Apple butter!

the other day we went to Sprouts to see what kind of deals they had on fruits/veggies. They had apples for 85 cents a pound, so I bought a ton of them to make apple sauce and apple butter and to try my hand at home canning.
How I did it:
-peeled, cored, and sliced enough apples to fill a giant stock pot. added about 4 inches of water, and started cooking.
-when soft, mashed apples and added sugar and cinnamon to taste. This was my apple sauce. I took out as much as we wanted and put some in the fridge and the remainder in the freezer for later.
-the remainder I kept cooking. I added more sugar (some recipes say to use an equivalent measurement of sugar and fruit, but I didn't add NEARLY that much and I'm glad I didn't). I also added allspice, more cinnamon, and cloves.
-I used my handy immersion blender to completely puree my mixture.
-I kept cooking and stirring over low heat until the mixture became thick enough to mound up on a spoon. At this point, I had apple butter.

Canning:
Ethan's mom used to do a lot of canning, so I got all my jars and lids and rings from her. So all my jars of apple butter are housed in cute vintage jars! yay.
-Wash everything in hot, soapy water and rinse.
-boil everything for 10 minutes in a big pot to sterilize.
-ladle/pour hot apple butter into hot jar leaving 1/4 inch room at top. wipe rim of jar with clean dry paper towel, put on lid and secure with ring. I had one jar that was half full and I just stuck it in the fridge and we ate that first.
-put full jars into boiling water for 5-10 minutes to seal. When the jars are properly sealed, the lid will not make a clicking sound if you press on it.
-I didn't have any jar-holders, so I just wrapped my regular kitchen tongs with rubber bands and that worked fine.

We've been eating the apple butter on toast, over cream cheese as a spread, and as a topper for ice cream, pancakes, and oatmeal. And we haven't gotten botulism yet!