Homemade Apple Sauce

One of my blog readers commented on a previous post about baked apples, mentioning how she makes homemade apple sauce.  I thought that was a brilliant idea!  We get an abundance of apples from our Farm Share at times, and we also buy a lot of local apples throughout the Fall because they are so readily available and delicious.  This is a great alternative to noshing on a raw apple that was so easy and yielded a really delicious dish!

Homemade Apple Sauce

Step 1: Wash, core and chop apples into chunks.  I kept the skin on (it's the most nutritional part!)

Step 2: Heat the apples on the stove, medium heat.

Step 3: Cook the apples until they start to soften.  They'll start to look a little mushy (like above).  Once they reach this consistency, either purée the mixture with a hand blender (I have a Cuisinart immersion blender that I use) or let cool, then transfer to a food processor or blender to purée.

Final Step: Add cinnamon to taste, and voilá!  Delicious homemade apple sauce with no sugar added!

10/21 Farm Share Arrival

Here is the next week's Farm Share arrival (from October 21, 2010).

As you can see, we received red leaf lettuce, green apples, romaine lettuce, some great carrots, parsley, collards, beets (which I gave to my friend--she made chocolate beet muffins with them--happy to spread the love), yellow onions, and a buttercup squash.

Happy (healthy) eating!

Spinach Salad with Spiced Pecans, Apples, Sweet Potatoes, and Goat Cheese

The Fall and Winter is a great time to receive leafy greens in New England, but it's also a time when you crave warm, comforting food...so sometimes salads aren't the first thing you think about making for dinner.  This salad, however, was a great way to use our leafy greens--in this case spinach--but still satisfy our comfort food craving.

Spinach Salad with Spiced Pecans, Apples, Sweet Potatoes, and Goat Cheese.

The only recipe I used for this meal was for the spiced pecans, which I'll post below.  This was a really simple salad to throw together, and delicious!  We thinly sliced a sweet potato and tossed it in olive oil, salt and pepper, and then roasted the potatoes in the oven until tender.  We then tossed spinach with thinly sliced apples and the roasted sweet potatoes, and lastly topped it all off with goat cheese and spiced pecans--and dinner was served!

Sweet and Spicy Candied Pecans

From Bon Appétit

Ingredients

3 tbs. light corn syrup (could use Agave nectar as substitute)

1 1/2 tbs. sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. (generous) freshly ground black pepper

1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 1/2 c. pecan pieces

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325 deg F.  Lightly cover baking sheet with vegetable oil.  Combine corn syrup and next 4 ingredients in large bowl.  Stir to blend.  Add pecans; stir gently to coat.  Transfer to baking sheet.

Place large piece of foil on work surface.  Bake pecans 5 minutes.  Using fork, stir pecans to coat with melted spice mixture.  Continue baking until pecans are golden and coating bubbles, about 10 minutes.  Transfer to foil.  Working quickly (if you use corn syrup, you really do have to work very quickly!), separate nuts with fork.  Cool.  (Can be made 3 days ahead.  Store airtight at room temperature.)

10/14 Farm Share Arrival

I am wayyy behind, but I'm determined to round out the full year (Fall 2009 - Fall 2010) of Farm Share arrival posts.  It's hard to believe, but I will soon be done!

Below is the Farm Share arrival from October 14, 2010.    In this box we received lovely sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, Lacitano kale, green leaf lettuce, bunched spinach, baby bok choy, apples, daikon radish, Kabocha (or a buttercup-type squash), a green pepper, and a couple yellow onions.  What a great assortment!