Yesterday, for the first time ever in my entire life, I canned. I've been watching my mom can jam for years, so it wasn't a totally foreign process to me, but I had never done it on my own from start to finish before. I don't think words can express just how satisfying it was to hear the snap when the cans sealed. When they were all finished, I kept going into the kitchen to tap on the lids, just to hear the pleasing dull ring that means that they were properly sealed.

The reason I was canning is that I started a batch of apple-pear (the apples were the last of the ones that Scott and I picked for the second episode of Slashfood in the Kitchen) butter on Tuesday that took until Wednesday to finish. Sadly I was overconfident and didn't call my mom for advice. Had I touched base with her before I started, I would have been reminded that she cooks the apples for a bit and then strains them in a small-holed colander for a while to get some of the liquid out before pureeing and cooking them down. The way I did it, it took nearly 10 hours of cooking before it had simmered down to the right consistency (my stove didn't help matters as it doesn't do the long, slow simmer very well). However, it doesn't matter, as it all turned out and I now have five jars of really delicious apple-pear butter to give as gifts this holiday season.

I don't really have a recipe to offer you, as all I did was cook down about 30 peeled and cored apples, along with 5 pears. I put in cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and lemon juice to taste and cooked and cooked and cooked. I only put in 1/4 of a cup of sugar, because I think that it's naturally sweet just as it is. At about hour three, I pureed it with my underpowered immersion blender to get a smoother consistency.

If you're looking for more specific apple butter recipes I suggest you take at look at this one at Simply Recipes. Elise's recipes tend to work really well, so I would feel confident that this one won't lead you astray. Although I find the four cups of sugar she calls for heart-stoppingly sweet.