Feelin' it In My Bones

Ahhh...Fall. I have been awaiting your arrival for approximately 9 months, and tomorrow you're officially here.

I've had the inkling that soon you'd arrive for a while now. There has been a crispness in the morning and evening air. We haven't used our AC in weeks. And then last week I noticed the first hints of color in the leaves. Not a lot, but the hills are beginning to show a glimmer of the colorful patchwork they will soon become.

Yeah, I love Fall. The air, fabulous food, and perfect running weather. And of course all the cute sweaters, boots and Fall clothes I forgot I even had. It's like a new wardrobe without spending a dime. YEA!!!

But one of the things I love most about this season is the Fall Harvest and the homemade applesauce. I have many fond childhood applesaucing memories, mostly due to the hours of amusement we got from the apple waste exiting the food strainer. It looked like poo, and my sisters and I would laugh hysterically over it. I know...gross. And from a family of girls. SCANDALOUS!

The girls and I went apple picking at Crooked Run Orchard in Purcellville. We picked about 35lbs of apples and spent 3 hours with my apple corer-slicer-peeler getting them all ready to turn into mush.

Since I've done this before and I grew up watching Madre do it, you'd think this would be easy as pie. But no. I botched it. Bad. Maybe my confidence was inflated from the successful applesaucing experiment of last year. Whatever the cause, I didn't stir it enough and the bottom burned. I lifted the lid and a plume of smoke-flavored steam came out of the pot. Something must be wrong with my sense of smell.

Thinking it might be salvageable I tasted it. I've never been a smoker, so I'm not really sure what smoker-mouth tastes like. But I'm pretty sure I got an idea. I'll leave it at that.

I could have thrown in the towel, but homemade applesauce is one of my most favorite things. And I'm stubborn. So I tried again. This time with my ego in check. And got 31 pints out of it! Wahoo.

I'll definitely be investing in a food strainer before the next time. No more of that peeling, coring, cooking and blending nonsense for me. Besides...I really want the girls to have the same applesaucing experience I had. Apple poo and all.