I am now coming up on a year of living in beautiful Iowa. I am from Idaho and as crazy as it seems, you just switch the crop from potatoes to corn, and the two states seem very similar to me. They both have really good, down to earth people, similar weather, besides it being more humid in Iowa, and there are plenty of agricultural type activities to do as a family. One of my favorite outings we have taken as a family was going to Wilson's Orchard, an apple orchard in Iowa City. All the delicious apples you can eat with over 125 varieties to choose from! I have discovered some of my new favorite kinds of apples thanks to this trip.

Iowa also has many great home-cooking style restaurants that are so delicious that I will miss. Recently I went to a restaurant called The Machine Shed that was absolutely delicious! Everything was made from scratch. When they offered me applesauce as a side, I actually thought that sounded really weird and I pretty much just pictured them opening a jar of Treetop applesauce and plopping it on my plate. Boy was I wrong! It was probably my favorite part of the meal. It is 100% made from scratch and has sliced apples in it instead of being mushed all the way like applesauce usually is. It tasted really similar to cold apple pie filling. I loved it so much I told my husband I had to find a recipe like it! I happened to look at their website and found that they post ALL of their recipes! I couldn't believe it. Here is the most delicious homemade applesauce you have got to try!

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Applesauce

INGREDIENTS

1 lb. Sliced apples (Granny Smith)

1/4 cup Water

1 tsp. Lemon zest

1 tsp. Orange zest

1/8 tsp. Cinnamon

2 Tbsp. Brown sugar

1 tsp. Corn starch

2 Tbsp. Water

PROCEDURE:

1. Peel and slice apples.

2. Combine with zest and 1/4 cup water in a saucepan and heat on medium heat. Cover and cook

for 10-15 minutes or until apples are very tender.

3. Mix 2 Tbsp. water with cornstarch and add to pan. Bring to boil and turn off heat.

4. Once cool, refrigerate.

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