Preserving Floyd: Apple Craic

This is my 100th post!  Today also marks my first full year of blogging!  Thanks Michael, for the encouragement and help, and for pointing your friends and co-workers in this direction.  Thank you Joel and Dana, Gloria, and Cynthia for providing such fine examples of preserving and blogging inspiration.  And thank you Readers and Followers, for your time, comments, and input.  You all help to make it all better!

Apple Craic.

Michael loves tender, deeply spiced baked apple slices.  He asked me to come up with a baked apple preserve in half and full pints that he could grab off the shelf and throw into his lunch bag.  I worked off a pie filling recipe, modifying the spices and foregoing the thickener.  Michael found it so addictive he started calling it "Apple Crack".  I was kinda uncomfortable with the implied reference so when writing it down I called it "Apple Craic".  "Craic" (pronounced crack) is the Irish word for a good time spent with friends, music, drink, and food.  It was a bit disconcerting the first time one of our Irish hosts asked us how the craic was down at the pub the night before but the word soon slipped into our conversation while we were there.  Now we'll occasionally say without thinking that there was good craic last night and receive some strange looks.  But this craic, Apple Craic, is sweetly satisfying and only slightly addictive.