Big Apple Apples (and a recipe for Apple-Pear Sauce)

We’ve got a real bumper crop of apples ripening on the tree on our roof right now.

I’m not sure who or what to credit, since laisse faire has been our unintentional gardening principle this year.  I think maybe I fed the trees twice and you can tell by the color of the leaves that I never sprayed them.

Maybe it was the rain. Or the sun. Or someone has bees nearby. 

Regardless, these little macintoshes are white and unblemished inside and while not as crisp as say, a ginger gold or granny smith, they have a nice flavor,

and make a very good applesauce, especially when you add in a couple of small overipe pears you found sitting on the counter.

Apple-Pear Sauce

1 cup orange juice (plus a little water if needed for larger apples)
6 small macintosh apples
2 small soft pears
1 cinnamon stick

Rinse the apples and pears in water and dry. Do not peel. Cut into quarters, removing the occasional brown spot, and core. Add the fruit to a heavy saucepan. Pour in the orange juice and toss in a cinnamon stick. Cover the pot and cook over low heat till the fruit is soft (20-30 mins), stirring occasionally to be sure all the fruit spends some time immersed in the juice.

Remove cinnamon stick. Using a large slotted spoon, remove the fruit from the juice and run it through a food mill (or press through a fine mesh strainer). Add back some of the juice if you need it to thin the sauce. The juice you don’t use, pour into a glass and drink slowly – hmmmm…..

If possible, serve the apple-pear sauce warm.