I Like #127

Welcome to another (late) week of things to like!  It was a rough weekend around these parts because my house AC was out and we're of course in the peak heat of summer, but I had an AC person out and it turned out it just needed a new filter and some coolant so that was an unexpected blessing.  I do need a new system, mine is from 1991, but at least I can wait until the fall.

Still some really fun things to like!

1.  I love crabapple leather!  I've always just made jelly from crabapples (rather than pies or dried apples or cobbler or apple butter or applesauce) because they're too small to core and with jelly you squeeze the juice through cheesecloth so you don't get seeds etc.  But I already made enough jelly this year so I googled what other people do with crabapples and there were lots of people who made applesauce and crabapple fruit leather and crabapple butter.  Come to find out, all you need is a food mill, which pushes out pulp without seeds/stems/peels.  IT was super easy, I didn't even have to chop the crabapples.  Just cooked them whole, put them through the food mill to make crabapple sauce, and then spread the sauce on top of lined trays in my food dryer.  I like things really tart, but plain crabapple sauce is really too tart to enjoy, so I added just a little bit of sugar.  The fruit leather turned out so delicious.  Chewy and flavorful.  Like the very best kind of fresh sour fruit candy.  Sooo good.

This is the food grinder.  The front side spits out these little goose-poop like things made out of seeds and core and skin, while the sauce pours out the back.

And here's the crabapplesauce before drying

And after drying.  So fabulously bright from all the good stuff in the crabapple skins.  YUM.  Also the end of the crabapples for this year so that's good.

2. I like doing my own DIY projects!  I DIYed drop leaves onto my home-made work table this weekend to make it wider and convert the whole thing into an ironing surface.  I'll probably do a whole post about it, but it was so gratifying to figure out how and build it all myself.  Hooray!

3.  And in the continuing construction mode, I installed a small hook and eye outside the sliding glass door.  That way when I go into the building I can keep the house door shut from the outside so Bentley doesn't AC the backyard.  Five minute fix I should have done years ago.We'll see how it holds up,  I think it will be enough to prevent him from opening it.  He's gotten to the point now that he won't even go through the dog door (he just opens the door with his big bony head) unless I'm gone and the board is in the inside of the door so he can't open it.  He's like oh- it's easier to just open the door than hop through the dog door.  But of course he doesn't close it behind himself....   Precious precious infuriating dog.

Have a great week everyone, and head over to LeeAnna's to check out more positive stuff!