Appreciating applesauce in a jar

Porter brought a bunch of apples her 3 year old and mother-in-law picked. It's such a treat to get freshly picked apples! She said these were cooking apples so I got a little nervous. I have never cooked with apples before so what could I make that I couldn't mess up? I scoured the web and found an interesting recipe for applesauce. Instead of cooking the apples on the stove, this recipe calls for roasting the apples. The recipe only uses a fraction of the sugar the stovetop version uses so I gave it a try. Ohmigosh, it turned out yummy!!!! It has a nice roasted flavor and it's not overly sweet. Actually it kind of tastes like a light version of apple pie filling. I'm relieved it came out well because I would've been pissed if it didn't turn out because I spent 2 hours prepping all those apples. I now have an appreciation for applesauce that I never had before because of all the work involved. A thought that crossed my mind is that I need to buy organic applesauce from now on. Apples are tainted with the most pesticides and since applesauce is so concentrated, that's a lot of pesticides crammed into a jar. Apple juice, too. Anyways, while I was prepping, I was asking Boo who all she wanted to give the applesauce to because based on the quantity of apples I had, I thought it was going to yield a HUGE batch. Um, not - I got about 4 - 5 cups worth out of approximately 24 medium sized apples. I forgot that they cook down. Well, at least I have enough to share with Porter to thank her for the apples. Here's the recipe:

Roasted Applesauce
Note: I made a triple batch so the recipe will make 1-2 cups.

- 8 medium apples, such as Granny Smith or Rome Beauties
- 1 Tbsp. honey
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 Tbsp. dark brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Preheat oven to 400F. Peel, core, and dice apples into one-inch chunks making them roughly the same size so they cook evenly. Place apples in a large mixing bowl and drizzle the honey, olive oil, brown sugar and kosher salt over the apples. Toss with your hands to make sure all of the apples are coated well. Spread the apples out in an even layer on a heavy roasting pan or a baking sheet.

Cook for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes (if you have any honey mix, pour over the apples when you stir the first time). When done, apples should be golden brown and soft, but still retain their shape. Remove from the oven then pulse in a blender until it's to the consistency of your liking.

Boo liked it so much she kept asking for more. For me, I put a teeny bit of vanilla ice cream (I confess, I haven't completely eliminated dairy) over warm applesauce and it was heavenly! Tomorrow for her breakfast I'm going to make a yogurt parfait w/ the applesauce and add some raisins. Wish I had some granola to add to it but it's still going to be yum. I told her when I tucked her in tonight that I was going to make her parfait for breakfast and she got all excited.

Porter also gave me some okra from a neighbor's garden. I have only used okra in gumbo so I wasn't quite sure what to do with them. She gave me a quick recipe but I didn't saute it in oil like she does so it came out ok. I didn't want to waste it so I tossed some into my dinner of stir-fry chicken and it was delish in it. I saved some to give to Boo tomorrow to try. It'll be interesting to see what she thinks. I'm guessing she's going to spit it out but you never know.