Crock Pot Applesauce

While on vacation this past week, we stopped at Bartlett’s Orchard outside of Pittsfield, MA.  Sadly, apple picking season was over (boo), but they still had goods for sale!  My friend Bailey (who grew up in Pittsfield) said  Bartlett’s was a "must" because of their apple cider donuts…and OMG…they were amazing. Being from the south, I’d never had a cider donut before moving up here – it’s something the south needs to adopt ASAP!  A-mazing.  We also bought some apples from their store so I could make applesauce when we got home.

I decided that Monday night was the perfect time to whip it up, since we’d need something sweet to take the bad taste out of our mouths from the debate...har-har-har.  Here’s a super simple (but delicious) recipe you make in the crock pot!  I used a mixture of Jonagold, Northern Spy, and Gala apples.  It’s fun to experiment with lots of different varieties.

Crock Pot Applesauce

10-12 apples

¼ cup water

½ cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Start by peeling, coring and slicing your apples.  There are a number of tools to help make this easier, but my favorite is by far is a combo tool that does all three of those at once – a peeler, corer,slicer.  I found this one at a store a few years ago for $6 and it’s been one of my favorite gadgets ever since!

Mix apples, water, brown sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice to your crock pot and cook on high for 3-4 hours, stirring periodically.  Note that the amount of sugar you use will depend on what apples you use (sweeter apples, less sugar!), and your individual taste.  Taste after cooking for a few hours and then decide if you want to add anything else.

After 3.5 hours I turned off the crock pot and fired up my handheld mixer to finish the sauce.  That way, you control the chunky/sauce ratio.  Travis is a fan of “super-fine” applesauce, so that’s what we did this time!.

Here's the finished product - so yummy.  Enjoy it warm shortly after you remove from the crock pot or refrigerate overnight and eat it cool!

Mass MoCA and cute New England towns

Friday was the first rainy day of the week, but also marked the arrival of others in the house!  Travis' parents drove up from NC to spend the weekend with us (got in late Thursday night), and our friends Laura and Elizabeth came in late Friday afternoon.

We started the day with brunch at Ozzie's, a restaurant recommended by the people we rented the house from.  Their breakfast was SO good that we went back on Saturday!  My favorite was one of their October specials, the pumpkin pancakes.  Jenny LOVED her apple bread french toast...as you'll see below.

After breakfast, we decided to make our way to Alford, MA - being only 30 minutes away, it was obviously a must.  It was a tiny little "town" - not much to see...no stoplights...only a few buildings in one area - but I'm glad we went.

I'm so happy I'm an Alford.  :)

Travis was on umbrella duty so we could take pictures without ruining our cameras.

 Saturday was much nicer.  The trees were beautiful!

We spent most of Saturday at Mass MoCA (The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), which was fantastic.

Can you find Laura, Elizabeth and I in the pic?

As we came in, we saw that there were some giant swings under one of the underpasses by the museum.  After wandering the property for a little while, we found them!

I found a FIVE  leaf clover!

The other side of that underpass had funny animals painted on the columns.  Jenny and I found our favorites.

We finished out the week by visiting Lee and Stockbridge - two cute towns south of where we'd been staying.  There were cute shops, a few antique stores (I love antiquing) and a great little creperie called the "Starving Artist Cafe".  I assume it's because they are so close to Tanglewood - funny!  There's a beautiful church in the middle of Lee's downtown whose wooden frame steeple is the tallest in New England.

Travis' "Stockbridge must" shows his music dorkiness.  (Love my musician hubby.)  One of the three places in composer Charles Ives' "Three Places in New England" is the Housatonic River at Stockbridge.  It was beautiful - easy to see how it could influence him!

Now we're back home.  Not ready for work tomorrow!

Want to check out what else we did on this vacation?  Check out the other blogs:

The Mohawk Trail
Check out where we stayed, Edith Wharton's House, and Lenox Mass
Mount Greylock and the Hancock Shaker Village

Berkshires Vacation - Mount Greylock and Hancock Shaker Village

Yesterday was our third day of beautiful weather - sunny and 60 degrees.  It was a perfect day to head up to Mount Greylock - that is, after 11.5 hours of sleep!

Mount Greylock is the highest natural point in Massachusetts - 3,491 feet!  Since Trav's back is still on the mend and my foot is still healing from all the fun it had at the WaterFires two weeks ago, we chose to drive to the top.

We had a pretty good laugh at the parking signs along the way, apparently requesting us to flip our cars up on their "butts" to make more room for others.  Could they really not think of another way to draw what they wanted us to do?

The summit was amazing, with stunning views everywhere you looked.  On a clear day, they say you can see 60-90 miles!  There is no way a camera could do it justice (or even just capture the sheer size of the landscape), so I made a collage of pictures so you can (maybe) get an idea.

There was a tower on the summit (looked a lot like a giant chess piece) that you could climb to the top of for even better views.  Everything smelled like Christmas Trees too.  Such a happy smell!

The inside base of the monument was beautiful, with a mosaic ceiling and marble floor.

We ate a late lunch at the Bascom Lodge (below), a lodge and restaurant at the summit.  The soup and sandwiches were good, but the real treat was the view while we ate.

After lunch we went to the Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, MA.  The village began in the 1780s with 100 believers and some land donated by local farmers, and operated until 1960 when it was sold to be a "living museum".  Over the years, the Hancock Shakers built many buildings on their land and produced many medicinal herbs, crops, and other handmade goods.  Today you can visit each building and see how they lived and worked.

Our favorite part was the round barn and its furry (or feathery) residents!

When we walked into the barn area, it was SO noisy.  While I haven't spent TOO much time with farm animals, I've spent enough to know it's not usually that loud.  We found that all the noise was coming from four angry pigs, and that this is their daily ritual right before feeding.  They were sooooooo mad!  Once they were fed, the settled down quite nicely.  So funny.

When we went outside, there were chickens and turkeys everywhere.  I think they thought we had food, because they followed us around most of the time we were hanging out.

It was beautiful!

Like yesterday, we got home just in time for sunset (and to relieve our puppy who had been home alone all day).

Friday, the house is going to fill up, as Terry and Jenny (Trav's parents), our friend Laura, and one of her friends are all coming for the weekend.  Can't wait!