Candy is NOT Meant to be Decorative!

 Every year about this time, I pull out all my fall decorations. These include a pumpkin shaped candy jar that we got as a wedding gift. It looks so sad and forlorn sitting there empty, so every year I go out and buy a bag or two of candy to fill it--purely for decorative purposes. And every year, I am reminded of why I don't keep candy in my house: I have no willpower! This year, since I'm home all day, every day, it's even worse. So far we have been through two bags of mini Reese's Cups and a bag of Hershey's miniatures, with the majority of those having been eaten by me. (I have the same problem with other desserts, such as the cake I made from the apples we got on our trip to Sky Top. Guess who ate most of that?) So now the candy is gone again, and this time, the jar will sit empty until the fall decorations are packed away. Unless I start feeling all Martha Stewartish and decide to fill it with gold spangled acorns and hand-painted pinecones. Naw! I think it will just stay empty!

Apples, Apples, and More Apples!

I've spent the last week trying to use up all the apples from our Skytop trip. We started with Apple Chicken on Monday night. Tomorrow I plan to try this Apple Cream Cheese Bundt Cake with Praline Glaze. After today's recipe (which is the point of this blog post), I had three apples left over, so I decided that Apple Fritters sounded good. I'll make those on Saturday so that my husband will be home to get some fresh out of the grease!

Anyway, today I made my mom's famous homemade applesauce! She got it out of an old cookbook (which I'm sure is out of print now) about cooking with honey. So I can't really give credit to the author at this time. If I figure it out, I'll come back and add it! UPDATE: I found out from my mom that she actually got the recipe from a friend in Indiana 28 years ago. She jotted it down on the inside back cover of her cooking with honey cookbook, so that's why I remember it as coming from that book!

I'm going to follow blogging protocol and post a wordy description along with pictures of my attempts to follow the recipe and then post the actual recipe in word form below. If you're like me and you just followed this on Pinterest and you don't care about my witty descriptions, you can just skip to the bottom and read the recipe!

A Perfectly Fall Afternoon

 After having lived in the south for 5 years, I can finally say that I made it to Sky Top Orchard! We went with some friends from our community group at church and my sister. I love the fact that, living in the upstate, we are just a short 30 minute drive from the Blue Ridge mountains. It was a perfect day for apple picking--partly sunny, weather in the low 70's, and a slight breeze.