Making Memories ... One Fun Thing After Another

So here's a question for you. Are you a store bought applesauce person or a homemade applesauce person? Or do you not care? I heard there are people out there who actually don't care about food. GASP! Can you believe it?!?!

I'm a homemade applesauce person - all the way. Just the thought of eating store bought applesauce makes me cringe. It doesn't even taste like apples! What the???

Last year I didn't want to bother making applesauce because Gravensteins (the BEST apples to make applesauce) always come in season right when I'm going back to work. It's tough to think about work, school and making applesauce. But then around October I about knocked myself loopy for not making any. So we suffered all year with store bought (which I refused to eat.)

Once again it's applesauce time and I jumped on it this year. 20 pounds of Gravensteins please =o)

I don't really have a recipe for making applesauce. It's all taste (which also means no two batches are exactly the same.

Oh yeah, and my kids and I HATE, let me say that again, HATE chunks in our applesauce. So I use a food mill to squish it all up. This is perfect for two reasons. 1) no chunks (yeah) and B) I don't have to peel the apples first which saves a ton of time.

So I cook up the apples in a large pot. I core them as much as I can because I don't want crushed up stems or seeds in there. A girl has to have some standards, right?

Then squish them in your food mill.

Put the applesauce back into a large pan over medium heat and add sugar to taste. I add anywhere from 1-2 cups depending on how full the pan is. I also add a teaspoon or 3 =o) or cinnamon.

Heat until it's boiling and then add to your sterilized jars.

Depending how how the applesauce is you may or may not have to put them in a hot water bath to seal them. 9 times out of 10 they seal perfectly. If they don't after they cool, put them in a hot water bath for 10 minutes and they will.

Voila! Amazing homemade applesauce!