How to Make Applesauce

First, taste the apples to make sure that they're good.

Next, wash the apples. Yes, tasting should alway come before washing!

Check and see which apples still are dirty. Count them, if you want to.

Supervise the apple peeling. Try turning the crank a little but only with Mommy's help.

Tasting the cinnamon stick is essential to the best applesauce. Once you've tasted, add it to the pot.

Stir.

Let it cook for a while and ask Mommy to mash it up later.
(Note: I decided to add in the peels because the peeler I was using took off a lot of the flesh with it. I later had to fish them all out. And I forgot to take a picture of the final product.)

Summer Project Roundup

The following two rugs have been worn-in for a while now but I finally got around to taking some pictures. I worked on them both this summer, doing the bathmat first. Since they are knit rag rugs, I also got to enjoy the cathartic exercise of ripping up old sheets!

This could have had some fringe but I ran out of sheet.
The cable on this was done with a chopstick for a cable needle. Pretty ridiculous but fun.
This one was made from two twin flannel sheets, so it's very soft for flopping on. E. has done a lot of lying on her stomach to look at things on this rug.
Close up view.

Things I've been working on

I'm not sure if this is the "nesting urge or not but I've been working on a lot of projects recently. This is Grandpa's sweater vest (started after Christmas so it's taken a little while).

Grandma's sweater vest which was sewn together and even had one button on, as you can see, when I realized that it wouldn't fit so I had to take it apart. I'm almost done fixing the back.

I really love the buttons for Grandma's sweater which I got from



Grandma's button box which she divided up between R. & me for Christmas.




I also used some buttons from there to re-button my faux-fur New Oreleans thrift store coat.

I've been having fun making my own bread too, both for daily at home use and for communion. I put a cross on both loaves because I wasn't sure which one I was going to take. This is the Peasant Bread from the amazing no-knead artisanal bread cookbook that I first heard about on angry chicken's blog.

This is a science project I'm doing with my class. We're all trying this at home to see what happens to the onions over 5 weeks. My hypothesis is that they will sprout but then rot. I have two set up because someone was absent and unable to do it this weekend. But I don't get why the water on the right is orangey. It's really not just the table wood showing through. Could it be rotting already?? (Please ignore the bread crumbs--as noted above I've been a mad baker recently).