Applesauce Adventure

I found a bag of apples that were marked down in the clearance cart at the grocery store.  They looked like odd ends, just a few apples of a bunch of different kinds.  I didn’t see any bad spots on them, so I grabbed the bag.

There was a mix match of different types of apples, so I decided to do a little taste test.  For the longest time I stood by the Red Delicious apples, but recently decided I didn’t like them as much as I thought I did.  This is what my quest for a new favorite led to:

Yellow Delicious: much like the Red variety, with soft meat and strong peel.

Jonathon: A firmer apple than the Delicious-es, has a good sweet taste.

Honeycrisp:  Very sweet, I could taste the hints of honey.

Granny Smith: I did not include these green apples in my test.  I don’t really like the tart-ness of green apples.

Gala: Firm apple with a mild taste.

Braeburn: Good taste with a mix of sweet and tart.

Fuji: A nice firm apple with a good taste.

McIntosh:  My favorite from the taste test!!!  I bit into it and it was like a perfect fall day, walking through an apple orchard, riding a hay ride.  It was delicious.

So, anyway, my batch was a combination of these apples.  I sliced them and peeled about half of them.  I like some extra texture in my apple sauce so I kept some peels.

I added about 2 cups of water, just enough to get the apples started cooking.  Then I covered the pot and let them simmer for about 30 minutes on medium.  I checked them at that point and let them go a little longer.  When they were really “mushy” (that’s the technical term), I pulled them off the heat and mashed them down.  Because I am going to use this applesauce for baby food, I also put the whole batch through the food processor to get a smooth consistency.

I used a hot-water bath to can them jars.  I got 2 1/2 quart jars but, sadly, one of the jars broke in the canningprocess.

So, in the end I ended up with  1 1/2 jars of homemade applesauce.  It’s super yummy.  What I love about making my own applesauce is I can choose how much sugar to add.  For the baby food, I didn’t add sugar, but I might make some cinnamon applesauce next.

Pumpkin seeds, anyone?

Raise your hand if you like Toasted pumpkin seeds.

4 votes for pumpkin seeds here!!

Every year I carve pumpkins, I save the seeds.  I never end up toasting them, though.  Last year someone threw my bowl of seeds out when I turned my back.  (I wonder if she remembers that she did that)

This year, I was determined to do right by all those seeds.  I saved all the seeds from our carved pumpkin, and rinsed off the big chunks of pumpkin guts.

I added some olive oil, salt, and a little cayenne pepper to the bowl and stirred it together.

I baked them for about 45 minutes at 300`.  They turned out pretty yummy.

Home made pumpkin pie

My absolute favorite thing about fall is all the pie baking.  The first night there is a chill in the air, I get a serious craving for Apple pie (and Apple crisp, because I always have apples leftover).  I have made 2 Apple pies so far this year.  The first was with home-grown apples (from Nina and Papa’s “orchard”), that was pretty satisfying (to use apples from the backyard, not from the store).  I think those apples were Jonathons.  The second pie I made, I used Granny Smith apples.  I liked both pies (because apple pie is delicious), but I liked the more tartness of the Granny Smiths.  That being said liked the softness of the Jonathons.  I will keep trying different types until I find one I fall in love with, I guess.  There is an orchard down the road that has a wide variety of apples, some that I’ve never heard of, I think I will visit there and try some of their suggestions.

But, this is a post about pumpkin pie.

For Halloween, we got some pumpkins to carve.  There was a house near the school that had pumpkins out front for free.  Perfect!!  We picked up 4.  We carved 2.  Left 1 the way it was (it had a soft spot).  And made pie out of the smallest one!!!

I broke off the stem and quartered the pumpkin.  After scooping out all the strings and seeds, I put the pieces (rind side down) on a cookie sheet, then baked them at 350′ for about an hour ( I just kept checking them until they were soft).

When it had cooled enough to handle, I scraped the pulp out of the shell, it’s suprising how much meat there is in the pumpkin.  I used a food processor to puree it.  Then just mixed all the ingredients into the pumpkin.  I got enough from the small pumpkin to make a 9″ pie plus two “mini pies.”  I could have gotten at least one more “mini” out of it, but I didn’t have more ramekins.  It was pretty watery, but real pumpkin pie (as in, not from a can) usually is.  You just have to be extra careful placing it in the oven.

It seems to always take longer than the recipe says it will, you just have to be patient.  The last thing you want is a soggy pumpkin pie.  When my knife finally came out clean, the top was a little dark, but it still tasted good.

This was my favorite recipe so far.  I think the evaporated milk helped with the problems I’ve had in the past with it being too watery.  I would like to try one with condensed milk to see if it would help even more.  I was very pleased with the flavor of this pie.  I would give it : 4 Stars

The recipe I used was found here.

• one 8 or 9″ pie crust
• 3 cups pureed pumpkin
• 1 cup sugar
•  1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•  1 teaspoon ground cloves
•  1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
•  Optional: 1/2 teaspoon mace
•  1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
•  1/2 teaspoon salt
•  4 large eggs
•  1.5 cans (12oz each) of evaporated milk

Mix all ingredients (except the crust, of course) together.  Pour into the crust.  Bake.

It’s almost as easy as opening a can, but way more tasty.