Apples!

It's apple season here in Ontario and I scored an 8 lb bag of beautiful local Macintosh apples at Loblaws for $1.25 a couple of days ago.

They're going out in lunches every day, but today I made some applesauce, one of the boys' favourite fruit desserts.

It's a simple process with the food mill attachment for my stand mixer. I slice the apples using my handy apple slicer. (This device gets daily use at the table during the fruit course.) I fill up a large saucepan with apple sections along with the cores (I just remove the stems...all the peel, seeds, and core gets removed by the strainer.) Add about 1/4 cup water and boil the apples until they're soft. I often add pears, plums, grapes....any fruit that's past it's best. I tried kiwi fruit and it tasted great, but had all kinds of black seeds in it as the kiwi seeds are small enough to pass through the holes of the strainer. No so appetizing looking.

Once the fruit is soft (10 minutes max), I take it off the stove to cool for a few minutes while I set up the food mill.

Okay, this picture is a little cluttered, but you can see the pot of cooked apples on the right and the mixer with food mill attachment to its left. The apples go into the white thing at the top, though the strainer, and then the applesauce and rind/seeds/core go into separate bowls (sauce on the right, waste on the left.)

Here's a picture looking down into the strainer:

There's a metal cone inside with little holes. Inside the cone is sort of screw that pushes the apple through the holes.

The waste goes into the compost, and the applesauce sits out for a while to finish cooling and then into the fridge.

I don't add anything to the apples (except for the cooking water). Usually the boys just eat it plain, but sometimes it gets topped with a little cinnamon-sugar mix (1/2 c. sugar mixed with 1 tbsp cinnamon) that we keep on hand for toast or pancakes.