Adventures in Applesauce

Well, the weathermen were right this time.  They promised snow (and possibly an apocalyptic-esque ice storm overnight), and this is what I get to see out my kitchen window:

In honor of this blustery day, I thought I'd share an adventure with you today; an adventure in cooking!   Let's face it, I'm not the greatest cook, and a lot of what I'm learning while feeding my family is a product of trial and error.  Like the time I tried making applesauce from scratch.

So, I ran across this recipe on Pinterest for yummy fruity applesauce, made from scratch.   They sounded amazing, and being a fan of applesauce, especially on waffles (don't knock it 'til you've tried it.  Seriously!), I thought I'd give it a try.

First step, I queued my best impression of Will Ferrell doing an impression of Harry Caray that I could.  And yes, I do talk to myself when I'm cooking.  Kinda like a crazy person.

"Hey, what's your favorite fruit?   Mine's the apple!  Always has been.  I like it 'cause it's the king of the fruits."

So, I assembled my ingredients.  I was originally going to make strawberry applesauce, but when I went to Wal-Mart, they were out of strawberries (this was obviously waaay before Valentine's Day!).  So, I grabbed some raspberries, and some lovely gala apples, for some sweetness.

I also made myself a nice cup of Chai Tea.  Stash actually makes a good one, it's delicious with a little bit of milk and sugar!

Next, I made sure my girlies were occupied.  iPods and swings were made for occasions like this!

Next, I sliced up my apples, put them in a pot, and added the raspberries and some water.  I didn't measure, but there was probably about two cups of water.  I brought all that to a boil, then turned it down to a simmer and let it cook for about 20 minutes.

By now, the house smells amazing.  The fruit is all cooked and lovely looking, until I see my mistake.  I should have peeled the apples!  I also used a little too much water, in my opinion.  It doesn't seem like a huge deal, but it did take a few tries for me to figure out how to get this pot o' stuff looking like applesauce.

First, I tried using a strainer and a spoon.  Not the best strategy.  All this did was strain all the juice out of the fruit.

 Next in the list of failed attempts was a larger strainer and a potato masher.  Both were unsuccessful.

FINALLY, I figured it out!  If I wanted appleSAUCE, I needed to use something to blend together all the ingredients.  Something like, oh I don't know, a BLENDER? 

This finally did the trick, and I was able to enjoy a lovely bowl, complete with raspberry seeds of course, of my homemade raspberry applesauce.  Yay me.



I just had to ignore the sink full of dirty dishes that I had made!

What's your favorite cooking 'failure/nearly a success' story?  Please comment and share!