Homemade Applesauce...

Quote for the Day:

"If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end,

 it would probably be Labor Day Weekend."

~Doug Larson 

Hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day holiday...which is basically your last day off till Thanksgiving!  Unless you are a government employee...which means you will have a half-dozen more holidays between now and Thanksgiving.  Or a nurse...which means you are probably working TODAY and are scheduled for Thanksgiving, too!  :(  

I'm lucky that even though I'm an RN, I work in a department that is Monday through Friday, with weekend call 3 times a year and a holiday call every other year.  :)  Since Labor Day is neither a "work day" nor a "call day" for me, I'm off today!  YAY!

I put the last of the pears and apples into the crock pot yesterday afternoon with one 3" cinnamon stick and about 3 tablespoons of white sugar.  I cooked it on "low" for a few hours and then turned it to "warm" overnight.  

This morning they looked like this...

Had I not have left the peels on the apples and pears, I would have just taken a potato masher and mashed them up a little.  (I kinda like a few chunks in my applesauce.)  However, because I didn't want the peeling just floating around, I went ahead and used my immersion blender and blended them a LITTLE bit.  (Yes, the $2.00 thrifted Braun immersion blender!!!)  

There are still a few chunks, but I tried to blend up the peelings as best as I could.  I got 3.5 pints out of this batch and water-bathed canned the 3 full pints.  

I didn't have any lemon juice to add to the apples/pears to keep them from turning brown, so before putting them in the crock pot, I soaked them in ginger ale soda, which contains citric acid...the ingredient in lemon juice that helps keep fruit from browning.  It kinda worked, but they still turned a little bit brown.  Oh well, I can tell you that it TASTES DELICIOUS!!!   I had some with my lunch today while the sauce was still a little warm!   Mmmmmm!  :)

I'm heading into my sewing room to work some more on the Blue Ridge Beauty quilt.  I'm very close to being done with it!!!

There is a feeling that comes over you when you can see the end in sight!  It's a feeling of satisfaction but also anticipation as you look forward to the NEXT quilt to go into the frame!!!

Loretta