January round-up

The last of a batch of cranberry-apple butter - more info below

Well, that was quite a month, wasn’t it? My two weeks off over the holidays feels like a looooong time ago, to say nothing of the various situations in my home and adopted countries. But I have been working to stay on track with my resolutions, which helps with feeling like I have a semblance of control, even as the world seems to be tilting on its axis. Here's my update for the month:

1 handmade project: this is definitely not done. But it is probably 50% done, and considering I didn’t know how to crochet a granny square 4 weeks ago, I think it’s coming along pretty well!

Me trying to figure out 1) how far along I am towards an actual afghan and 2) how to integrate squares using two different (but hopefully complementary) types of yarn

2 outside events: I had to miss Book Club, but still managed to exceed this, between a couple of work events and a bakery excursion, continuing my (so far fruitless) quest to find a kouign-amman somewhere in Northern Virginia. 

3 minute meditation: this hasn’t happened every day, but I’d say I’m managing at least twice a week, which is definitely progress.

4 books: I’m still working on the YA title, but the rest are as follows:

Fiction: Circe by Madeline Miller. Excellent.

Non-fiction: Becoming by Michelle Obama (finally! I put it on hold at the library a year ago!). Also excellent.

Cookbook: The Simple Bites Kitchen by Aimee Wimbush-Bourque (bonus recipe below).

YA: The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan (in progress).

5 30-minute exercise sessions: I would say I’m averaging 4 at the moment, so some progress here too.

6 pages/week of creative writing: I didn’t quite make this, but I’m proud to say that I did consistently get up early most weekdays, and produced 12 pages of work as a result.

7 hours/month on personal admin: this month’s achievements included bringing household filing and my debt tracking spreadsheet up to date. (Okay, that even made me yawn! My tip for making this stuff happen is to find something to stream that is entertaining but doesn't require a lot of concentration, and crack on.)

As promised above: recipe!

Slow-cooker cranberry-apple butter
Adapted from The Simple Bites Cookbook

Yield: ~7 half-pint/8 oz/250 ml jars

I’ve gotten out of the habit of making or giving canned foods for the holidays the last few years, but this was too serendipitous to pass up when I came across it browsing this cookbook that I had picked up in Canada a few years ago. It was the Friday after Christmas, I wanted to add something extra to the goody bags I was planning for the weekend’s events, and I had all the ingredients in my overstuffed fridge, thanks to overenthusiastic pre-holiday buying. This made enough for several jars to give away, plus a generous portion in the fridge that took me well into January.

6 lbs of apples, various varieties (this worked out to 12 good-sized farmer’s market apples for me)
1 package cranberries
1 cup apple cider
½ cup maple syrup

Wash, core, and quarter the apples and place in a slow cooker set on High, then add the cranberries and cider. Cover and cook for 3-4 hours until the apples are mushy.

Place a food mill (or a large sieve) over a medium-sized bowl. About 2 cups at a time, scoop all of the fruit solids from the slow cooker into the food mill and grind them into a fine mush. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the food mill or sieve screen to get all of it, then stir to combine thoroughly. 

Return the mush to the slow cooker, and stir to combine again with any liquids remaining in the slow cooker from the first round of cooking. Change the setting on the slow cooker to Low, and continue to cook until the fruit mush has cooked down into a thick, spreadable butter. (I usually prop the lid of the slow cooker open about ½ inch/1 cm with a wooden spoon to allow condensation to escape and the fruit butter to cook down more easily. 

When you scrape a spoon across the bottom of the slow cooker and it takes 2-3 seconds for the gap to close, the fruit butter is ready. Stir in the maple syrup, turn off the slow cooker, and leave the butter to cool. At this point you can put the fruit butter into jars for canning, or leave to cool completely and then put in container(s) to stash in the fridge.

Oh, and there was one other achievement this month:

Hint: the number of candles is symbolic - no one here is five