Slow Cooker Applesauce

Do you ever build things up in your mind as this gigantic, looming task? Then the aversion you have towards the task keeps compounding on itself and it's transformed into an insurmountable undertaking that you know you'll never be able to accomplish. Instead of facing it head on, you continue to come up with excuses and put it off.

Moral of the story: procrastination works. Spend less time doing the shit you don't want by avoiding it entirely.

I wish I could agree with this, but procrastination is not my thing; it makes me anxious. Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today should be engraved on my tombstone. Brent's more likely to drag his feet on a project while I'm in his ear asking if it's done yet. In Brent's defense, most of his projects are labor intensive and time consuming (ie: all the yard work), so I try to cut him some slack. I'm not trying to win the role of nagging wife, at least not in my thirties.

All this rambling is just my way of saying we finally brought in the deck furniture and did our fall lawn clean up this past weekend. I wanted to give myself a big ole pat on the shoulder, since I am not above self-flattery. My sister was staying with us so we used the extra set of hands and got it done in just over an hour. The thing about putting off these chores you don't want to do is that they're never as bad as you think they're going to be.

I always feel like a bit of a phony when we're doing home projects of this sort. I wave at my neighbor engaged in the same behavior while thinking to myself, "like I know what the fuck I'm doing over here; I'll just run this rake over the lawn and pretend to do the outdoor water shut off b/c I'm not adult enough to be a homeowner."

In other fall activity news, we went apple picking two weeks ago and there are still no fewer than five million apples in my pantry. We had the obligatory debate with ourselves over whether we want the smaller bag b/c WTF do we need ten million apples for, but then we wind up with the bigger bag anyway b/c it's a better deal. So since we're practically making money on this transaction (not at all) we treat ourselves to hot cider and hot cider donuts and pretend we're not paying to do a bunch of manual labor.

I thought this late in the season would be slim pickin' but am somehow now up to the task of finding new ways to use 15 million apples. The best way so far is slow cooker applesauce, which uses at least a dozen at a time and makes your house smell amazing. I was hesitant to make it since I haven't had applesauce since I lived at home with my parents. My mom would buy it for one of my sisters and I would go in for a bite before realizing I didn't really like it. 

Store bought applesauce = sadness . Homemade applesauce = happiness. 

I feel silly even calling this a recipe, since it's like three ingredients. The ratios can be altered to however many apples you have; if you, too, just went apple picking, throw in as many as your slow cooker can hold. If you don't want any added sugar, the natural sugar of the fruit and cinnamon would probably still be delicious. The applesauce is great cold and even better hot. Pat yourself on the back because you just cleared up a ton of space in your pantry and now your house smells like fall.

Slow Cooker Applesauce

Ingredients: * 

10-12 apples (or as many as your slow cooker holds)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon

Instructions:
1. Peel and rough chop your apples; I cut four sections around the core and throw 'em in. Use a variety of apples, like fuji, honeycrisp, granny smith, etc.
2. Pour cinnamon and brown sugar over apples and stir to coat evenly. If you don't have brown sugar, granulated sugar is fine to substitute.
3. Heat on low for 6-8 hours, stirring every few hours if you're around.
4. Use a potato masher to reach desired consistency; I like my applesauce chunkier, but if you want it smooth, immersion blend to remove the lumps.

*I added probably half a cup of water to my initial batch, since I was nervous about lack of moisture. The applesauce was a little more soupy than I would have liked, so I omitted water in this recipe. If you want a runnier result, add it back.