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About the Header Image: Idlebrook Wendy Darling Evensen "Wendy" one of our four Labrador Retrievers.

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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Welcome Home Dinner and Apple Sauce Recipe

Good morning,

It is so good to be home to family.  Of course, one of the first orders of business is to get everyone together at our home for a family dinner.
Daughter Catherine prepared a fabulous charcoal grilled filet mignon dinner complete with baked and mashed potatoes, salad, asparagus,...
...olive oil-brushed and grilled eggplant, mushrooms, onions, and peppers as well as...
 ...brownies with chocolate/marshmallow icing.  Oh, yum!
 I prepared egg bread dinner rolls (my recipe here.)
 ...and apple sauce.  The following applesauce recipe is so simple it's nearly impossible to ruin it.

In the image above is a five pound bag of apples washed, cored and sliced with one of those nifty circle apple corer/slicers that you push down from the top and magically have eight pieces separated from the core.
Don't peel the apple slices. Heat them in one half cup water on a medium setting...
 ...until they are soft.  Your house will smell wonderful while they soften.
 With a food mill, mill the resulting mixture to remove the skins.
 And, here it is:  applesauce with no preservatives, sugar, or other flavorings.

Of course, you can add a brown sugar and cinnamon to taste as my mother did, but we like our apple sauce natural.

If you cook down the apple sauce even more you will have apple butter.  That's so good with fresh bread!

If, instead of milling the apples after cooking you strain it through cheesecloth, then cook down the resulting clear liquid, you will have made apple jelly.

If you cook down the apple jelly even more and spoon onto waxed paper, you'll have apple candy.

And, then there is apple pie.  Someday I'll share my Mom's apple pie recipe.

We just love apples at our house.

My Mom and Dad have been gone now for quite a few years, but I think of them so often as I think of all the wonderful times we had together.  Mom and Dad had several apple trees in their yard.  When they were ready to harvest, Mom and Dad would drive over to our home with several large bags of apples every day or two.  We ate apples every way we could and canned the rest. 

It is so good to be home to family. 

Enjoy!
Lois

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16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I, for one, love homemade breads and applesauce.

Nedra said...

Good home cooking=Happy memories. Thanks for the recipes.

Karen said...

there's no place like home......

grammie g said...

Hi Lois....Your daughters meal looks fit for a king yum yum!!
Applesauce and a fresh slice of warm home made bread..that was my favorite that Mom used to make...of course her wild raspberry pie, chocolate cake with cooked fudge frosting,big soft molasses cookies hahaha...my am I hungry!!
I even put apples in my salad!!

Anonymous said...

No wonder you go cruising all the time!! You like the family dinners when you get back!! I can't say that I blame you!! Looks wonderful and I love homemade applesauce. Used to make it all the time when the kids were small. What a great homecoming!! ...debbie

Julie Ferguson said...

That dinner and dessert looks to yummy!

Diana said...

Isn't it funny how we always think of our parents over something small or simple?
I still find myself expecting mom to pop over after getting her hair done every Saturday.
The whole dinner looked absolutely delicious Lois, apples and all!
Love Di ♥

Wanda..... said...

Catherine certainly prepared you a wonderful welcome home dinner and of course your homemade rolls and applesauce just made it extra nice, Lois.

I have fond memories of my grandparents storing apples in the cold back room, of their Virginia home in the winter. The whole room smelled like an apple.

~*~ saskia ~*~ said...

Looking very cozy and delicious, Lois! Homemade treats are the best!! xxxx

Montanagirl said...

Everything looks so delicious! And I'll bet it was...heehee

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Lois, maybe Grenville will trade a couple of pieces of peach pie for some homemade dinner rolls? Dinner looked wonderful!

Beth said...

Okay Lois, now I'm really hungry! What a great welcome home for your and your Honey :-)

Beth

Lois Evensen said...

Good morning,

This was certainly a dinner to remember. It was wonderful to see everyone again when we got home and the food was just outstanding.

Beatrice, that's a deal about the peach pie and dinner rolls! ;)

Thanks so much, everyone, for stopping by and your kind words.

Very best,
Lois

River Glorious said...

this is good for someone with corn allergies like i do. i'll peel the apples, though, since they get sprayed.

thanks!

lululan said...

Madre mia!!!! Que buena pinta tiene todo.

lululan said...

Mare mia!!!!! Que buena pinta tiene todo.