I promise, you will never be satisfied with applesauce from a store shelf, ever again. Ready? It's easy.
Fill your crock pot with peeled, sliced apples. One of these doohickeys works wonderfully for coring/slicing/chunking:
Add about 1/2 C water, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, and maybe 1/3 cup of sugar. It depends on your apples and your taste, but you can sweeten more after the apples are done. Now, stir it all up a bit, put the lid on and cook on low all day or until the apples are soft. In about four hours your family will start sniffing and asking you what is that marvelous smell coming from the kitchen. Mash it all up and taste. (Don't burn your tongue.)
Deeeelishus, the taste of autumn and home and love! Serve in a bowl, over pancakes, on biscuits, or on a Dutch baby. Your children will rise up and call you blessed, and your husband also.
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I wish I had some apples left. We went to another orchard a week ago and they are almost gone. I'd need to get two bags to have enough to sauce. What kind did you use? I really love apples!
ReplyDeleteApples here in NC are *ridiculously* priced at nearly $2/lb and of course, there aren't any orchards. Boo. I bought three measly apples today to hide from the kids! haha This does sound wonderful though!
ReplyDeleteHi Jenn, I have done this with several different varieties. Right now Macintosh are on sale at WM for $. 67/lb, so I bought three peck-bags of them to make sauce or bake with. We don't like that kind for eating. They cook up pretty soft, so the sauce is very saucy, and if there are any chunks, they are very soft. Red delicious are not good for cooking... golden delicious make wonderful, sweet sauce. Granny Smith will take longer to cook and need more sugar. Haralson, Cortland, or Gala are all good. TMI? :)
ReplyDeleteAnd Karen, most of our apple prices are high, too. We have some varieties that are nearly $3/lb!!! I'd never pay that! We are blessed to have orchards locally, though we have to wait 'til they sell their stuff to the grocers to get cheap prices. I think it's mostly "seconds", because the peck bags that I see are mostly small apples. We could pray that you find a deal. :) "Casting EVERY care upon him..."
ReplyDeleteYum! I just read on another site that she leaves the skins right on, for added vitamin value and laziness, lol. I'll trade you a jar of applesauce for a jar of crabapple jelly or strawberry jam... :)
ReplyDeleteHey, looks like you've got apples! Here was wrote in response to your concerns about fruit and making green smoothies for your large crowd, in case you didn't see it:
ReplyDeleteHey, Sally, I don’t know how much fruits and veggies cost up there in MN, though I imagine they’re higher than here. My experience with the Vitamix recipes is that I can get three generous servings of any one recipe (my dh would say I’m too generous–lol). A serving works up to about an 8-10 oz. glass. So, you could double a recipe and be just fine.
Some thoughts. If kale is available to you, that’s your green. I bought one bunch of kale for under $1, and since the recipe (remember–that’s 3-4 servings) only uses 1 cup of kale, it stretches far. I’ve still not finished using my one bunch that I bought more than a week ago, and we’ve enjoyed smoothies for about 8 of our 10 school days in that same time. Spinach will also stretch and is not detectable in a smoothie, but it costs a little more than kale. Lettuce is a 3rd option. Orange juice can be a fruit source, and you’d only need 2 cups for your family. Apple juice is even less expensive than orange, at least in our area. Bananas are cheap most everywhere, and they’re a smoothie staple. Consider also frozen fruits for things like peaches or berries. Here those frozen bags run about $3.50, so they get steep pretty quickly, but they are doable as a 1-or-2-day-a-week option.
Finally, I’m sure that with all the fruit/ veggie servings you get in this one serving, you don’t have to do it every day. Just make it a part of your week on 2 or 3 days. I hope I helped. If I think of anything else, I’ll e-mail you!