Well, here's how I do (I use it in "apple" crisp as I cannot make a decent pie crust to save my life). Start by peeling a zucchini. If you want people to think these are apples, remove all the bits of green peel. Slice in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds and pulpy center with a spoon. Lay the zucchini cut side down and slice. I use two large zucchinis (about 6 cups? - I don't know. I never measure anything.) Place in a large saucepan and add: 1/2 cup sugar 1 tablespoon cinnamon (or to your taste, but I love cinnamon) or 2 t. apple pie spice about 3/4 cup water 1/4 cup lemon juice Simmer until the slices are tender and the liquid has become syrupy. For a fruit crisp: Take out the slices and put into a 2 qt. baking dish. Keep simmering the syrup until thick. Add 1 tablespoon tapioca if you like it thicker. Dump the syrup over the slices in the baking dish. Sprinkle on your favorite crumb topping. Mine is: 6 tablespoons butter or margarine 1 cup flour (or substitute some oatmeal for part of the flour) 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt Mix until crumbly and sprinkle over the slices. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Lot to digest there. The tree is in decline, and I don't do much any more with the apples, have never sprayed them, most are too high now. I do have an apple picker when the kids start climbing the thing, but the top half broke off so it won't reach as high as it should. All these years and I can't remember when the bigger, ripe ones start to drop, how dumb is that? I hear them at night here by my computer when the window is open. The green ones I don't bother about, just let them fall, may or may not pick them up depending on time & energy. Suckers are a problem in the other little garden near the tree; I'm always whacking them. Sigh, I never water the terrace so suckers have never appeared there. Maybe the tiller edger will go deep enough to sever the runner if they do. I can't grow any more trees, am out of room for them. The bottle business is on the other thread I started, probably on page 2 now, subject something like do these hostas look like they are going to make it, can't remember, am tired. It's a good idea, and when I'm not running to the hardware store for stupid reasons like I bought a connector for two hoses and could not turn the on off thingies, didn't want to force them with pliers and break them off or whatever, fingers sore from arthritis. The guy got them loose for me and I can turn them now. I buy a soaker hose for the front, start setting it up and ready to attach the laundry hose as an extender so it won't start the drip until it is in the garden. It's like two female connectors, and I need a female male on the ends because of the way the soaker hose is set up. I was so frustrated. Now I have to go back to the hardware store to see if there is some kind of adapter and return one soaker hose I bought for another garden because my neighbor loaned me his again, but I'm not enthusiastic about using it because it makes it much harder to weed. You partly bury a 2-litre bottle with a slit in the bottom and put water in the top to set up a slow drip, upping the chances that the water won't flow down the hill but water more deeply is essentially what that was about. Then I wrote what I did in this thread about putting the slit in the cap and opening up the bottom to make filling them easier. I forgot to water the hostas tonight. So much to do. Problems with everything, hard to stay on top of it all. They'll be fine. I want to lay a nice edging now that I have it cleaned up and am too tired to even think about it. Some kind of bricks, more work, maybe in the fall.

Thanks for the apple squares recipe. I've copied and saved it for the some-day-in-the-future when I can actually test it. I've been in oven withdrawl for the past month as my kitchen is being re-done. My current cooking appliances, microwave, hot-plate, toaster, kettle, and crock-pot, all share the same circuit, so I can only use one at a time. I can't help collecting cake recipes during the interval.

My grandmother use to make Apple Butter and Annie was kind enough to share her recipe for Apple butter last year. I had planned to use some of the apples off our two apple trees but never got around too it. Maybe this year. But like you Cindy, I've never had apple butter in a cake. But I have had apple butter cakes. Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table Apple Butter ============ Apple Butter recipe Posted by annie1992 (My Page) on Mon, Jul 3, 06 at 1:22 This recipe is Grandma's and I won a blue ribbon the year I was 12 at the county fair using this recipe. Dad was prouder of that ribbon than he was when I finished college, I think. LOL I did change this recipe in one way. I bake it in the oven instead of standing at the stove stirring a boiling pot of apple butter. I can go do other things and I don't get all those little burns on my arm from the volcanos of boiling apple butter. I bake it in a big non-reactive roaster at about 250F. This takes 8-10 hours but the house will smell sooooo good. Stir it about once an hour. I've baked it hotter, but you have to be very careful that it doesn't overcook and taste caramelized. If you want it more quickly, turn it up to 350 for the first couple of hours, until the pulp starts to thicken, then turn it down to finish but watch it carefully. You can also do this in a crockpot, but again, watch carefully. Today's crockpots will overcook it quickly and you'll get that caramelized flavor. Grandma Powell's Apple Butter 6 lbs apples quartered (about 12 apples, I use MacIntosh) 2 quarts sweet apple cider 2 cups sugar 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp cloves Simmer apples in cider until tender, then put through a food mill or sieve. Measure 3 quarts of apple pulp and cook until mixture mounds on a spoon. Add sugar and spices (taste it, you can add more or less to make it the way you like it), cook stirring frequently until mixture is thick, about 1 hour. Watch carefully as the apple butter thickens so it doesn't stick and scorch. Pour hot into hot jars, add rings and lids. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes for pints and quarts. Makes about 6 pints (depending on how juicy your apples are) This is a recipe that you HAVE to taste to get it right. The apples could be very sweet or extremely sour. If they are juicy, they'll cook down and make less but it will taste just as good. I regularly add more cloves because I love that flavor, and sometimes I add ginger. Occasionally I use half brown sugar. Oh, and I always reuse the cider, I either cook more apples in it and make a double batch of apple butter, or I strain it and make apple jelly. Incidentally, if you think you can use that much, you don't have to can it, it'll keep in the refrigerator for a week or two. It doesn't freeze well, though, it kind of "separates". Annie