Friday, July 3, 2009

Frugal Find Friday--Apple Corer


A fun find to share with you this Friday! I've been wanting an apple corer/peeler/slicer since last fall. We picked apples off a tree that was headed for trimming and did we ever bring home a ton! It was great as they were free, had not been sprayed and were Golden Delicious apples. When you make applesauce it is recommended to combine multiple types of apples for the best flavor. However, if you can only do one type Golden Delicious is the one to go with. It is a sunny, yummy apple flavor and all those apples turned into lots of applesauce! And a crisp or two as well.

Mike prefers smooth applesauce with no peels or such blended in. I also knew we'd be feeding this sauce to the little one when he started solids in the middle of the winter. So, I peeled apples. I peeled and cored and cut up apples. I had a 5 week old baby and I peeled and peeled and peeled apples. It took me a long time, but we ended up with a lot of applesauce in our freezer. (This was before I had my canning stuff.)

This year I have had some issues with my wrists when I do something too much in too short of a time. (Maybe from peeling all those apples? I sure hope not.) So, I knew I could do smooth applesauce with my canning colander if I found one, which I have. We grew up doing only tomato juice with it, so I am excited to give mass applesauce production a try! I also really hoped to find an apple corer/peeler/slicer though. We like apple crisp and other apple desserts that are made with sliced apples. If I had a corer/peeler/slicer I could make lots of those types of apples for the freezer and not have to do all the work myself.

As you may remember, I keep a list of things I'm looking for and last weekend I was apple to cross apple corer/peeler/slicer off my list! I found a new looking Pampered Chef one at a massive rummage sale. The owner had never used it and wanted the space in her cupboard back. She didn't have the directions, but thought it should work fine as they'd never done anything to it except store it.

Here are some pictures of its first trial run.


Peeling

Slicing


Coring
Seems to do what it says! The only thing I've read on-line about it is that it works best with Granny Smith apples. Some have real issues with it when trying to do red apples or soft apples. This could cause a dilemma as I hope to be using home grown apples, which can be a bit soft. I think we'll be okay though as some of my apples were awfully soft. It did tear them up a bit, but I saved the slices I could and put the rest of the parts into a pot to make applesauce. I figure if I'm doing sliced apples I'll also be doing applesauce so it will work out. It may not be the most perfect with home grown softer apples, but it will save my wrists a ton of work and that will be totally worth it. So far, I am a very happy camper!
So you want to know what I paid for it?




So I spent $4.00. New they are selling for $31.50. Oh, and mine came with the stand. That is extra, of course. The stand sells for $14.50. So my little $4, never been used stand cost the nice rummage sale lady about $46 and she even put it together for me before selling it to me for $4. One more thing to cross of my list! The directions are even on-line so I was able to figure out how to use it very quickly. And I found out it can make spiral fries out of potatoes...how fun!
Any Frugal Finds in your life this week? I love hearing other people's deals, so feel free to leave me a comment with your finds!
Heather

11 comments:

  1. Heather, thanks for stopping by & leaving a note! Another frugal girl, I see & good for you for finding that PC apple peeler/corer. I remember those too!

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  2. Love the blog! I have one of these too and it took a while to figure it out. We picked a bunch of apples last year and they were softer ones. You're right-it is kind of tough to peel the softer apples with it. Maybe I just need more practice. FYI-you may know this, but in the fall check and see if you can get super cheap apples from the orchard by picking the windfall ones. They were free at one orchard later in the season and $7 a case at another orchard. The strainer works great for making applesauce of them! Where do you get all your free produce from? Where do you get a free case of pears?

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  3. My dh brought me one home and I use it a lot. We buy apples by the case from the produce company and I make sauce a few times a year.

    Hey, I would love to see more on bread baking. I am trying to make burger/hot dog buns for my crew and I'm having limited success.

    Arden

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  4. Jackie!!!!! So glad to hear from you. We seriously need to catch up. I'm home Sun-Thur this week, so give me a call if you have some time. What great prices on apples! I'll have to check into the orchard that we went to a few years back. I'm hopeful to be able to find some free ones again, but if not the orchards would be the place to go.

    The free produce is from people I met on freecycle. You can find more info in a few places here. The Selective Squeamishness post is a good place to start. We feel really fortunate for what we've gotten so far.

    Anon--I will defintely do some posts on bread baking. I have a hamburger bun recipe that we LOVE. They are soft and yummy! I've also got a whole wheat recipe that we do from time to time. Any other specific bread products you'd like to see? Any tips on using the peeler/slicer/corer for those of us who are new to it :)

    Thanks for stopping by everyone!
    Heather

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  5. Just an FYI....
    You can remove the slicer and just have it peel the apples. It won't tear them up quite as bad.
    Shery

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  6. Great pictures of the process! You've made my mouth water, just thinking of apple pie, or applesauce! There's really nothing like homemade applesauce, and so much better for you, without all of those preservatives. What a great find!

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  7. What a great find! I definately need one of these!

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  8. Great deal - I have never used one.
    Glenda

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  9. What a great find! Great bargain! It will certainly make your life much easier!

    Enjoy!

    Tina

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  10. I really love my apple thingie! It began life in a kindergarten class, and when the teacher retired she had a yard sale. Paid fifty cents and it works great. We like it for making tarte tatin--one sheet of puff pastry and two or three apples and we have a fabbo dessert.

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  11. Great buy - those things are so expensive !
    Hugs ~ Kammy

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