Ok after an agonizing hour of boiling it all down I forgot, yes I forgot, to photograph the final result before we put it in the jars. Trust me when I say it was much darker than the photos below and looked like orange Marmalade!
Or saucy applesauce as we like to call it, unforutnately it didn't come out nearly as chunky as we like it, frustrated with the sauce sticking to the bottom of the pan I buckled under and used the stick blender to break the sauce down even further. Well... you know what they say about good intentions right. So it's mostly very creamy sauce, it tastes wonderful and looks beautiful but...
The magnet is strong enough to pick up three or four lids at a whack.
Steam coming off of the boiling water.
Damaged lid used for demonstrating this technique - it was this or throw it away.
Dh came up with this idea it's a strong magnet attached to my tongs it does a nifty job of removing lids from the hot water w/o getting burned. He bought the magnet at Radio Shack back in the dark ages, circa 1982, for a whole fifty cents.
These were in the bags of jars that dh's co-worker gave him, they are WAY cool!
Yes sir, yes sir, seven bags full! And two boxes to spare as well.
I tried a new method tonight instead of using the instructions to make jam, the ones that come in the pectin box, I used the BBB's strawberry jam recipe. AND the jam actually set up!!! So I'm quite happy right now especially after my last two batches of jam "failed" to set up, they'll make excellent sauce but I was aiming for jam not sauce.