Apple-Berry Butter

Recently I bought a bag of apples at the store, but after a week, many of them were showing bruises. Likewise, I was at Costco and bought some giant buckets of berries... which were starting to look less than happy. What to do? Apple-berry Butter- in the crock pot. Here's the blog where I got my inspiration: http://therovinglemon.blogspot.com/2011/02/blackberry-apple-butter.html
Perfect yummy flavors filled my house all day. But necessary to be home most of the day for this one.

Step one: Chop and core apples and trow that all in the crock pot. (I used my larger crock pot, but it could have probably worked in the little one too.) There were about 8 small apples. I just barely covered them with a little water and some cherry juice concentrate, because that is what I had. I think it cooked for a few hours. I kind of forgot about it. The apples were all soft and mushy.

Step two: Turn off the crock pot and mix in the berries. I had blackberries and blueberries probably about a pound total. I left those sit a little while to "cook" the berries in the residual heat of the crock pot. So pretty:

Step Three: I took it all out of the crock pot and put it in a bowl so I could puree it in batches and put it back in the crock pot on low for a REALLY LONG TIME. There was really more liquid in there than I expected, but it did help with the puree process.

Step Four: Cook on low with the lid vented for a long, long time. Whenever I thought about it, I mixed the butter and scraped it off the sides of the crock pot. Especially at the end, this was absolutely necessary. I added a teaspoon of lemon juice to brighten the flavors, and brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon to taste.

The finished product: Yes, eventually, it was done. And it filled one of those big peanut butter jars. I plan to can it... another day.

It is yummy, a pretty color and would be fantastic on yogurt or oatmeal or an English muffin, or well, just about wherever you want to put it.

Surprisingly yummy chorizo & quinoa soup

Last night I didn't know what to make for dinner. I didn't have a plan, but I had 1 lb of frozen pork chorizo in the fridge. I was babysitting a toddler (along with watching my own) so I didn't have a lot of time or free hands. I ended up making this soup:

Will & I both had 2 helpings and leftovers for lunch today. It was SO good. Doesn't it LOOK good?

I think I bought the chorizo one time because I thought it looked like it would be interesting for making tacos or burritos or something. This was better.

Ok. The ingredients.
Of course, this was just what I happened to have in my fridge that looked like it wanted to be eaten. Especially the zucchini. And the kale.

1lb ground pork chorizo, browned
1 can crushed tomatoes
3 stalks of curly green kale- chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped
1 carrot, thinly sliced
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 healthy scoop of Better Than Bullion vegetable base
3 cups of water
a bunch of fresh chopped basil (I have some growing in my kitchen)
about 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (This is also growing in my kitchen... why didn't I use fresh?)
a bay leaf
1/2 cup quinoa, well rinsed

Basically, the short story is throw everything in the pot together, except the basil & quinoa. Let it come to a boil. Rinse the quinoa under cold water for a few minutes, then throw it in over a low boil for another 10 minutes.

Voila. REALLY AMAZING soup that's healthy too.

I am certain this could be done with other meat than the chorizo. But it did add plenty of spice and flavor.
Someone else might use 3 cups of broth of their choice, instead of the Better than Bullion & water.
I am pretty sure that other veggies could be added or subbed instead.

Wish I had more. I will for sure make this soup again.