Family-Time Pics & Sugarless Applesauce

Happy Hump Day!!

Now, if you don't know what that means, no judgement. I tend to use this term quite freely and assumed that everyone knows what I mean by 'Hump Day', but realized after a couple of puzzled looks from people in my office that this might not be the case.

Hump Day (according to Anna): Wednesday, the proverbial 'hump' at the middle of the week - its all downhill from here folks! (meaning its going to be a breeze, easy, and not going down in quality...remind me never to try and define anything again ;)

Family-Time Pics

One of the things that I love about visits with my padre, other than seeing him and the rest of the fam (which is numero uno, obvi), but also that I can access awesome pics from my Stepmom, who has become a total whiz of a camera-lady.

Here are a few of my favs from the weekend:

Thought I was in Paris for a sec

The beautiful foliage at the Champlain Lookout in Chelsea, QC

Me and the boys - Alec, Jemerie, Popster, Lukas and I

At the locks connecting the Ottawa River and the Canal

So happy

Sugarless Applesauce

When the fam visited this weekend, they brought me a basket of apples from a tree in their backyard. I was brainstorming what to make with them, and realized that I haven't had applesauce in a while. So, I put on some 30 Rock and started peeling.

Prettiest little apples :)

I peeled and cored all of the apples, and then diced them

I brought the apples, cinnamon, lemon and water to a boil

And then let it simmer for about 20 minutes until all of the apples were nice and mushy

I took the lemon wedge out and then mashed it all up!

I had a taster bowl while it was still warm - AMAZING! 

It honestly tastes sugary enough from the natural sugar in apples, and the zest from the lemon really balances it out. I ended up adding another extra dash of cinnamon before eating it. So good.

A delicious treat for a cool fall evening :)

Sugarless Applesauce

Based on Home Cook’s Applesauce

Ingredients

4 cups of apples, peeled and cored

2 tbsp cinnamon

1 ¾ cups water

½ lemon

1 tsp salt

Directions

1 – Peel and core apples, then cut them into 1 inch cubes.

2 – Place apples, cinnamon, water, salt and lemon into a big pot. Squeeze the lemon into the mixture and leave the rind in the pot throughout the cooking process. Bring it to a boil, and then let simmer for 15-20 minutes.

3 – When apples are mushy, take pot off heat and remove lemon from the pot.

4 – Mash the mixture up with a potato masher or use a blender for desired consistency.

5 – Serve warm or cool, and enjoy!

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