Homemade Applesauce

You guys, homemade applesauce is SO EASY to make.

 

I've been craving homemade applesauce recently. My Gramma used to make it all the time; she'd make both delicious regular applesauce and the horrifying neon-red kind made with cinnamon candy. I preferred the delicious regular version. I wasn't really sure how she made it, but how hard could it be, ya know?

Not. Not hard. I made mine in my trusty crockpot because I wanted my house to smell like delicious apple pie goodness all day, but it can be made in about 20 minutes in a regular pot on the stovetop. Judging by my Instagram feed, I know you all have about 45 pounds of apples to use up from the 5 trips to the orchard you all made (as well you should have, how perfect has this fall been?), so I highly suggest whipping up a batch of applesauce. It's delicious warm (and would be heavenly over a scoop of vanilla ice cream...I don't think there's anything that makes me more joyful than puddles of melted ice cream mixed with spiced apple goop), and I think it's even better chilled. And you can make it however you like it - I used the full range of apple pie spices, but you can only use cinnamon if you prefer, or no spices at all. I almost didn't make it because my apples looked so pretty in their bowl on my dining room table and I'm an idiot, but I'm glad I did.

Homemade Applesauce

Peel and core apples; chop into manageable chunks (I used 8 large honeycrisp apples, but you can use whatever you have on hand...just make sure you adjust the rest of the ingredients depending on how many apples you use. This "recipe" is very forgiving, don't get all uptight about it.). Dump into vessel of choice (crockpot or large stockpot) and throw in 1/3 cup brown sugar (white can also be used; I like the deep color brown brings to the table. You can also use more or less sugar depending on how sweet you want your sauce), 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1/8 tsp each of allspice, nutmeg, ground ginger, and cloves. Pour in about 3/4 cup of apple cider (water would also work), and cook until apples start to break down and sauce is thick. I cooked mine in my crockpot on high for about 5.5 hours, but it was technically done after about 3, I think. I haven't done it on the stove, but most recipes I glanced over state that it takes about 25 minutes. When the apples are cooked, break them down with a spoon until a chunky sauce forms, or if you prefer a smooth sauce, puree in blender. Eat warm, or chill and gobble as desired.

Pictures From the Weekend

Over the weekend, Jeff and I took a trip to my hometown, Jamestown, NY. I try to get up at least once a year, and being the big corny freak that I am, I planned this particular trip around a fall festival I used to attend every year as a child: The Busti Apple Festival (pronounced BUS-ty, you perv). I didn't want to inundate Facebook and Instagram with every single photo I took, so I thought I'd share some on the old blogeroonie.

Jeff and I both took an extra long weekend (Friday through Monday for him and Friday through Tuesday for myself) so we could get a nice visit in without most of our trip being driving. As we always do, we started our weekend with a visit to my mom in PA - the trip to Jamestown is about six hours long, which is doable, but we usually use the trip as an excuse to stop overnight at my mom's, which is about three quarters of the way there. We had a nice dinner outdoors at a local golf course with incredible views of the course as well as some playful dogs and kiddos running around, and that evening I had planned to meet up with some old friends. We went and got drinks with my friend (another) Jeff, and my old roommate, Brandon. It was great to catch up with them, as I hadn't seen either in several years and they're two of my favorite people.

The next morning, we headed off to Jamestown, and the first thing we did after we checked in to our hotel was pay a visit to my favorite place in the world, Southern Tier Brewery (and you know I NEVER exaggerate...ahem). I don't know if you're familiar with Southern Tier (and if you're not, get in the know), but they're one of the best craft breweries out there and they're based right in Lakewood, NY, which is Jamestown's next door neighbor. Not only do they have great beer (and what seems like pretty tasty food, though I haven't tried it), but the brewery itself is beautiful and rustic, and has a great outdoor space with a little amphitheater where they have live music in the summer. AND of course it's autumn, so they have Pumpking on tap which the only the best pumpkin beer ever ever EVER. They also do tours on Saturday afternoons, but they fill up fast and we tend to get there on the late side to make it in. Next time!

After our stop at Southern Tier, we had a nice dinner at a new Japanese Steakhouse in town with my dad and (big) little brother, followed by some ice cream. I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures, and didn't get any with them, unfortunately.

After a stop at Tim Horton's (I have to honor my practically Canadian roots) the next morning, we headed off to the old Fest. Not having been in YEARS, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I remember it usually being freezing cold and windy, and frequently raining (in Western New York it's literally snowing by Halloween a good half of the time), but this weekend the weather was PERFECT, if not almost a little TOO hot. Being that I'm stubborn and mildly idiotic, I had checked the weather, saw that it was going to be 75+ degrees all weekend, and STILL packed mostly sweaters and long pants, including a pair of riding boots. When we left the hotel, it was still a little brisk outside, and I figured I'd wear the boots since the Festival is held basically in a big field and I figured it might be muddy. Welp, what it was was HOT. Very hot. And sunny. So sunny. But we toughed it out, and I was just glad that it wasn't drastically the other way around. The Festival itself was pretty much just as I remembered it - SUPER crowded, but there was a lot of cool stuff to see. Tons of crafts, delicious food, live music, and demonstrations (the pictures are of - I think - flour being made?). I passed up the crafts as most of them - while beautiful - were a tad bit country for my taste, and I didn't bring home any apples because I didn't want to lug them around and I plan on visiting an apple orchard here in the next couple of weeks. I did treat myself to some delicious tiny donuts, and I brought home some local maple cream, which I'm pretty jazzed to swirl into my oatmeal.

