Applesauce

I sit here, jar of homemade applesauce close by and think of how much I do love applesauce. It is one of those comfort foods that you respond to even after being an adult and eating real apples for the better part of your known life. It is one of those sensations that might linger since learning how to eat solid food. I can taste the apple skin that I missed while peeling the apples. I can taste the cinnamon my mom and I so carefully measured by adding until it tasted right. I can taste the brown sugar we used instead of the age old white sugar. But most of all I can taste the glorious time that I had making it with my mom on the day before Christmas Eve last year. Apples by nature want to be crispy and firm, so it seems odd that I still get such great sensations out of eating mushed up, spiced up, and canned up apples. It's not so much that they taste like apples, but it tastes like applesauce. Its like when you taste fried onions for the first time, the subtle sweet and the tinge of acid. I often wondered what the fresh real onion tasted like, and last week I had the nerve to attempt to eat half of a fresh farmers market onion. I beheld a wonderful experience of my mouth and throat refusing to stop burning, and tears running fresh to my eyes when ever I breathed in. Not to say that apples and onions are the same thing, lets be honest they are far from similar. I do notice that when one does get reacquainted with applesauce it might take a few spoon fulls before you once again remember the glory of previous experiences. I also like to make it known that apples still remain one of my all time favorite fruits. They crunch like a champion and aid me in fulfilling that sweetness craving I have after many meals, but applesauce garners much different delight. I love the soothing softness of cooked apples bathed in glorious spices and naturalish sugar. I also love the simple fact that the applesauce mom and I made last year has lasted me until now sitting calmly in my pantry awaiting its turn to assist me in my quest for delicious. So these points are why applesauce is one of my favorite things: Long lasting, mildly sweet, delicious, and memorable and fun to make and to eat.