Apples and Oranges

It's been 5 days since Ash Wednesday.  I'm getting the hang of reading every.single.nutrition.label.  I'm sure ya'll know this, but do you know how many items HFCS is in?  And not just the sweet stuff either; I've found it in salad dressing, ketchup, and granola bars.

While doing my Saturday morning clean out the fridge routine, I found some soft apples in the bottom of our veggie drawer.  Yeah, I don't know about you, but I like really crisp apples when I eat them.  Then I remembered the Mott's that was in the picture.  Lightbulb - I made some fresh applesauce.   A few years ago I made homemade apple butter so making this was a few less steps. 

The Pick Your Own Cooperative is a wonderful group dedicated to bringing farms and people closer together.  And they have some pretty fantastic recipes.  Here is the one I loosely followed (more for pointers than anything else):  http://www.pickyourown.org/applesaucewomill.htm

And, no I do not have a food mill, I used my rusty trusty immersion blender. 

First step, wash, peel, core and chop the apples. 

Throw them in a pot with about an inch of water.  Bring to boil and simmer until your apples are soft. 

Once they are cooked down, you can follow the food mill suggestions on the site, or you can use your food processer, immersion blender, or even a potato masher to make your applesauce.  Yep, that's it... 

My three medium sized apples made 2 1/2 cups of applesauce!  I've decided to divide it and freeze some for a rainy day.

Now, to turn the applesauce to apple butter, put the pureed apples back into the pot and sprinkle in some cinnamon (I also like to put a sprinkle of nutmeg and cloves in mine).  Cook the pureed apples for about 30 more minutes.  Then put it back into the food processor and puree until smooth.  Or you could follow the directions here...  I just love they have pictures step by step : (http://www.pickyourown.org/applebutter.htm)

Enjoy!