Applesauce

Yummy, fresh apples made into delicious applesauce. I decided not to add any sugar because I figure that way people could make them as sweet as they want. Our boys don't care that there is no sugar and they devour the applesauce. Bowls are returned licked clean. I love how the peels turned it pink.

Here is what we did: rinse the apples, cut out the seeds and stem (it is not necessary to cut out the whole core), cut the apples into 2-inch chunks, place in a pot with about 1/2-inch or so of water (watch the water, you don't want them to be too runny but you also don't want burning or sticking because that would ruin the whole batch), cook until mushy (about 10 minutes), run them through a strainer or food mill. We used a Foley Food Mill, which I highly recommend. I think it was the two quart size but I am not sure. It was very easy to use and clean up. After all of the jars were filled, we processed them for 25 minutes in the water bath canner. Don't forget to warm up the glass so it doesn't shatter in the canner (I just ran them under hot water for a minute or so).