It was a great weekend. Saturday I got to spend a bit of time with my cousin Dianne who is getting married in a few weeks. We went and checked out her wedding and ceremony site – The Aldrich Mansion in Warwick, RI. I loved being able to see the place before the wedding to scope out some great photo spots (I’m her wedding photographer!). Then Bryan bought me two more pieces for my Le Creuset collection.
Before moving up to Rhode Island I found two Le Creuset pie dishes (cobalt blue that match my free Le Creuset tea-pot!) which had never been used by his mum so she gave them to me! A few weeks ago when we were at T.J. Maxx we found a bunch of Le Creuset pieces in cobalt and apple green (those are our kitchen colors – sadly though Le Creuset doesn’t make the apple green anymore so it is very hard to find pieces) so he bought me an apple green utensil holder and a cobalt baking dish. On Saturday he bought me four apple green ramekins and an apple green baking dish. I truly love being able to find such amazing products for so little. Then yesterday Bryan and I went apple picking and we came home with about 10lbs of macintosh and cortland apples – my two favorites for baking.
I’ll be making him some mini-apple pies this weekend in medium-sized ramekins and using the pre-made pie crusts from the store. For myself some more apple crisp sounds pretty good, I’m telling you its my weakness. I wanted to try something different though, I wanted to make something I have never made before so I decided to try my hand at making apple sauce…in my 1970’s crock pot that Bryan’s mum gave us when we moved.
I don’t think I ever realized how easy it was to make applesauce, especially if you have a crock pot. I need to put this crock pot to use more often, especially now that the cool weather is approaching. I’m thinking chili sometime soon would be good!
Applesauce
5 medium to large apples – I used a mix of macintosh and cortland
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup honey (or you could use agave)
1/2-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (all depends on how much you like the cinnamon flavor in your applesauce)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Peel, core and dice the apples in large pieces – discard the peels and cores. Add all ingredients to crock pot and set on low for about 4-5 hours. Apples will become extremely soft/mushy. Mash apples with a fork or potato masher and enjoy! Keep in an airtight container for up to one week.
Extremely easy to make, throw it all in the pot and come back in a few hours for some very tasty (if I do say so myself) applesauce! Best part – it is naturally gluten-free 🙂
Now for the “And then some” part of the title of this post
By now many if not all of you have probably heard of The Gluten Free Girl and the Chef’s new cookbook “The Gluten Free Girl and the Chef – A love story and 100 tempting recipes“. If you haven’t well what are you waiting for?? Check out these amazing reviews (and many of them if not all are doing give aways of the book also!). I haven’t bought my copy yet but it is on my Amazon Wish list!! I can’t even begin to explain the mouth-watering reviews that I have read, but they all talk about the bread recipe that is in the new book and I am dying to try it. Please check out the reviews/giveaways below:
Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom
So go, read, drool and enter for your chance to win a copy of this book…if you don’t win then go and buy it!
And on another side note, I would like to thank the wonderful people at Small Appliances for my amazingly wonderful new Coffee and Espresso Machine! I’ve had some major coffee pot issues lately, my french press broke (shed a tear) and then when we moved in my dad gave me back “my” (it wasn’t mine, no idea where this pot came from but I gave mine away when I moved to California) old coffee pot. So when my french press broke I started using that one. It worked fine at first even though the top of the carafe was broken and I bought the wrong filters until one day it just decided it wouldn’t drip down any longer. I had to take hot water, put the cup under it and hold up the part that makes it drip – seriously. I posted on twitter that my half working pot had completely broke and the extremely kind and generous people at Small Appliances contacted me and offered me a new coffee pot. I seriously thought it was a joke and if it wasn’t I was expecting some little four cup mr. coffee. Instead they sent me the Krups Coffee/Espresso machine below! I can’t thank them enough for their generosity! So if you are in the need of any appliances check them out!
creativecookinggf.wordpress.com 
Our friends got married several years ago in Warwick. They actually got married on one of the harbor cruise boats. The boat had been fully booked and they only had one floor, but there was a threatening hurricane so everyone else booked on the boat cancelled at the last minute and we had the whole boat! The sun came out and it was absolutely gorgeous. We cruised the harbor and it was the Newport Boat Show weekend, so the captain took the boat right through all the luxurious yachts that were anchored. It was a really memorable weekend.
How cool that you are a photographer!
Oh, and applesauce is great, too. I’ve never made my own applesauce but freshly made apple juice is awesome. We used to make that with my husband’s family. 🙂
Shirley
Shirley – wow that is awesome, it’s funny how things work out like that! It truly is beautiful here, we love it. I’ve missed New England so much in the last five years I’m very happy to be living back here again.
Yes I am a photographer, however not so great with the food photography ha ha really need to work on that!
We are going apple picking this weekend. Maybe we will make some of this yummy looking applesauce. Thanks! 🙂