It’s a sunny early fall day with just a hint of crispness and the beginnings of familiar fall aromas in the air. This time of year we usually get out to Patterson’s Fruit Farm to load up on fresh local apples and cider (the fresh grape juice is unbelievable, too!), but today Renée and Ali made a quick run to pick up some fixin’s for chili and grabbed a bag of apples while they were out, just for eating.
As luck would have it, the bagged apples were less than fresh, which is always a bummer, but it wasn’t worth returning to the store to get another bag. So, what to do? Applesauce, of course.
Applesauce is one of the easiest things you’ll ever make, so don’t expect to find much culinary enlightenment on the topic here.
Pare the apples, put them in a pot with a little water and a dash of salt, and cook them over medium heat until soft.
Use a mixer or hand masher to reduce the pieces to a fine consistency. Add 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar, cook a few minutes longer and remove from the heat. Push through a strainer to remove peel if desired. Serve warm or cold.
Storing fresh made applesauce in the freezer is easy. Get some good quality freezer bags, fill them with applesauce and lay flat on a cookie sheet in your freezer. Once they are frozen, rebag them in larger bags, and voila, flat packages to store nicely in your freezer.
You can also take some fresh peeled apples, throw them in a big pot, add the juice from a few lemons, toss and freeze the same way. You’ll have perfectly white apples for crisps, crumbles, pies, or whatever your heart desires anytime of the year.
Other things applesauce:
- Applesauce Polish – Remove scratches and blemishes and restore the shine to your iPod withApplesauce’s special two-part system. It can safely and easily restore your iPod’s original finish.
- Rain Makes Applesauce – This strange, weird and fascinating work by Julian Scheer and Marvin Bileck dates back to 1964. The book consists of very strange and nonsensical sentences like “Salmon slide down a Hippo’s hide, and rain makes applesauce,” and “Monkeys mumble in a jelly bean jungle, and rain makes applesauce.” The book also has some interesting illustrations.
- Applesauce Inc. – The parent company of Applebee’s
- Applesauce Inn B & B – Bellaire, Michigan
- Did Jimmy Durante coin the phrase pork chops and apple sauce? No, it was Jimmy Cagney. Years later, it was also the center of a Brady Bunch episode, where Peter Brady imitates Jimmy Cagney after his mom tells Peter what they are having for dinner.
Oh, and if Ali spies your applesauce…
This is what happens to it…
I was lucky to get any at all!
