Audrey's Applesauce

Ingredients:

4-5 apples - peeled, cored and quartered

3/4 cup water

sugar to taste

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Cover and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, or until apples are soft. Allow to cool, then mash with a fork.

Parley (Waste Not Want Not):

I’ll admit I’ve never been a huge apple sauce person – don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate it but I rarely open the ‘fridge and say “ohhh, goody…applesauce”! I’m also fairly particular about my apples, I like them to be crisp and crunchy and if they aren’t then I’ll usually pass. Recently someone bought a bag of apples that do not meet my criteria for pleasurable apple consumption, and, as they have sat in a bowl on the counter untouched for most of the week apparently don’t meet anyone else’s. Hating to see food go to waste I considered what to do with said apples. I discarded the idea of anything dessert related as I’ve recently gotten myself in trouble over such escapades but the thought of healthy baking made me think of using apple sauce to replace the fat content in other recipes. Bingo! Why not make my own applesauce and then use it the next time I bake? After searching around a bit for a recipe and tweaking it with a few modifications of my own I came up with the above, what could be easier than throwing five ingredients in a pan and mashing it twenty minutes later? Wait, did I say that I was going to use the applesauce to bake with? Hmmm…what applesauce? It’s practically all gone! One more small thing – the whole time I was making (and eating) the applesauce I kept thinking of Audrey and grinning knowing she’d approve of the “appledos”!