Food from Scratch

A scratch golfer has no handicap.  A scratch foodie uses no processed foods.  We make everything with ingredients that are as close to the way they have been harvested from nature as possible. 

I certainly did not grow up that way.  My Mother was a product of the post WWII generation of homemakers that could make dinner from a box.  Hamburger helper, frozen TV dinners, canned cream chip beef on toast, eggs over hash from a can, and instant pudding that you did not have to stir over a stove.  This was the fare I grew up on.  My Mother had one cookbook, “I Hate to Cook Cookbook” by Peg Bracken.

How surprised I was in 8^th grade when Mrs. Greene at Sedgwick Jr. High School in West Hartford, CT taught us to make applesauce from apples!  I stood there in wonder at the simple process of transformation! That started my love affair with cooking and the desire to always start with ingredients you can imagine growing outside in a garden, on a tree or in a field. 

So I offer to you my simple, delicious and feel good applesauce made from apples in our back yard from a tree my husband planted 2 decades ago.  It needs no sweetener.  Mother Nature has already taken care of that!  You will feel good after you make it because you made it from scratch.  You will feel good after you eat it because it tastes so wholesome and fresh.

Feel Good Applesauce

Stainless steel pot – the heaviest and largest one you have.  I use an 8-quart all clad. Apples, apples and more apples – as many as you can fit in your largest, heaviest pot. Get them from a local orchard if possible - they are fresher and sweeter. Find a good pairing knife that fits comfortably in your hand.  I like the OXO brand because the grips are good.  This is important as the juice will run down your hands and wrist and make the knife slippery.  Some people like to use an apple peeler you hook onto your counter top and crank.  I like to hold the apple in my hand. Rinse it, cut it in half and then into quarters.  Cut out the seeds, hulls, stem, and then peel the apple last, it’s easier that way.   If there are any spots you need to eliminate, now is the time for final quality control.  Once you have the apples filled to the top of your pot, fill about ¼ of the pot with water.  It won’t be much water, because you have stuffed the pot full of apples so there is not much space in between.  The goal is to not burn the apples.  Cover the pot and turn your burner on med-high and wait for the contents to be brought to a boil.  When this begins to happen, take the cover off and turn the heat down to low.  Let it simmer a few hours, stirring the apples and as they get soft and mushy, you can mash them with a potato masher.  When you get the desired consistency, not too runny, you can add cinnamon, to taste.  I add about 1 Tablespoon for 4 quarts of applesauce.  The apples will cook down to about half of where you started.  Stretch your hand several times while your applesauce is cooling.  

Bon Appetite!