Making applesauce from scratch

I noticed the amount of sugar “non-sugar added” applesauce had in it the other day when I needed it for a recipe, and that did it. I decided to make my very own. So easy, I’ll never go back! And of course, it can be made in the CROCK POT! Yippie!

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Tomato relish in the crock pot

I’m not much of a sauce/relish type girl. I like my food plain, usually saltless and sugarless from years of food rules in my head commanding what I could and could not eat. I’m even offended when gravy intrudes upon my perfect virgin mashed potatoes. My mother likes to say I simply have no taste buds, personally I think they seem to only respond to sugar. But when you’re cooking for someone else AND that someone is a spice lover….it’s a real game changer. I made this when a creative front blew through while trying to get rid of overripe tomatoes. I topped my Jack and the beanstalk black eye pea concoction with juicy relish over pine nut-brown rice; each part cooked separately in the crock pot. It was a crock pot kind of day…

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Spicy, low-fat Marinara sauce

In Brazil, no one cooks out of cans. It’s foreign to them. I remember the first time I witnessed homemade marinara sauce cooked on the stove. Created by a Salvadorian Brazilian girl named Heloisa in a flat we shared in Florence, Italy, she stirred it with a wooden spoon, letting it bubble and ooze. She told me I needed to stop my American nonsense of buying bottles of ketchup and squirting it over my spaghetti, like it was a real meal. Sure, it tasted like crap but I wasn’t making much money. What was the big deal?

Unfortunately at that time in my life, cooking was not a priority. Heloisa showed me how to make Brazilian mariana, but today all I remember was that I was hungry, it smelled good and I was eyeing her Coco-Puffs on top of the refrigerator. I kept thinking if I ate them for dinner, I would be expected to buy her a new box the next time I went to the grocery. Ahh, wasted youth.

I'll try the Italian spice.....next time.

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