I love a productive day!!

And, yesterday...I had one! I got through about half of the apples (thought I could do them all...but I'm getting old!!). I peeled, cored, and sliced the green ones...covered them with white sugar and cinnamon...and they went into the oven to bake. Was thinking about a pie..but really, just needed to get them "processing" so I could move on to the red apples...which were to be my apple butter! 

 To my surprise...when I went back in about 40 minutes (in 350F oven) and started to "turn" the apples...they broke up...not mushy, but into small pieces just the same! Oh..goody...fried pies! So, I have a nice bowl of apple chunky-mush to make pies with tonight! Yum!And...discovered a good way to "start" my apples for the apple butter...really sped up the process! So, after peeling, coring, and slicing about half the red apples...then went into the oven. Then, went into the crock-pot (slow cooker) on high for about 5 hours...stirring occassionally...then more often the last hour. Spooned the apple butter into jars...and then a 10-minute boiling water bath! Voila...3 lovely pints of apple butter! (Also have half of the red to do today...and "found" another bag of green apples too!) So the job is about half done!

Another success...was this sprouting mint! It is ready to plant. These little springs came from my special drink at Olive Garden Restaurant a couple of weeks ago...when I had a shopping trip with my sister. How cool is that! Now, I will have a little pot of lovely mint growing in my kitchen this winter!

Lastly, while the apples were cooking (and the mint was growing)...I've been beading cabochons...since Saturday! Several are done and many more are prepped. 

 Let's not talk about the 3 trays of cabochons in the bead closet that aren't glued to a fabric/leather backing yet! Today, we're only talking about productive things!