We followed the Festival with some relaxation - a nap for me (shocker), and some reading for Jeffrey (SHOCKER!). We had planned to go out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in town, Forte, but I was surprised to learn that NOTHING is open in Jamestown on Sunday evenings. I don't remember this from when I lived there - I mean, it's been about eight years, but I lived there for 22 years of my life! When I say nothing is open, I mean NOTHING. The place is like a ghost town! After learning that Forte was closed (which wasn't THAT surprising, as it's right downtown and a lot of cities are kind of dead on Sundays), I started searching online for somewhere else to go, and almost literally every restaurant in town was either completely closed or closed by 7 pm. I thought I had hit the jackpot with an irish pub, but when we drove past all of their signs were off. Mind. Blown. Jamestown isn't an unusually religious town, nor is it a dry town; in fact, the liquor laws in New York are way looser than they are here in Delaware. And there's a pretty big sports following there (as with everywhere else), so I was dumbfounded that there weren't even any bars open for people to go watch football. Trying to avoid chain restaurants (though we were briefly tempted by endless shrimp at Red Lobster. I mean, c'mon. Endless shrimp!), we eventually settled on this really cool place that I used to go to all the time with my parents, Ashville General Store. It's an old timey store with penny candy and all sorts of neat little knicknacks and a really awesome, unique menu of subs and pizza. After dinner I had planned on meeting my high school best friend Sarah out for drinks, but again ran into the whole "NOTHING IS OPEN" dilemma. We ended up giving in an going to Applebees for drinks (I think they may have literally been the only place in town that was still open at that point), and Jeff was happy because he got to drink a Mucho Mudslide. So all in all, the weekend was a success.

An explanation of why I probably don't want to watch football with you.

It's football season.



I have such varied feelings on football season. Now, I'm not a huge sports person. I honestly just can't get into most sports, or at least I can't get into watching them on TV. I like to PLAY sports (not really) sometimes, I guess. I like to attend sporting events and drink and...drink. I can actually kind of get into baseball (go Phillies). But even with baseball, which is far and away my favorite sport to watch, I'm not going to be upset about missing a game...in fact, I miss more games than I actually watch. I'm just not a huge sports fan.




But, football. Back to football, specifically. A large part of me WANTS to love it. It signifies the beginning of autumn. If you know me, you know I LOVES ME some autumn. I realize that most people love autumn, but I loved autumn before it was cool to love autumn. I'm an autumn hipster. Also, something about the sounds of a football game on the TV on a crisp autumn Sunday afternoon just makes me feel homey and want to cook up a big pot of chili and drink beer.



HOWEVER.



There are so, so many things about football season that I DETEST. And really, none of them have anything to do with the actual sport. Most of them have more to do with people being assholes. So, here we go. These are the reasons that I've decided that overall, I hate football:

1. Football fans just take shit TOO SERIOUSLY. This definitely happens with other sports; I'm aware. But with football, it's just RAMPANT. You guys, IT'S A FUCKING GAME. Unless you're betting large amounts of money on it (which is a whole different issue entirely), the outcome of the game will not affect your life. I'm a snarky motherfucker. I don't want to be hanging out and drinking, and have to be terrified of speaking because some rabid fan is going to start screaming in my face, aggressively. That's not fun for me. 
2. The whole thing people do where they associate themselves with their favorite team. You know, referring to their chosen team as "us" instead of "them". Bub, you are not part of the team. You're just not. Just stop. Which ties in with...
3. Even the least educated fans yelling at the players on the television as though they know more than the fucking people who are being paid MILLIONS OF DOLLARS to do what they're doing. You're not on the damn field. Until you're able to do whatever the fuck you're yelling at the players for, SHUT UP. 
4. Also, I understand that a lot of these athletes are able to do FUCKING AMAZING things with their bodies. But you guys, they're being paid more than people that operate on our brains. Think about that. What the shit? THEY'RE BEING PAID MORE THAN THE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNTRY. A LOT more. 
5. Fantasy football.
6. People CONSTANTLY TALKING about fantasy football, and not talking about ANYTHING ELSE, EVER.
7. Going to a baseball game is a lot of fun. Going to a football game is (generally) FREEZING COLD

So, those are the major reasons that I've decided that football is more annoying than enjoyable. If you want to hang out and have a good time and watch some games, that's cool. I'm in. I'm even down with some playful shit talking. But once you start taking things WAY too seriously and punching walls and screaming at the TV, I'll be...elsewhere. I don't know. I'm not really on my writing game today guys, sorry.