Apple of my eye

Apple season is finally here! I took a trip to the Center Grove Orchard in Cambridge this week and came back with a bag of Paula Red apples. It's an early season variety that is supposed to be terrific for making sauce. (The orchard carries more than 30 varieties of apples through the beginning of November, so I'm sure I'll be back often this fall.)

Aren't these apples beautiful? They have such a beautiful red and green color, and the flesh is bright white when peeled. The flavor is a delight, too; it almost tastes like a berry-flavored apple.

I'm still new to making applesauce from scratch, so I keep trying different recipes until I find one I really like. Last night, I used a recipe from one of my favorite Web sites, allrecipes.com. The recipe is called Sarah's Applesauce. It's a five-star recipe with more than 500 reviews, so I figured it was definitely worth a try. My only alterations were that I added a little lemon juice for flavor and to boost the color of the apples. I also used half the sugar called for in the recipe. In the end, the applesauce turned out a little on the tart side, so maybe next time I'll add a little more sugar.

There's nothing better than homemade applesauce. And it took less than a hour to make, including peeling the apples by hand. Love the addition of cinnamon in the recipe!

Attempted to get a close-up view, but I'm using my sister's camera. My husband took the camera out fishing tonight. Never know when he's going to catch the big one!