I still had half of a ham steak in the freezer, so I pan-fried it for dinner one night last week, and served it with roasted new potatoes and homemade apple sauce. If you’ve never made applesauce, please please give it a try next time you want some: it is SO EASY, especially if you have an immersion blender, that once you’ve tried it you will never crack a jar of Mott’s again. My mom would be the best person to give a serious recipe/instructions for people who want to actually can sauce, but I just make a cheater’s version when I want a little bit to go with pork chops, etc.

Peel and core a few apples–flavorful, not-too-tart ones like Fuji are best, and it’s nice to mix a few types together. For two of us, I used three apples, two Fuji and one Gala, and ended up with a nice bowl of leftovers. Cut up the apples and throw them in a small saucepan with a bit of water–maybe an inch? Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover; cook the apples until they are quite soft.

Then pull out your immersion blender and puree the apples. Taste and see if they need sugar–if you’re using Gala, Fuji, etc, you probably won’t. Add cinnamon to taste.

That’s it! Easy easy easy; the hardest part is peeling the apples. (Cooking the apples with their peels/cores and running the result through a foodmill is the traditional way, and it makes more flavorful sauce. But for a quick weeknight side dish, this way is simpler. Especially since I don’t have a foodmill.)

The next day I ate the leftover applesauce with Nancy’s yogurt, made right in my hometown and only recently available on the East Coast. I wish I had a digital copy of the photos of me on my first birthday, being fed yogurt and applesauce by my aunt Suzanne. My mom says I used to put away the same size bowl of it that my dad did!
Healthy and delicious: