When winter hits full force in Chicago, I retreat to my kitchen. At this time of year, I crave warm, comforting food – and I often try and use up whatever I already have in my apartment so that I don’t have to head out in the snow and bitter cold to go to the store. 

Just the other day, I bought a bag of apples, quite a few of which had bruised spots. Did I throw them out? Of course not. My philosophy is: when life gives you bruised apples, you make applesauce.

Apples & Berry Sauce

The recipe below is inspired by the applesauce in Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone - it’s one of my favorite everyday cookbooks.  Pick up a copy here.

I cut off the bruises and chopped up the apples into half inch pieces (roughly) with the skins on, threw them in a saucepot with a bit of sugar (about 2 tablespoons) and a splash of water (about an 1/8 of a cup). I then added a stick of cinnamon, a few grinds of fresh nutmeg and a shake of ground cinnamon and turned on the stove. As the apples started to simmer and permeate my kitchen with cinnamon-y goodness, I decided to slice a lemon into thin wedges, and added that as well. Then I remembered the half bag of frozen berries in my freezer. I threw these in at the last minute, and they brightened up the dish into the most beautiful ruby-red color. 

I tried this again yesterday, and added half a bag of cranberries to the apples. Just as delicious and just as beautiful.  Btai Avon!