My friends, Bobbie and Shirley from down the Bitterroot, gave me bags of perfect, delectable Macintosh apples. Turns out this year was a great apple year.

Today I made pureed apples for bug.

I decided it was time to purchase a kitchen scale as I have been guestimating all these years. I took my glossy, linens-n-things (what a dumb name) coupon and off I went. Madonna’s Holiday was playing as I entered the fluorescent store. I really find l-n-t to be extraordinarily depressing. They had scales that were plastic and fragile and $30-$40. I know I am hard on my kitchen equipment and that if I bought one of these scales, I’d be buying a new one in less than a year.

With the coupon burning in my jean’s pocket, I strolled to Ross Dress for Less thinking just maybe…and there it was all lonely on an end cap. There was only one. It was a beautiful blue stainless steel scale for $11.99. I could hardly breathe it was so pretty and such a great buy.

So I happily cored my apples with my super apple corer (that I scored at a garage sale for $1) and placed the perfect, sweet coils in my shiny new scale. I felt so complete at that moment that it was hard to move on to the canning.

Pureed apple recipe:
5 lbs. apples
2 cups water

yield: 5-6 pints

Peel, pit, core apples and then measure out the 5 pounds. Put fruit in large sauce pot and add water. Cook over medium heat, stirring until apples are soft. Puree in food processor or with my third favorite kitchen item (I got to use them all today), the *immersion blender*. Then cook until boil. Keep stirring. Add sugar if you desire. Ladle puree into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust two piece caps. Process for 15 minutes in boiling water canner.