Canned Happiness

Andrew and I had a great time on our honeymoon.  I don't know about him (and he don't know about me), but I was ready to get back into the swing of normalcy.  For me, it means cooking.  For Andrew, it means trapping mice in the garage and other manly things I'm glad I don't have to be a part of ("Hon, I saw a spider even I didn't like the looks of.  It was green and with legs and body was THIS BIG A-ROUND.")
Dead spiders aside, I had a peck of Cortland apples that my mother-in-law had given me before the wedding that still hadn't been touched.  She also gave me a buttercup squash.  I'm still working on how to handle that, but I made applesauce with the peck.  Here's the recipe I used:

Homemade Applesauce 
(as printed and tweaked by the 12th Edition of BHG Cookbook (the red plaid) and myself)

Almost one peck of Cortland apples, cored and quartered (their recipe calls for 8 pounds/24 cups)
2 cups water
10 inches stick cinnamon (optional.  I used 4 sticks of cinnamon.  I don't know how many inches long they were.  I do not have that kind of time for measuring.)
3/4 to 1 1/4 cups sugar (I did 1 1/4 cup, but it's all to taste.)

I used my apple wedger to get rid of the core, and put all the apple slices (skin and all) into my large stockpot (8-10 quart).  Add the water and the cinnamon sticks.  Bring to a boiling (it's hard to see the water because there are so many apple slices.  I stirred it up occasionally and mashed down the apples.  They'll get there.)  Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 25-35 minutes, until very tender.  Stir often.
Take the cinnamon sticks out of the apple mush (and maybe remember how many sticks you put in...I started blending with one still in there...) and press through a food mill or sieve.  I used my immersion blender (WEDDING PRESENT) and it worked great.  Bonus:  you don't have to take the apples out of the pot.
Once your mush looks like applesauce (or leave it a little chunky if you want), add your desired amount of sugar.  At this point, I also added cinnamon and nutmeg.  No measured amount.  Use your eyeballs and your taste preference.  BHG also says you can add 1/2 to 1 cup of water for desired consistency.  I like my applesauce thick and I cannot lie.
Bring the applesauce back to boiling.

This recipe cans 6 pints of applesauce.  I had just a smidge leftover (maybe 1/2 cup??) after I canned it.