On a Freezing Day in October

We were out for a drive to look at the colorful trees on Saturday evening and decided to make a spontaneous trip to the pumpkin patch. We got there an hour and a half before they closed.  It was cold and windy, so we layered up in what we could find in the trunk of the van and huddled together. Soren slept most of the time and enjoyed the pumpkin patch from the comfort of his cozy carseat nest that we pulled around the patch in a wagon since we didn't think to bring a stroller. We picked pumpkins off the vines, sipped hot cocoa, ate hot dogs for dinner, rode the mule train, played on the haystack tunnels, and caught the last hayride of the evening (which was more entertaining than Jungle Cruise at Disneyland).  When we got home, we had homemade warm cinnamon applesauce before bed.

Crockpot Cinnamon Applesauce

Fill crockpot 2/3 full with peeled and sliced apples (nothing fancy, just 4-6 slices/chunks from each apple. You can use one of those hand held apple slicer things to get the cores out easily). This takes anywhere from 6-10 apples.  (usually a 3lb bag is plenty)

Add 1 TBS water to keep the apples from scorching and sticking to the bottom of the crockpot.

Depending on the sweetness of your apples, add about 1TBS white sugar (or none, or more) to the crockpot.  If you use fuji, honey crisp, or granny smith apples, you will have a pretty tart applesauce (our fave).  On saturday night I used golden delicious (because that's what was on sale for $2/bag at Aldi and I ad matched) and the applesauce had a less tart and more mild flavor, but cooked an hour faster.

Add a shake of nutmeg and 2 shakes of cinnamon to the pot.

Cook on High for 3-4 hours (3 for soft apples, 4 for hard apples)

Give apples a quick stir.  No need to puree or use a masher...the slices will practically dissolve with 4-5 beats with a wooden spoon.

Eat while it's still hot and delicious, or chill overnight, or freeze in plastic glad containers and enjoy it a month later.

As Reese says, this recipe is "easy-peasy-lemon-squeezey" and sure to become a fall favorite in your home, too.

How 'bout them apples?

WHY oh WHY did I not make baby food for Reese and Quincy when they were babies?
So other than green beans, I had pretty much ran out of the baby food I made last round (remember that post?), and I got lazy, so I just bought a bunch of food this time.
With coupons, I still spent $28 and it was gone in a week!
My baby is such a hoss!

-I have 2 quart sized bags worth of peas and carrots and after my coupon it cost me just over $1 for the bag of frozen veggies.

-1 butternut squash made another quart size bag full.

-I used up the last 6 slices of a $2 package Farmland ham (that I purchased for a different recipe) and pureed it with 1/3 of a jar of homemade unsweetened applesauce for another bag of food.

-2 sweet potatoes and the last cup of baby carrots were also blended together and filled a quart bag

The last 1/2 cup of the beans, rice, corn, or turkey breast from dinners, that ordinarily gets thrown out because it's not quite enough to save in a tupperware is now getting pureed, frozen, and fed to the baby.

I love that we aren't wasting so much food.
I love that Corbin gets variety in his diet.
I love that we are not spending $100 a month on store bought food. I was reading the labels and a ton of them have apples as the main ingredient. Everything is "peaches and apples, bananas and apples, strawberries and apples, blueberries and apples, pears and apples, chicken and apples, ham and apples". WHY?

Apples are cheap. How much of the store bought stuff is actually chicken? Even with a coupon, the markup on baby food is ridiculous.

Also, one of my goals for 2010 is to recycle. I'm not going to go all crazy and recycle used kleenex or anything, but I find myself throwing away a LOT of stuff that could be reused in one way or another. Corbin eats the equivalent of 6 jars of baby food a day. That is a lot of wasted glass.

I also started composting kitchen scraps. (more on that later)

So, of course I purchase some jars. It is convenient for when we're on the go, and I like having a small supply in the cabinet, should we lose power or something.
But for the most part, homemade food has become the majority in our house. I can't believe I didn't even attempt this with my other babies.

Next week, I going to make him spinach.

or should it be "spinach and apples"?