Slow Cooker Sundays: Apple Butter

14 small to medium apples (we used a random assortment of pink lady, fuji, gala, and granny smiths)

2 tbsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup dark brown sugar (use more if you like it sweeter, most recipes seem to call for at least 2 cups)
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp ground cloves

Peel and core the apples.  We used this handy tool because it also slices the apples up into smaller chunks.
Place the apple slices/chunks into the slow cooker and add the 2 tbsp of vanilla.
Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
Mash the apples with a potato masher and stir in sugar, cinnamon, and ground cloves.
Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
Let the mixture cool and then use an immersion blender to smooth out the remaining apple chunks.

Toasts, Excellent Toasts

I don't think we need a lot of description here to describe the toasts at our wedding.  Just looking at everyone's faces gives the perfect description.

If you're wondering what that pink substance is in everyones glasses, we toasted with pomegranate cider!

Wedding Slideshow & Restarting the Wedding Photo Posts

I just watched our wedding slideshow again and realized that we never posted the link here, so there you go. Posted.

I also just realized that I sort of stopped posting about our wedding since we got back from our New Zealand Honeymoon.  Since I already posted about our ceremony, the big group picture, and our scrumptious dinner it looks like the next post up should be about the toasts! And then we can get into the crazy awesome dancing pictures!

So stay tuned for the rest of the wedding posts!

And after that I'll have to finally start working on the slideshow/film that I've been promising everyone from our New Zealand trip.  But first I have to sort the 1,600 photos down to a manageable couple of hundred.

Birthday Banner

We celebrated Zeke's birthday yesterday and I made another banner out of the burlap & jute bunting that we originally made for the wedding. I followed pretty much the same instructions as I did for the holiday banner except I used navy blue cotton fabric with cream colored thread.

Since we still have a lot of bunting left to use, perhaps I'll put some time in to actually making a tutorial one of these days...