Fall Comfort Food: Crock Pot Applesauce

Fall is finally here!  I just love this time of year.  Nothing compares to the smell of fall - pumpkin pies, bonfires, cranberry sauce, crisp fall leaves.  There is a sense of mystery and anticipation, perhaps because it's the season of Halloween - a little sense of spookiness.  It makes you burrow down a little more into your sweater, or cuddle just a little bit closer to your love.  It is the most positively perfect time of year.

And let's not forget the food!  Is there any other season where you can add pumpkin to anything and get away with it?  Go crazy with the cinnamon?  Bake and eat and bake and eat, and not worry about fitting into that bathing suit?  (thank goodness leggings and huge sweaters are in style!)

So to start off this fall, and this blog (named for my absolute love of fall!), I thought I'd begin with one of my all-time favorite fall comfort food recipes: crock pot applesauce.  I think I'll file this in "To Eat" and "To Do", because to make this the perfect fall recipe, you should really go to your local farmer's market or apple orchard (if you have one) and pick out the ripest, juiciest apples you can find.  Call me crazy, but produce-shopping can really be a great date idea!  (I'm thinking outdoor, meeting the farmer, picking it off the vine yourself kind of "shopping", not pushing a cart through a crowded grocery store with kids screaming and people ripping their hair out kind of shopping...I'm not that crazy!!) 

Crock pot applesauce is something I only stumbled upon recently, (on Pinterest, of course) and after my first batch, I was hooked!! And not just on the taste, but on the way my house smelled while it was cooking (think Grandma's house at Thanksgiving, or Macy's the week before Christmas...do you think I'm crazy yet!?)  I experimented with different kinds of apples, sugar, spices, and "add ons", and I've detailed what I use in the recipe below, but definitely try to put your own spin on it - make it a signature dish; trust me, people will be begging you to make it again, or give them the recipe!  Enjoy, and thanks for reading "Dreaming of Fall."  

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