Lots of Applesauce - or, what to do with all those apples you picked!

Every year our family looks forward to going apple picking in the fall. It's a lot of fun, but we do come home with a lot of apples.  They are absolutely delicious - nothing tastes quite a fresh as an apple right off the tree right?  Look at them, aren't they gorgeous?  I did make the usual array of apple pie and apple crisp.  BTW - apple crisp with ice cream makes a fantastic surprise treat for breakfast for the family.  But applesauce is the family favorite.  Even my son who really doesn't like fruit, loves this applesauce.

Mostly Cortlands all washed and ready

The apples all chopped up and ready in the cooking pot.

Bubbling and boiling away

 

Here's my large applesauce recipe:

Sweet Potato Casserole - Gluten Free!

This was a Thanksgiving gamble.  I wanted to add another veggie dish to our menus - following my Auntie's example of Thanksgivings past and I happened to have sweet potatoes on hand.  The recipe I found was not originally gluten free, I made my own adaptations to make it work for us.  If our guest's reaction was any indication, this was a success.  She had seconds and raved about it so much that I gave her the recipe.  She has since made it for a dinner party and looks forward to making it again.

• 3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
• 1 cup coconut sugar  - (you could use brown sugar, I'm just on a coconut sugar kick right now)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup melted butter.
•  
• Topping
•  1/2 cup coconut sugar - or brown sugar
• 1/3 cup gluten free flour
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup chopped pecans - I didn't have any on hand, so I used slivered almonds in its place, it worked!

Preparation:

Combine first 6 ingredients. Pour into a buttered 1 1/2 to 2-quart casserole dish. Mix remaining ingredients together and sprinkle over top. Bake at 350° for 30 to 40 minutes, until hot and browned.
Serves 6 to 8.