The End Result

Thanks for all the apricot suggestions!  Who knew there are so many yummy ways to use up apricots?

After much deliberation, I decided to take Krista's suggestion and can my own apricots!

The result is that I am now the proud owner of a 21 quart canner, 48 mason jars, and 7 quarts of home-canned apricots!

(A special thanks to my friend, Rachel Horne, who came and helped me get started on my canning.)

Not pictured: Mom helping me can 4 jars of freezer jam, Rachel helping me can these apricots, and Krista and Janel's help with canning questions.

Thanks, everyone for your suggestions and for helping me out.  It's exciting to be self-sufficient!

Emergency Chocolate Cake

Recently I was perusing the BYU Women's Services Blog (which is a fantastic resource for all sorts of women's issues, by the way), and I found this great recipe for a single serving of chocolate cake.  Spencer and I tried it out and it was pretty tasty!  Perfect for those times when you're home alone and want a little chocolate, but don't want to bake a whole cake just for yourself.  We put a scoop of peanut-butter cup ice cream on top, and it was a great compliment to the cake.

Here's the recipe:


2 Tbs cake flour (or regular flour is fine)
2 Tbs sugar
2 rounded tsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 Tbs milk
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp vanilla

Coat the inside of a mug with nonstick cooking spray. Put all ingredients in mug and stir with a fork until smooth. You can also stir in chocolate chips, nuts or anything else your heart desires. Microwave for 1 minute. Allow to cool a little before eating.

You can even put on a scoop of ice cream or some peanut butter. Mmmmmmm

**Make sure you use a bigger mug or keep an eye on it. It will overflow if you use a small one- even if the batter only takes up 1/3 of the cup.




Source: http://byuwsr.blogspot.com/2010/06/emergency-chocolate-cake.html

My Apricot Factory

This week someone gave us a whole box and a half of apricots.  I was planning on taking them to my mom, helping her can them, and then snagging some bottled apricots for Spencer and me.

Unfortunately, someone already gave Mom a lot of apricots this week. 

As a result, our kitchen has been re-comissioned for an apricot processing factory:

In a 300-square foot apartment, there's not a lot of space to spread out apricots.  

I'm running out of cookie sheets fast!

So, the great question remaining is what to do with all these apricots?  I don't have my own canning equipment and Mom is already using hers.  I've been calling and emailing family for ideas, as well as browing all of Allrecipes.com's recipes that involve apricots.

Here are a few of my favorite ideas so far:

1. Apricot Freezer Jam

2. Apricot Leather

3. Apricot Cobbler

4. Fresh Apricot Pie

Any other suggestions?