Crock Pot Applesauce

I have been making applesauce in the crock pot for a while now. The grand kids love it, and it has no sugar in it... only cinnamon. Mason asked me to teach his mom how to make it ;) So... I documented my process the last time that I made it. 

Here are instructions and photos. 

I use a variety of apples- for this batch I used 3 Golden Delicious (Yellow), 3 Gala (Red), 2 Fuji (Red), 3 Granny Smith (Green), 2 Honey Crisp (Red/Green). I usually get rather large apples of each variety, because the larger apples are easier to peel than the small ones. I actually had too many apple pieces with these, to fit in the crock pot... and I usually fill the crock pot to brimming. (I ended up with a small bag of apple pieces that would not fit. 1 Honey Crisp apple could have been used instead of 2, and have a full crock pot. And of course the amount depends on the size of apples that you have. You probably need 10-12 apples.) Lightly spray the crock pot with cooking spray, to prevent the apples from sticking to the sides of the crock pot. I get a large bowl and fill it about half full of water, then add a 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Peel all of the apples, and cut into quarters and then cut each quarter into three or four pieces.  Place the apple pieces in the bowl of lemon water while you are peeling and cutting more. My bowl will hold about half of the peeled and sliced apples. Then I use a slotted spoon to put the apple pieces in the crock pot, leaving the lemon water in the bowl. After filling the crock pot half full, sprinkle the apple pieces with cinnamon.Continue peeling and slicing the rest of the apples, soaking in lemon water, and then spooning into the crock pot. Sprinkle the apples again with cinnamon. (No need to add any other liquid, there will be plenty of liquid in the apples as they cook and soften. No need to add sugar. Add more or less cinnamon to your liking.) 

Put all of the apple peels outside for the deer. 😉

Turn the crock pot on high for three hours. Stir it a couple of times during that three hours.  Stir it again at the end of three hours and turn crock pot to low. Cook one more hour. (If you think the crock pot is cooking too hot and apples are sticking to the sides, you can turn it down to low sooner. It might take a bit longer to cook.) At the end of the four hour cooking time, you should be able to stir it with a whisk, to applesauce consistency. Spoon into clean glass jars. If there is any applesauce on the top edge of the jar, wipe it away with a paper towel, to be sure that the lid seals well. With hot apple sauce in the jar, a canning lid will seal, as it cools. Store jars in the refrigerator... these have not been pressure cooked in the jars. Or if you don't have canning jars, with lids, spoon the apple sauce into any other container, that can contain hot food.  Store in the refrigerator, after it cools. My large crock pot made 2- 20 oz jars and 2- 12 oz jars, and one extra bowl, of apple sauce. 😋

Here is the process in photos.

MAY Flowers, Birthday, and Kitten

The first part of May was an unusual combination of things. We finally had some pretty flowers and cactus blooming. The bucket of blue bonnets is metal. 😏 We had a birthday party for Ashley. My second try at a lemon raspberry cake. And we had a baby kitten that was born, in April, and big enough to "come out". The momma cat is a part Siamese, the daddy cat is various shades of grey... and we just call him Grey. The baby has some fun tiger stripes and spots of shades of grey. I think we might call him Greyson 😸

Spring Decor

So... since we have our house listed to sell... I am required to keep my interior decor to a minimum. No family photos or other personal items. And I started, a year ago, purging and working on getting "our stuff" to a minimum level. (Which btw, I love. No clutter, less mess, less to take care of- 😊) I get out very little holiday decor now. I had quite a bit of Valentine things out, and then went to just a few Spring items. We also did a "co-listing" on the house a couple of months ago, and the second realtor had another photographer come and do some more photos. She didn't end up using alot of those in the listing, but I will show you four here, that were the best. One of the things they did was to rearrange our living room furniture to make that room look larger.  The photographer came and did daytime interior, and then came back and did evening/night exterior. The second batch were not very good... a little too artist vs realistic. (I can't go save any of those... they are copyright protected.) Now... of course the pandemic has killed the Spring real estate market. With that second realtor on board, we were hoping for a really good Spring season. 😕 We will just have to see what happens this Summer and next Fall.

Easter 2020

This was a very unusual Easter this year, because of the Coronavirus quarantine, not only for our family, but for the whole world. Having a holiday at home, with just two old people, is pretty quite and boring- lol. 😏😕 The best part, for me, was the carrot cake that I made. (first time for that). I reposted a funny little thing on Face Book, but nope, no Easter egg hunt for us. Then I was able to grab some photos from the kids. They all had a good day at home, entertaining their kids ;) PLUS some "church at home". Our entire family has been participating in the "Come Follow Me" scripture study program from our church. So all of our kids and their families are ahead of the curve on having church at home. We are all so blessed to have priesthood leaders in each home, that can prepare and bless the Sacrament. And our grand kids don't mind participating in talks and lessons and music. Even amidst the chaos and turmoil, we are grateful for blessings we have been given. And especially grateful for the technology that keeps us all connected.

(the last pic is cute of Savannah... and is the essence of an "egg hunt".)