Apfelsoße

Let me mention again just how much I really, really, really don't like apples. Or pears.

I bought two very beautiful pears the other day and I've been collecting apples for a week or two. Unfortunately, I really had no idea what to do with them until the other night. The pears I cut and cooked in a pan with butter and ate, mashed on toast, with some quark. Then last night I was tired of seeing apples in my fridge so I made applesauce!

I might mention here that I do like cooked pears and saucy apples. Really, the reasons I don't like them normally (raw) are--in order of importance--thus: 1) (disgusted:)Hand picked fruit tends to be home to critters. There are very, very few things worse than biting into an apple and finding a worm or bug or whatever has made it it's home (of course, barring the discovery of only half a worm, bug, etc). 2) (flustered:) The skin is really annoying and gets in your teeth and won't come out until you get home and floss. 3) (just picky:) The texture of a raw pear and many kinds of apples is something like that of wet cardboard. 4) Fructose:fiber is too unbalanced.

Now that I have made my case against apples and their cousins in their uncut, uncooked form, I will admit that I LOVE applesauce (and most every cooked apple/pear pastry or pie)--provided it is made my way! That means peels left on (trying so hard on #4), marginally chunky, essentially no sugar added (again #4), lots of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, a splash of vinegar, and whatever else I feel like adding (like caramelized onions).

Yum. Sorry if I offended any apple lovers.