raspberry applesauce

Fall is here, baby!  Last weekend, the fam and I went to McQueen’s Orchards right here in Northwest Ohio, and had an awesome day of apple picking. It was a trip hoping to kill two birds with one stone. Pick a wicked amount of apples in which to sauce, butter, and bake, and also, try (mostly in vain) to get some new pictures of the kiddos. Well, 30 seconds into the trip, we had a fall with a skinned knee. A few tears later, we were back on the track. On the apple front, we were successful:

 this:

 and this:

It’s an ongoing battle, this taking photos of small people. One I hope to come out victorious one of these days, but until then, at least we have applesauce. See what I did there?

After coming home with my bag bursting with apples, I had to make something immediately. Seeing as how it was already 3:00 pm, apple butter was out of the question due to the long cooking time, but applesauce…well, that was another story completely.

I have been making an amazing cranberry applesauce recipe from Everyday Food for years. It has just the right amount of tart and sweet to get my taste buds dancing. I love a dancing taste bud. Alas, I didn’t have any cranberries on hand, so I went to my freezer for inspiration. Turns out, I had a bag of frozen raspberries leftover from the Buddy’s party. Raspberries, also sweet and tart. This could work. And let me tell you, it did.

This is incredibly simple and quick to make. Serve it warm or chilled straight out of the fridge and you can’t go wrong. Turns out, both the small people and big people in my house loved it. It was gone in 24 hours. I need to make more. Perhaps a double batch next time.