Homemade Applesauce

I was at the grocery store earlier today and found a bag of slightly old apples on clearance.  There were two organic apples and four conventional apples in the bag and the whole thing cost only 99¢.  I bought it without hesitation.  I knew I wanted to give the minion at least some of the organic apples since they are on the dirty dozen but I didn’t know what to do with the rest.  I decided to make applesauce.  In the recipe I’ll tell you what types of apples I used but use whatever you have / like.

Homemade Applesauce

1 Fuji apple

2 golden delicious apples

1 small granny smith apple

water

cinnamon

Slice and core the apples and put them in a large pot.  Add just enough water so the apples won’t burn.  Basically you want to cover the bottom of your pot with about 1/4 in of water.  Turn it on high on the stove and cover.  You’ll need to stir it every few minutes and if you see the water getting low add just a bit.  again, you just don’t want the apples to burn.  After a while they will start to get soft.  Once you can basically mush then with a spoon you should transfer the contents of the pot into a food processor.

Depending on the type of apples you are using, you may want to add a sweetener such as honey but I didn’t think it was necessary.  You can taste your applesauce throughout the process and decide what you want.  I did add cinnamon, I just liberally sprinkled some into the food processor.  Again, taste it and see what you like.  Blend (it’s not a blender so is the verb…food process?) until desired consistency.  I left mine a little chunky for a more homemade feel.

It was delicious!  Incredibly good and super healthy, just apples and cinnamon.  I kind of wished I had used the organic apples and then I could have given the minion some.  Next time.

The four apples I had made about a pint of applesauce.  But it’s so good it disappears quickly.

Fresh Picked Produce in a Sandwich Wrap

So we had a huge jar of sprouts and needed something to do with them.  So I decided to make some sandwich wraps.  We used a bunch of produce from the garden as well as those bean sprouts.  These are great for a hot summer afternoon, especially for an outdoor picnic.  We made 2 wraps so I’ll include our measurements, but feel free to adjust accordingly.

Sandwich Wraps Recipe

1 small bell pepper

1 tomato

handful of parsley

handful of bean sprouts

2 whole wheat tortillas

cream cheese

.

Chop the pepper and tomato into small chunks and cut the parsley up.  Scissors is probably your best bet with the parsley.  Spread the cream cheese over the tortillas covering the whole thing.  Sprinkle the chopped veggies, sprouts, and parsley over top.

Roll, slice, and enjoy.

They were really good.  You could use any fresh produce you have on hand.  I think cucumbers, peas, other peppers, and even green tomatoes would also work well.

Sweet, Sweet Sugar Snap Peas

My dad’s garden had yielded lots of sugar snap peas.  Sugar snap peas are a great early crop, he planted the seeds in April and they have been enjoying the peas for a few weeks now.

I plan on doing this next year because I love these things!  The minion and I love to snack on them raw, but you can also cook them.  Either way you need to snap the ends off and string them.  You can eat the pods on these however.

Throw them in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for about 5 minutes or until they are the desired texture for you.  You can season them after you take them out of the microwave but they really don’t need anything, they have a lot of sweet, earthy flavor on their own.

Granny’s Cornbread

Growing up in Georgia means that I have eaten a lot of cornbread in my life.  But by far, my favorite is my grandmother’s.  My cousins and I used to fight over the last piece of cornbread, even when another batch was on its way.  I have just started to get close to being able to make it myself.

My grandmother gave me the recipe, but her ‘recipe’ is just mix cornmeal and buttermilk and bake.  Recently I decided to get the exact brand of cornmeal she buys and it is White Lily Self-Rising Cornmeal Mix.  So I bought a bag of that and tried again.  I can mix the batter now, but I’m still trying to figure out how exactly to bake it.

I tried again today and made a passable batch of cornbread.  I used a silicone Madeline pan sprayed with olive oil.  My grandmother uses her well seasoned cast iron and while I do have a moderately seasoned cast iron pan, I think the silicone pan worked better.  The batter does rise a little so I shouldn’t have completely filled the pan because it muffin-ed over the top.

I baked it at 350 for about 20 minutes, but I didn’t record exactly how long.  I just kept checking on it until it looked done.  It didn’t really brown so I would recommend maybe trying 30 minutes, but ovens vary.

Even with these slight problems, they were yummy and very close to the original.  I will definitely continue trying, and I will enjoy eating the experiments.