Freezer Cooking Friday, #6

Between the boxes of apples we picked from my parents' neighbor's tree and the boxes of pears gifted to us by a dear friend at church, my Friday cooking is now more about using the produce than filling the freezer! (The freezer is getting pretty full anyway, and we have half a hog coming next month. We've been getting a quarter cow from farming friends for a few years, but this is our first time buying bulk pork!)

I did another full pot of applesauce, but in the crockpot, and I swapped out about 1/3 of the apples for pears. It's delicious. However, I didn't peel the fruit, and the pear skin is a bit tougher than the apple skin. I don't mind it, but I think some of my kids will protest. I'll probably do another batch this week (soon, since the pears are starting to bruise!) and peel the fruit first.

Much better than apple-pear sauce, though, is the pear fruit leather. We have a dehydrator, but it only has one solid sheet for drying purees, so I used two big sheet pans in the oven (doubling the recipe). It took right around six hours at 170*. It's kind of a lot of work for little output -- if you consider that we have at least five people eating a serving at a time -- but yummy enough that I'll probably do another batch. 

Out of the oven and onto waxed paper to be cut into strips and rolled up. Yes, I missed a few seeds along the way, but they're easily picked out.

I had hoped to make some sweet pear bread or muffins besides, but Levi's current literature study (on The Shakespeare Stealer) included a recipe for an Elizabethan apple and orange pie, and he wanted to try it. I think the flavor is good -- reminiscent of a spiced cider simmered with oranges -- but nobody can quite get past the chewy orange peels. Still, I think it's one of the prettier pies I've made! I really need to learn some pretty edging techniques . . . not to mention some better photography skills . . . 🤷😊