Cooking Together: Strawberry Applesauce

I'm not a big fan of applesauce. Whenever I had the Spewing Stomach Virus From Hell as a kid--which was often--the first thing back in my temperamental tummy was applesauce. Sometimes the old gut was ready, and sometimes it was not, and applesauce out the nose is not a pretty thing.

And I don't like applesauce on my pork chops, thank you very much. I like savory food savory. Slap a good pan gravy on that sucker, not a pile of mushy sweet stuff. I always roll my eyes in Autumn when the pork+apple recipes dominate the food glossies. It's just not my thing. Small digression: don't even think about putting prunes or raisins or apricots on my pork either, even in chutney form. Barf.

The other day I was cursing and sweating up a storm on the treadmill at the gym, and the t.v. was (of course!) on the Food Network. Don't those folks at the gym know that food is what forced me to the gym in the first place? No wonder they never suffer for membership at that joint.

Sunny Anderson was whipping up grown-up childhood classics on her show Cooking for Real. She ended the meal with homemade Strawberry Applesauce. It looked gorgeously pink and Sunny said she didn't even need to add any sugar to hers, and I thought...maybe.

Let's be clear: Miss D. does not let applesauce pass her lips. I've tried. However, this applesauce was pink and Miss D., in typical diva fashion, thinks pink things are the cat's pajamas. **Strange idiom pondering here--cat's pajamas? What in tarnation does that mean and why do we say it?

Anyways, the recipe is very simple.

Strawberry Applesauce
from Cooking for Real with Sunny Anderson

5 McIntosh or Cortland apples, peeled, cored and diced into small chunks
1/2 cup water
8-10 strawberries, hulled and chopped
1 cinnamon stick
1/4-1/2 cup sugar, or to taste.

Put apples, water and cinnamon stick in a medium pot and bring to a boil. Cover, turn down the heat until apples are tender when pierced with a fork, about 15 minutes. Add the strawberries and cook 5 more minutes.

Cool mixture slightly, discard cinnamon stick and then press through a sieve. Taste for sweetness, adding sugar to taste while still warm, if necessary.

**A few notes from me: I didn't have anything but a very fine mesh sieve, so I just whizzed the apple/strawberry mixture with my immersion blender. Worked great, although the girls were upset with me because I wouldn't let them use the "Whizzer Wand Thingy" by themselves.

I thought it was delicious and perfectly sweet without additional sugar. Both girls insisted it was too tart that way. I compromised and added 1/4 cup sugar.

It's beautiful to look at, easy, and--when gilded with a little dollop of whipped cream--child approved.