How Easy is That? – by Ina Garten
Ina Garten – How Easy is That?
Nothing says fall to me like apples. Apple orchard visits, apple crisps, apple cider, donuts from apple orchards and apple sauce – Michigan falls are the best!!!! One of my favorite fall recipes is Ina Garten’s Roasted Pear and Apple Sauce which is featured in her cookbook, How Easy Is That?
This delicious recipe adds a great flavor burst to the traditional apple sauce and has been a family favorite of ours for years. This is the perfect recipe to make on a Sunday afternoon when you have time to put something in the oven for 1 ½ hours and enjoy it all week.
Serve it with chicken, a marinated pork tenderloin, your best Sunday dinner or just give it to your kids as a snack (I guarantee you it’s a million times better than any store-bought apple sauce you have EVER eaten.) WORTH EVERY MINUTE.
I am so excited to share, and prepare, this recipe up-close and personal with you at the Grand Opening of the NEW Williams-Sonoma store – Friday, October 4 at noon – in Woodland Mall, Grand Rapids, MI
Recently the Williams-Sonoma management team approached me about taking over their monthly cookbook classes in addition to doing a cooking demonstration for the upcoming Grand Opening – my response was a resounding YES!!! If you have followed my blog at all you know that Williams-Sonoma has been a HUGE part of my culinary journey over the past 12 years.
They offer amazing cooking classes, tools for everything you want to cook, as well as a professional and knowledgeable staff. REALLY, in all honesty, this store has been “My Happy Place” for SO MANY years that I can’t even count the number of times I have entered those doors. I hope I am not the first to tell you but Williams-Sonoma has indeed moved to a new larger store in the Von Maur wing and will be a bigger and better version of the original.
When I heard the store was moving it was a little bittersweet for me. I go there pretty much every time I am in the mall. I am on a first-name basis with most of the employees and it has just always been a place that makes me SO HAPPY and COMFORTABLE. I was a bit worried all those warm fuzzies would disappear with the larger footprint – but boy was I wrong! I recently visited the new store and OH MY! it is magical, beautiful, warm, and fuzzy. And let me just say, even the aprons and potholders are so beautifully displayed you will be in AWE – and you have yet to even see the cookware!!!!! If the last store was my happy place, this store is one of my happiest places on earth! (Sorry Disney, it’s true.)
Please join me on Friday at noon, in my happiest place, to try this absolutely delicious twist on original apple sauce, see what the new store has to offer, and experience some new and delicious flavors.
Can’t wait to see you there!!!
Roasted Pear and Apple Sauce – Ina Garten
Ingredients
- 2 navel oranges zest and juice
- 1 lemon zest and juice
- 3 lbs sweet red apples such as Macoun or Empire (8 apples)
- 3 lbs ripe Bosc pears (7 pears)
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Place the zest and juice of the oranges and lemon in a nonreactive Dutch oven such as Le Creuset. Peel, quarter, and core the apples and pears and toss them in the juice. Add the brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon and cover the pot. Bake for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, until the apples and pears are tender. Mix with a whisk until the applesauce is smooth but still a little chunky. Depending on the ripeness of the fruit, the apples will likely fall apart and the pears will break up and stay chunky. Serve warm or at room temperature.