To Commemorate Johnny Appleseed's Birthday...

...how else would you do so but to make APPLESAUCE?!

Homemade. No more Mott's or Musselman's for us!

On the beautiful fall holiday of Yom Kippur, we observed the sacred holiday of John Chapman's birthday, who spread apple seeds all over this nation. It is amazing how many varieties of apples there are! As any good Alton Brown follower knows (if you don't watch Good Eats, or at least the Food Network... get off the computer and start. After reading this post, of course.), any apple concoction needs more than one kind of apple, so that flavors can compliment and combine to create unique and tasteful apple delights. So, to accomplish this feat, we headed to our favorite local farm!

...Well, first we headed to its restaurant for breakfast. And planned to buy apples at the market there. But, we quickly realized that picking our OWN apples would be far superior. So after entirely too much time spent taking pictures of Indian Corn, we headed for Baugher's farm just up the road. We boarded the tractor-tram-trolley-convertedschoolbusthing that took us to the apple section of the orchard. Baugher's has row upon row of apple trees, conveniently labeled with the names of the varieties so you can find what you're looking for. We headed for the back of the field and worked our way forward, choosing a myriad of tart and sweet apples. We chose Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Macintosh, ..another kind we can't remember at the moment..., and the hardest to find, Mutsu. Mutsus are a sweet yellow apple, and apparently popular, as the only ones left clung to the tops of the trees. Nothing a little tree-climbing and shaking can't fix. We picked 20 apples, about 1/4 peck.

After buying some apple cider to accompany our applesauce adventure, we alliterated almost all day. Okay no. But we headed home laden with apple products to get to work. (After smothering kittens with affection at the petting zoo... and refraining from shoving "Emily" and "Sarah" out of the way to get to "Butterscotch" the cat.)

Mahi and Mahi's Homemade Applesauce

20 Large/Medium Apples (Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Macintosh, Mutsu, and the kind we can't remember...sub in your favorite!)
3ish Cups Water
Honey
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Vanilla Extract
Almond Extract
Caramel Vodka

We washed, peeled, cored, and chopped the apples into approximately 1-inch pieces. We weren't exact, which left some delicious larger chunks to vary the consistency of the sauce.

We lack a giant stew pot, so we used the 3 biggest pots in the kitchen and divided the apples among them. We added about 1 cup of water to the 2 medium pots and 1 1/2 cups to the slightly larger pot. Bring the water to a boil, cover, and reduce the heat to let the water and apples simmer for 15 - 20 minutes. This let the apples cook down until they were quite soft, and some of it cooked down into pulpy applesauce consistency on its own.

At this point you will want to say to yourself, "I wish we had a potato masher". Then you should promptly turn around and grab the potato masher that is sitting in plain sight. Take that potato masher and mash the heck outta those suckers (can you guys tell when the narrator has changed?). You'll want to mash to your desired consistency. The more you mash, the more fine the bits of apple will be. We like things a little chunky. So we left some of the bigger apple chunks in.

Using a variety of tart and sweet apples in the mix will give you an applesauce that doesn't require any additional sugar. SO we had three pots of applesauce... why make the exact same thing three times?!

In the first pot we added about five big spoonfuls of local honey. If you don't know where to get any local honey, do what we do, drive up to a non descript house. It won't be marked. But take it in good word that an old man who lives there sells honey. Don't ask why. Just trust. So knock on his door. He will talk about 1915 for a while and then sell you 12 bucks worth of delicious honey.

Or there are the bears in the super market. They work too. But don't taste nearly as good.

In the second pot, we added cinnamon, nutmeg, almond extract, and vanilla extract. Don't ask us how much. It was all a blur. Let's just say... to taste.

And finally...in the biggest pot (the daddy pot) we took those delicious looking apples, and poured a healthy dose of Caramel Vodka in. I would say "To Taste" but honestly, each time we tasted it, we just added more vodka...so maybe...just add some and hope it's enough.

So now you've got your delicious apple sauce! As we set off on our apple sauce adventure, we felt a bit overwhelmed. We had zero experience making this sort of thing, but it turned out to be WAY easier than we thought. If you're looking for a good food to start your cooking adventures with, we vote applesauce. Keep in mind, the applesauce does NOT have any preservatives in it like the store brands do, so you'll either want to freeze it, can it, or eat it in about a week.

P.S. If you are honoring Johnny's birthday, you'll want to cook with a pot on your head. Which upon further reflection doesn't make sense, since he wore the pot on his head so he didn't have to carry it but could use it to cook IN. But it feels official and celebratory.

~Mahi & Mahi