Applesauce, schmapplesauce...

Yesterday was quite a productive day.  After driving myself nuts with to-do lists and projects earlier in the week, I found myself with renewed energy and a bit more spare time than usual.  Add to this a large bowl of getting-mushy apples, and you have yourself an idea "Make applesauce!"

So here's how it all unfolded.  I started with 7 apples of various varities and colors.  Five (the red ones) were organic, from one of the fine Mennonite farm families nearby.  The other two (the green ones) were from Kroger.  (I'm not much for math, so I'd say this is...ummm...mostly "organic" applesauce?)

Using a veggie peeler (READ: no need for a Band-Aid afterward), I peeled the apples.  Then I sliced, cored and cut them into chunks.  No need to be persnickety about how big the chunks are - they're just going to mashed up anyway, ya know.

Dump the apple chunks into a big pot (loving my Martha Stewart enameled dutch oven!), add 1/4 cup plain ol' white sugar and 2 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer.  Simmer covered for about 45 minutes.  Give it a good stir about every 10 minutes or so.  It smells yummy while you're cooking it!

Now and then use the back of your wooden spoon to smush the apples against the side.  It will go from chunky to smooth as you do.  I like my applesauce with a bit of texture, not the babyfood type consistency.  If you like the runny type, then mash away.

So after about 45 minutes, it looks like this....

Now just add a teaspoon of lemon juice and a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.  Taste it, and add more lemon and/or cinnamon to suit your taste.  I like just a touch of lemon but a buttload of cinnamon, so that's what I did.  Do your own thing.

I got about 3 jars of applesauce from the 7 apples.  Below is a shot of two of the jars.  (I didn't have a third empty jar, but no sweat since I'm using the extra applesauce in a chicken recipe tonight for dinner anyway.)

All in all, it was super easy.  WAY better than the store-bought stuff.  And, of course, much cheaper since I already had everything I needed at home.  (Except a third empty jar, but hey...)

It turned out great.  No bad surprises.  No lessons learned the hard way. For once.