Applesauce

 

 

It's a lot of bother making applesauce from scratch, but it tastes so much better than anything out of a supermarket jar, which tends to be cloying sweet. And since John did the peeling and chopping this morning when I was at the gym, we cooked up six pints by lunchtime. 

 

These are an organic new crop from Lone Pine. It's a bit early for apples and they were on the hard and tart side, which was perfect for applesauce. Honeycrisp (primarily an eating apple) are juicy and sweeter later in the season. 

 

 

They cook down to soft mush quickly, and just need a light mashing for a slightly lumpy consistency.

We like a chunky texture over the baby food smooth applesauce our moms made with these "mid century vintage" food mills. 

Anyway. I used a touch of brown sugar to give it that light caramel color. No cinnamon and light on the white sugar. It's nice to have some good stuff on hand in the winter for pork roast and those fattening fried potato pancakes I make with leftover mashed potatoes.

So Labor Day weekend is here leaving no doubt that we're headed into that bittersweet season of fall transition. After some good rain, the early mornings in Seattle are suddenly so dark. The screen light of laptops and phones is hard on my old eyes, so I've changed my blogging routine with the season. Besides-- why start the day with NYT doom scrolling? 

Enjoy your holiday weekend and take care on the roads if you're heading out somewhere. We will be at home.