Crock Pot Applesauce (with my little helper)

    This Sunday we went apple picking.  I LOVE apple picking!  I inevitably pick way too many apples because it is so much fun.  I still have to harvest the apples from my own literal backyard.  There have been years that in my picking frenzied I have picked so many that they have rotted in their bag, not this year!  This is the year  "I Mother Earth" (I want to can everything in sight, and put down stores for winter)  has hit me hard... THERE WILL BE NO WASTE, not on my watch!

    Yesterday morning I went into Elly's classroom and made applesauce.  All of the kids loved cranking the apple peeler/ corer.  Their little arms were just cranking a mile a minute.  They all loved the way the applesauce smelled as it cooked.  Each one of them would come up to me and ask if they could peek at the applesauce.  "Oh that smells so good!" each one of them said at least 700 times!  They were all very excited to taste the apple sauce "they had made".  It was really quite a fun project to do with them.  It was in fact so much fun that I decided to make a batch when the kids all got home from school last night.

    I attached the apple peeler/ corer onto the kitchen table.  That by the way was a BIG mistake, because it took the finish off of that part of the table.  It also never really clamped on properly, after each crank I would have to re-tighten it onto the table.  All of the kids took a turn peeling the apples, it was fun... at least for the first two apples.  After the first two apples, the big kids got bored and wandered off to do their own "unboring" things.  Elly did not.  Elly was enchanted with the whole process.

    We peeled probably 15 or more apples and put them into my slow cooker.  Elly then added about 1/3 of a cup of brown sugar.  I had planned on adding about 2 tsp of cinnamon, but when I turned my back to put the measuring cup in the sink, Elly poured most of my container in on top of the apples.  Needless to say, they are cinnamony!  We poured a cup of water into the crockpot, and let it work it's slowcooker magic.  The whole night the house smelled like heaven.  The smell of cooking apples smells like fall goodness.

    That night just before bed the applesauce was done.  I let it cool and then scooped it into bowls for each of the kids to have as a bedtime snack.  As I handed Elly hers I had this stupid grin on my face ( I stupidly was waiting for her excited reaction).  They always say that kids should help in the kitchen because it allows them to learn how things are made, and they enjoy their food so much more because they have the pride in it.  Apparently, no one shared this theory with Elly.  "Here you go my big girl, here's the applesauce you made." I handed her the bowl, big stupid grin on my face.  Her reply was really not that much of a surprise if I really think about the child I handed it to.  "I'm not eating that!  I HATE APPLESAUCE!" Just another day in the Lindsay house.