes, it means that by the end of this week my fingers are going to look brown and dirty.  And they’ll stay that way for about two weeks until the brown wears off.  It’ll be really cute and not at all embarrassing (as long as I keep my hands stuffed into my pockets while out in public).

Oh, and if I don’t wear an apron while I’m working with all of these apples, the front of my shirt will also be covered in brown splatter stains, which will never come out.  I learned this the hard way a few years ago when I made applesauce all day, while wearing a cute Disney shirt, before going to a soccer game.  I completed the task of making applesauce, ran it through the water bath process to can it and put the jars away in my pantry.  I didn’t look down at my shirt until I was at the soccer game that night cheering for my boys.  It was then that I noticed that Eeyore was completely covered in ugly brown specks.  (Of course, it had to be Eeyore.)  I was by far the most pitiful looking mother out at the soccer field that day.  Of all days to leave my jacket at home.

So now you know:  While you peel, core, slice and chop apples – the juice will spit and splatter everywhere.  If you work on 110 pounds of apples, everything around you, including every crevice on your hands, will turn brown for days.  There’s not much you can do about this, so just embrace the fact that you’ll look like you’ve been working under the hood of your car.  To avoid answering any difficult-to-answer questions from the powers that be, remove all school papers, bills, library books, and photos before proceeding.  And for the love of Eeyore, please wear an apron.

My 110 pounds of apples await, and I guess it goes without saying that my apron is ready for action.  Here’s what I’m looking at doing this week:

I’ll start by making and canning as many jars of Applesauce as I can make before I get sick of making applesauce.  I will probably be using a slightly different method than the one described here, so I’ll give an update on that sometime during the week.

If, in fact, I still have a few pounds of apples left after making applesauce, I hope to then make a few Mini Apple Pies.  These are great to have in the freezer for a quick breakfast or dessert.

I may also can a few jars of Apple Pie Filling.  This is great to have on hand to when throwing together a quick apple crisp or of course, to make a big apple pie.  Here’s my Whole Wheat Pie Crust recipe if you’re interested.

I may also use my Excalibur Food Dehydrator and make Apple Fruit Leather and/or dried apple rings.  When you have 110 pounds of apples, you can just keep going with the apple preserving until you’ve got a wide variety of apple goodies, or until you faint onto the floor of your kitchen – whichever comes first.  Don’t worry – I plan to get my boys busy helping me with these projects this week.  They are great applesauce makers.

We also plan to simply eat a bunch of these apples.  I love having so many apples on hand for snacks.  If you haven’t tried making Caramel Apple Dip, I highly recommend it.  It’s one of my favorite ways to eat apples.

Throughout the week, I’ll be snapping pictures and sharing my apple preserving progress. Prepare to get sticky around here.  I might even experiment with Apple Butter like several of you requested last week!

What is your favorite way to eat apples?  Ever ruined an Eeyore shirt with apple spatters? This is why aprons were invented.