Apple Sauce

A friend of mine came over on Friday and we canned homemade apple sauce. I have a bit of experience with canning, and most of the right tools, so she wanted to come see how one goes about the whole "canning" experience.

I've never done applesauce before, but I missed peach season due to the woes of early pregnancy, and wanted to do something that the young children we both have would enjoy.

It was pretty simple:

• Peel, core, and slice apples (We did about 12 lbs and chose a variety to get both good taste and texture.)
• Put in a pot and barely cover with water (I also squeezed in the juice of one lemon for preservation of color)
• Simmer 'till soft, then puree (I thought my stick blender might turn it to juice instead of sauce but it actually worked perfectly)
• Eat or "can" or I suppose you could freeze it too(Our batch made 11 pints)

The best part about it was seeing how interested and excited Owen was about the whole thing. The jars were cooling on the counter and Owen wanted to pop one open right then and eat it. We finally caved in for dinner Saturday night and let the boys have some. I'm really pleased with how well it turned out. And Owen's interest in the process makes it all worth it!

Now I have nine more pounds of apples I bought. What should I do next? More applesauce or apple butter? yummm. . . apple butter. . .