Getting Ready for Thanksgiving: Apple Pie Filling

This year will be the first year that we're having Thanksgiving at my place. I'm trying to do as much as I can ahead of time so I actually have a chance at enjoying the holiday. This week I've been putting a little more effort into cleaning the house, bought a new shower curtain for the second bathroom (dinosaurs!), stocked up on a few baking items that were on sale and made apple pie filling. Aside from trying to get ready, with recent apple prices and then my Bountiful Basket we had more apples than we could possibly go through before they go bad. (And that's after I made a few batches of apple sauce.) Growing up my mom made apple pie filling every year, then when it's time to make pies you can just roll out a crust, dump in a quart of pie filling and you're done. Easy as pie. Not to mention it tastes significantly better than store-bought pie filling. This is the first time I have done it myself and I was very pleased with how it turned out. The only problem is that any recipe I get from my mom is not exact. Here was part of our conversation the other night:
"So how many apples do you use?"
"A potfull."
"How big of a pot?"
"A big one."
"How much sugar do you use?"
"Enough"
"How much is enough?"
"It depends on how big your pot is."

Apple Pie Filling

1.One potful of apples, peeled and sliced. I used mostly fujis, but there are a few granny smiths and galas too. I'm guessing around 16 cups of apples.

2. Mix 6 Tablespoons of cornstarch with 3 cups of sugar. If you don't do this you're more likely to get corn starch clumps.

3. Add cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. How much depends on how big your pot is. I used about 3/4 teaspoon of each. Also add 1/4 cup of apple juice to prevent apple from burning to bottom of the pan while they start to cook. Also add 3 Tablespoons of lemon juice. (I also added 1/2 tsp orange juice concentrate.)

4. Cook over medium low heat, stirring occasionally for about an hour. When you're done it should like this:

5. Can according to you canner instructions. (For mine I just boiled it for 20 minutes after I put the filling into quart jars.) Makes about 3 quarts of apple pie filling.

Note: My mom usually only uses 2 cups of sugar and less corn starch, but I tasted it and felt that it needed more. It depends on your apples. But I will say that this stuff is going to make some pretty amazing pie.