Homemade Applesauce

Yes, I love to cook, and foods made from fresh fruit and veggies from the local farm markets, or even a good supermarket, beats anything store-bought hands-down.

Why waste your money on food laden with chemicals and preservatives when you can do so much better at home? Plus, if you have little ones in your home, they can help peel, sort, grate and stir, and then when they are older they will enjoy cooking their own meals.

Trust me, it works. My son was an ace at fried chicken, rice and veggies: and he learned to cook all the foods to be table-ready at the same time. I confess, I did push many meals on him until he caught wise and protested. However, he is self-sufficient in the kitchen and has surpassed me cooking on the BBQ!

Homemade Applesauce

A crockpot works best, as this sauce needs to simmer for several hours as the apples cook down and soften up. When they are fully cooked and mushy, a hand-held potato masher or an immersion blender works equally well: Ignore the lumps, a little texture is good. (Don’t worry about substituting Macintoshes or any other apple, or even throwing in some pears, these are my preferences and are readily available in my local supermarkets.)

Ingredients:

• 6-8 Gallo Apples
• 6-8 Green Apples
• 1 cup Water (experiment with Cranberry Juice, Apple Cider or even a little Orange Concentrate)
• 2-3 tablespoon Brown Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Cinnamon (or more to taste)
• ½ teaspoon salt

Slice and dice all apples into chunks (about half the size of your thumb)

If you leave the skin on the apples, be sure to slice any chunks with skin into slivers. The skin of the apple does not always break down completely and it could be choking hazard.

Place all ingredients into crockpot and stir well.

Let cook on medium 3-4 hours, stirring often.

When apples are mushy, turn off the crockpot and let cool before mixing, to avoid any splatters that could burn.

When cooled, use a potato masher, or immersion blender and mix well, then refrigerate in an air-tight container.

This will keep for 2 weeks in your refrigerator and makes a wonderful side dish for all meals, particularly roast pork or pork chops.

Enjoy!