I <APPLESAUCE> NJ: Brown Sugar, Bourbon Vanilla Paste, and A Lot More Sweetness

Margo and I finally got around to processing most of our remaining orchard apples on Saturday night.

Margo and I proudly show off our jar of sauce (…and my new David Byrne concert shirt)

We used six pounds of our haul to make bourbon vanilla paste cinnamon applesauce. It was a bold move considering Tara’s gestational diabetes prevents her from eating any and I wasn’t 100% positive Margo would like it, but it seemed less mean than making an apple pie… and definitely way more idiot proof. Plus, if we didn’t do something soon, we were going to end up with a $58 bag of rotting apples (apple picking is expensive!)

They go from helpless to “I don’t need help,” so quickly.

I have fond memories from my early childhood of standing on a chair while my mom prepped apples for pies. She’d skin them by hand and I’d pretend the long strips were noodles in the bowl she gave me, so it was pretty epic to pass on the tradition to Margo and watch her go to town on lots of “Apple Basghetti”

Margo enjoying “Apple Basghetti.”

I bought a folksy contraption last year that skins, cores, and spiral slices the apples and Margo had a blast helping me spin, spin, spin it during its brief yearly trip out of the basement and into the kitchen.

Okay, so I enjoyed the “Apple Basghetti” too

Of course I didn’t factor in that cooking with a toddler takes three times as long and is six times as messy.

Cooking is normally a relaxing activity for me, but this chaos might be even better.

I also didn’t anticipate that Margo would decide a makeup mirror was her phone and lead several work stoppages while she made some very important calls and even pretended to take pictures of the process with the pretend phone’s pretend camera.

I do feel like I’m helping Margo hone her improv skills at a very young age.

There were even a few times I was worried Margo was going to spiral slice her fingers,

but the unexpected delays, big messes, and mild stresses actually made the applesauce taste even sweeter.

I think it was this head on the counter fake phone call delay that gave me the time to remember I had a jar of bourbon vanilla paste that I hadn’t opened yet.

Margo and I both loved it for breakfast the next morning, and it’s been a part of dinner the past few nights too.

This is the apples two hours into their crock pot soak. You really should cut them up more, but who has the time??

The sauce all finished in its chunky glory!

Margo’s pro-tip is to mix it with some Greek yogurt for a tasty contrasting combo. She’s also give me permission to share our recipe:

MARGO’S CROCK POT APPLESAUCE

Adapted from this recipe

Ingredients

-6ish pounds of apples (doesn’t matter which kind, you won’t remember which is which a week after apple picking anyways)

-1/2 Cup White Sugar

-1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

-1 Tsp Cinnamon

-1 Tsp Bourbon Vanilla Paste

-1 Cup Water

1. Skin, core, and cut all apples as much as your toddler will allow you to do.

2. Pour apples, sugars, cinnamon, vanilla paste, and water into crockpot and mix.

3. Let Margo try one of the apple pieces coated in all the yummy ingredients

4. Okay, let her have two more apple chunks

5. Cook on High for 4 hours, stir/break up the apples once or twice since you didn’t actually cut them properly before you started cooking.

6. If you finish at 10pm like I did, leave crockpot on warm overnight so your kid can see the applesauce “finish” cooking in the morning in time for breakfast.

7. To quote Margo from her fake phone calls, “and… that’s it!”

That first morning, I even let Margo eat applesauce on the couch and somehow avoided disaster!

My Song of the Day: “Under the Table” by Fiona Apple

Margo poured the sugar all by herself.

Margo discovered she’s a BIG brown sugar fan.

My giant hand doesn’t really do justice to how much applesauce this is.