Wednesday, July 7, 2010

A Riddle


What do you get when you cross two kids and a huge apple tree?

You get apples, of course. LOTS of apples. 5+ gallons of apples, to be exact!

What the heck can I possibly do with that many apples? There is no way we could eat them all (and, truth be told, many have bruises and such from falling off the tree while the kids were picking).

I decided to try my hand at making applesauce.

And, here is where, if I was good, I'd have taken photos all along the way to show the process. I even thought about doing it before making the last batch...but I didn't. Get over it!

I am currently making the last batch (because I'm *that* multi-talented)! I was amazed at how simple it is and more impressed by how YUMMY it is!

I'll admit my first batch was rather small. I used about 3/4 of the apples from the one gallon bucket. I was stunned by how good it was when I was finished. I was at my mom's house at the time of that first batch, and luckily for me, she has a food mill:



That guy made the process OH, so much easier! (Ignore the "click to enlarge" as it will do nothing!) When I came home, I brought the food mill with me...mostly because I brought a 5 gallon bucket of apples home too!

I did try my hand at making apple pie as well, and it was OK, but I did not add enough sugar, so it had to be eaten with vanilla ice cream!

Back to the applesauce! I will happily share the recipe I used, but I don't know what kind of apples I used! I found the recipe online but adapted it some. The recipe today was as follows:

2 gallon buckets full of apples
3 cups water
lemon juice (I did not measure...just pour some in)
cinnamon (again...no measuring)
nutmeg (still no measuring!)
sugar (as needed to taste...I had hoped not to use any, but my apples were not quite sweet enough)

Core and cut all apples. I did not bother to peel my apples, but you can if you want. While coring and cutting, I placed all pieces in ice water to help prevent browning. Put water in large pot and dump apples on top. Add lemon juice and stir. Add cinnamon and nutmeg and stir again. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer. Cover and simmer for 10 - 15 min, (or until apples turn to mush) stirring every 4 - 5 min or so.

Ladle mixture into food mill (OVER A BOWL!!!) and begin milling. Once finished, taste and add sugar as needed.

Voila! Applesauce!

2 comments:

  1. Ok.. I'm TOTALLY picturing the movie "Baby Boom" right now. Did you ever see that one?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love your all post, i must want to read this again, thanx for the share.

    ReplyDelete

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