Food Friday: Homemade Apple Sauce!

Tis the season for apples. Apple orchards, caramel apples, apple cider, bob for apples, apple pies, and yes do not forget homemade apple sauce.

My family makes a trip to the apple orchards in Wisconsin every year. Our day traditionally is full of Fall activities surrounding our trip to the orchards. The leaves are often turning bright shades of red, orange, and yellow. Farmers are harvesting the golden corn out of the fields. And the Mississippi seems as blue as ever. Our day is usually complete after we taste tested and picked out some bushels of apples, finished the corn maze, and stocked up on some Wisconsin cheese. YUM!

Once at home, our leftover apples from pies and eating goes to making homemade apple sauce. We then stock the freezer full of the remaining apples into sauce for winter.

My first secret to cooking apple sauce is my choice in apples. Semi-tart, soft apples make the best sauce for cooking. For pies, I recommend Cortland Apples. These cook down to where they melt in your mouth. Cortland apples are also great for apple sauce. However, I typically use up whatever needs to be cooked before they go bad.

I peel and core the apples sometimes by hand and other times when the apple is still firm with an apple peeler. The kids love to watch the apple peeler. Many hands make this process light work.

I throw the pieces of apple into the pan to cook on low adding a little water. Next, I add my secret ingredient, a touch of cardamon, with plenty of cinnamon. I never need to add any sugar to my sauce. The apples continue to cook on on low until they have cooked down all the way.

Homemade apple sauce is made to serve hot. Store the rest into containers and stick in the freezer for a hearty winter meal. And enjoy.

Take advantage of cooking homemade apple sauce. Most family members are helpful for seasonal baking. Also, the smell of cooking apples and cinnamon make the house smell great for the Fall season.

Food Friday: AMAZING Pork Loin--from a Mishmosh of Ingredients

When I cook and get a little experimental, it can go one of two ways. Either it's really really REALLY good, or we end up ordering pizza.

I had purchased a LARGE pork loin on sale and had so much, I cut it into thirds. I made 1/3 of it into apple butter pork tenderloins for dinner over the weekend.

Wanting to try something new and different, I thought I'd try a stuffed pork loin. I took out one remaining piece of the 1/3 of the pork. I cut it on the bottom third and flipped it out, then on the bottom again, and folded it out, I did it one more time and ended up with a long, flat pork loin.

I took cinnamon raisin bread and soaked it in apple juice. I mixed in a little apple butter and nutmeg. After mixing it all together, I spread the mixture on the pork. I rolled the loin up (like a cinnamon roll) and placed it in the glass baking dish seam side down, in about a cup of apple juice.

After baking covered with foil for 1 hour at 350 degrees, I had crushed fresh pomegranate seeds and poured the juice over the loin. I baked it for another 30 minutes. After taking it out of the oven, I let it sit for 15 minutes before cutting it. It was so juicy, sweet and tender.

Notice all of the juice from the apple juice, apple butter, pomegranate and the pork. The pomegranate juice made the top of the loin brown nicely.

I forgot to take a picture of what it looked like on the inside until we were halfway through eating. I'm kind of embarrassed to say that the four of us put it all down. It was that good. Liam said he was in a "yummy pork raisin, apple, heaven." He asked for it again the next night. I think this dish goes in the "repeat" list.

Here's what it looks like cut. You can see the cinnamon roll look of the apple butter/cinnamon raisin bread mixture in the middle.

Yum.

Food Friday: Sauteed Pork Chops with Thyme and Apples!

With the weather getting colder and the leaves falling, nothing smells better than cinnamon and apples cooking from the kitchen and warming up the house with a holiday fragrance. Now throw in some Pork Chops and you have a tasty, filling Fall meal.

I found this recipe, Sauteed Pork Chops with Thyme and Sliced Apples, in an old, used herb cook book that I found at a book sale. I wanted to learn how to cook with herbs and The Herb and Spice Cookbook: A Seasoning Celebration, seemed like a great find. This book not only has some great home-cooked recipes but explains how to plant, care, and harvest your herbs. Among discovering this recipe, I learned how to freeze fresh herbs from the garden and store them to use in the winter.

So get out your leftover apples from the orchard and some defrosted Pork Chops from the freezer on a cold Fall evening. Get your grilling pan, turn on the stove, and find your cinnamon and dried thyme to make this yummy, winter-filling dinner. Add some rice pilaf, oven-baked winter squash, and some steamed green beans for an overall inviting meal.

4 lean loin pork chops, dredged in flour
1/8 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp butter, divided
1 tbsp olive oil
8 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tart apple, unpeeled, cored, and cut in slices
pinch of ground cinnamon

Dredge chops lightly in flour and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter and oil in a large skillet. Add chops, and saute for 5 minutes on each side over medium-high heat. While they are cooking, place thyme under each chops so that they stick to the meat. Remove chops to a serving dish, and keep warm. Using the same skillet, melt remaining tablespoon of butter with some cinnamon. Add apples, and saute for 4 to 5 minutes, or until soft but not mushy. Spoon apple slices around pork and serve hot.